1,720,961 research outputs found
A humoral immune response study of concoction of recombinant FopA, DnaK and GroEL in mouse model as vaccine candidate against Francisella tularensis
Get PDF16-21Tularemia, commonly prevalent in various regions of the northern side of the equator, is a zoonotic illness caused by Francisella tularensis. Among various Francisella tularensis species, subspecies tularensis is most pathogenic to human and included as category a biowarfare agent which can cause infection through aerosol, cut, injuries in skin and contact with tainted creatures. Right now, there is no approved vaccine is available for this very infectious intracellular pathogen. In this study, three Francisella proteins viz. FopA, GroEL and DnaK were cloned and expressed. The recombinant proteins were purified and utilized as a cocktail for immunization in mice. The ELISA results demonstrated that this cocktail elicited high antibody titres in sera of vaccinated animals. Among the IgG subtypes, IgG1 response was prevalent in immunized animals took after by IgG2. This indicated the induction of Th2 type immune responses against this cocktail a vaccine candidate. The investigation demonstrated that the blend of these three proteins has the potential as vaccine candidate for tularemia
Probiotics: Microbial Therapy for Health Modulation
Get PDFThe human gastrointestinal tract is a complex ecosystem that harbours a rich and diversemicroflora. These microbes live in harmony with the host and exert various beneficial effects onhuman health by their metabolic activities. However, in our modern life style, frequent andindiscriminate use of antibiotics has disturbed this microbial ecosystem, resulting in occurrenceof various bowel diseases. Some live microbial food supplements can re-establish this microbialecosystem. Such a group of microorganisms, which positively influences the intestinal microbiotaby stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria and suppressing the harmful ones, is collectivelyknown as probiotics. These have been consumed in the form of fermented milk products forcenturies. However, scientific interest in their use for health maintenance and disease preventionhas emerged over the past few years only.Various scientific evidences show that probiotics help to reduce several disorders includingdiarrhea, inflammatory bowel diseases, urinary tract infections, hypertension, allergies, and cancer.Besides, probiotics exert several other benefits also to human beings and animals. Importantissues in the probiotic therapy include selection of appropriate strain, its viability during storage,gut persistence potential and functional properties. Another category involved in gut health isprebiotics. These are non-digestible food ingredients, which beneficially affect the host byselectively stimulating the growth or activity of one or a limited number of beneficial bacteriain the colon. This review paper highlights the major health benefits of probiotic organisms,mechanisms of their action, criteria of selection, enumeration, and safety of their use for humanhealth
Biological Warfare Agents
Get PDFThere is a long historic record of use of biological warfare (BW) agents by warring countriesagainst their enemies. However, the frequency of their use has increased since the beginningof the twentieth century. World war I witnessed the use of anthrax agent against human beingsand animals by Germans, followed by large-scale field trials by Japanese against war prisonersand Chinese population during world war II. Ironically, research and development in biologicalwarfare agents increased tremendously after the Geneva Protocol, signed in 1925, because ofits drawbacks which were overcome by Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in1972. Biological warfare programme took back seat after the 1972 convention but biologicalagents regained their importance after the bioterrorist attacks of anthrax powder in 2001. In thelight of these attacks, many of which turned out to be hoax, general awareness is required aboutbiological warfare agents that can be used against them. This review has been written highlightingimportant biological warfare agents, diseases caused by them, possible therapies and otherprotection measures
Electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B using screen-printed electrodes
Get PDF174-180Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is responsible for large number of food poisoning cases throughout the world. SEB is an exotoxin and it is one of the several harmful substances produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, it is required to develop methods for the sensitive, reliable, reproducible, cheaper, easy to use and rapid detection of SEB. An electrochemical immunosensor has been studied for the fast detection of SEB using disposable screen-printed electrodes. Ascorbic acid-2-phosphate (AA-2P) is used as a new substrate for the voltammetric detection of SEB. In the alkaline buffer solution the alkaline phosphate (ALP) enzymatic hydrolysis product of AA-2P is ascorbic acid (AA). Ascorbic acid is an electroactive substance and gives differential pulse voltammetric oxidative response at +380 mV (versus Ag/AgCl). The potential +0.39 V corresponds to the oxidation of AA. Indirect sandwiched enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been used for the detection of SEB. In this method, anti-rabbit IgG for SEB (capturing antibody) is first immobilized on the surface of SPE followed by reacting with SEB (antigen) to form antigen-antibody complex. After that, anti-mice IgG for SEB (secondary antibody) are added, followed by ALP-conjugated anti-mice IgG (revealing antibody). The optimal conditions for ALP enzymatic reaction and the volumetric detection have been optimized. It is found that the response of voltammetric immunosensor is proportional to the SEB concentration in the range 0.1–100 ng/mL and the detection limit was found to be 0.1 ng/mL
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
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