1,720,989 research outputs found

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Get PDF
    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

    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 PDF
    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

    Get PDF
    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

    No full text
    Nao informado

    Micro spies from the brain to the periphery: new clues from studies on microRNAs in neuropsychiatric disorders

    Get PDF
    microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs (20–22 nucleotides) playing a major role in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. miRNAs are predicted to regulate more than 50% of all the protein-coding genes. Increasing evidence indicates that they may play key roles in the biological pathways that regulate neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity, as well as in neurotransmitter homeostasis in the adult brain. In this article we review recent studies suggesting that miRNAs may be involved in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders and in the action of psychotropic drugs, in particular by analyzing the contribution of genomic studies in patients' peripheral tissues. Alterations in miRNA expression have been observed in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neuropsychiatric conditions. In particular, intriguing findings concern the identification of disease-associated miRNA signatures in peripheral tissues, or modifications in miRNA profiles induced by drug treatments. Furthermore, genetic variations in miRNA sequences and miRNA-related genes have been described in neuropsychiatric diseases. Overall, though still at a preliminary stage, several lines of evidence indicate an involvement of miRNAs in both the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of neuropsychiatric disorders. In this regard, the data obtained in peripheral tissues may provide further insights into the etiopathogenesis of several brain diseases and contribute to identify new biomarkers for diagnostic assessment improvement and treatment personalization

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

    No full text
    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used

    Abnormal levels of cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunits in platelets from schizophrenic patients

    No full text
    Abnormalities in the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), a central component of cAMP signaling, have been reported in several psychiatric disorders. Previous studies showed cAMP signaling alterations in schizophrenic patients but less is known about the involvement of PKA in such disorder. Therefore, we investigated the PKA subunits by Western blot analysis in platelets from 12 patients with schizophrenia and 13 controls. The results showed that the immunolabeling of the PKA regulatory subunits type I (RI) and type II (RII) was significantly reduced in patients compared with controls whereas no differences were observed in the catalytic (C) subunit of the enzyme. These preliminary data suggest that schizophrenic patients have altered PKA levels, thus supporting that dysfunctions in the components of cAMP signaling may contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

    VEGF serum levels in depressed patients during SSRI antidepressant treatment

    No full text
    Recent evidence indicates that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may be involved in the neuronal mechanisms underlying both the depression aetiology and the response to pharmacological and non pharmacological antidepressant treatments. To investigate whether VEGF peripheral levels are altered in depression and are modulated by antidepressant therapies, we analyzed the serum VEGF concentrations in 25 subjects affected by major depression (MD) before (T0) and after 8 (T8) and 12 (T12) weeks of escitalopram treatment. No significant alterations in VEGF serum levels were found at T0, even considering possible effects of confounders such as gender and smoking habit (r2=0.227 p=0.74). No changes appeared during the treatment (F(1.83, 43.86)=0.962; p=0.383) and there was no correlation between percentage VEGF variations at T12 and symptoms improvements (p=0.823). The present work represents the first report on the evaluation of serum VEGF levels in MD patients. However, before discarding serum VEGF as a biochemical marker in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, our negative results need to be confirmed in larger patient samples stratified for clinical characteristics, co-morbidities, cardiovascular diseases and confounding factor
    corecore