1,721,083 research outputs found

    Apomorphine infusion in advanced Parkinson disease

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    The TOLEDO study provides new evidence to support the use of subcutaneous apomorphine infusion to control motor fluctuations in patients with advanced Parkinson disease. The findings should encourage neurologists to consider implementing apomorphine infusion or other device-aided therapies earlier in the disease course, before the emergence of troublesome dyskinesias.</p

    Markers for dopaminergic neurotransmission in the cerebellum in normal individuals and patients with Parkinson's disease examined by RT-PCR

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    The presence of neuronal elements that are indicative of dopaminergic neurotransmission in cerebellum suggest that this brain region may contribute to the motor symptoms or dyskinesia seen in Parkinson's disease. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to examine the expression of markers for dopaminergic neurotransmission in the cerebellum from postmortem brain tissue obtained from normal subjects and patients dying with Parkinson's disease who were receiving treatment with dopaminergic drugs. Dopamine D1-3 receptors, tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine transporter mRNA was detected in the uvula and nodulus (lobules 9 and 10, respectively) of the vermis of cerebellum from normal individuals. In Parkinson's disease, the level of dopamine D1 and D3 receptor mRNA was significantly reduced in lobule 9 and the level of tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA was significantly reduced in lobule 10. No alteration in the level of dopamine D2 receptor or dopamine transporter mRNA was found in either lobule in patients with Parkinson's disease. These results show that mRNA expression for the functional components of dopaminergic neurotransmission is present in human cerebellum. The discrete changes in the levels of dopamine D1 and D3 receptors and tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA in cerebellum from l-DOPA treated Parkinson's disease patients suggests that this brain area has a role in the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and/or the beneficial/side-effects of treatment.</p

    Adenosine A<sub>2A</sub> receptor mRNA expression in Parkinson's disease

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    The expression of the human adenosine A2A receptor was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in post-mortem human brain tissue that was obtained from normal subjects and patients who died with Parkinson's disease. Adenosine A2A receptor mRNA was detected in both striatal (nucleus accumbens, caudate nucleus and putamen) and extrastriatal (globus pallidus and substantia nigra) brain regions. A significant decrease in the level of adenosine A2A receptor mRNA was found in the anterior and posterior caudate nucleus and anterior dorsal putamen, whereas a significant increase was observed in the substantia nigra pars reticulata of Parkinsonian brain when compared to age-matched controls. No change in adenosine A2A receptor mRNA levels was seen in any other brain region examined. This study demonstrates that A2A receptor mRNA expression is altered in the basal ganglia of patients who died with Parkinson's disease and who were receiving treatment with dopaminergic drugs. The adenosine A2A receptor appears subject to regulation by dopaminergic systems in human brain, though these data do not permit a distinction to be made between the effects of neuronal degeneration or drug treatment. The adenosine A2A receptor may therefore form a target for the treatment of basal ganglia disease.</p

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    Proteomic analysis of striatum from MPTP-treated marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) with L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia of differing severity

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    Marmosets rendered parkinsonian with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) and treated with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) develop dyskinesia, but with differing degrees of severity. To provide insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for the different level of dyskinesia to manifest in individual animals, proteins in striatum from MPTP-treated marmosets with different levels of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia were separated by 2-dimensional (2-D) protein electrophoresis. Thirty-five differentially expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry and peptide mass fingerprinting, and comparative analysis found 10 were significantly increased and 3 had significantly reduced expression in animals with a high level of dyskinesia when compared to animals with a low incidence of dyskinesia. These proteins belonged to a range of functional classes, for example, molecular chaperones, metabolic enzymes and synaptic structural proteins. The findings of this study provide clues about the molecular mechanisms that cause dyskinesia to manifest and point towards potential novel targets for the development of therapeutic agents to prevent or treat established dyskinesia
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