1,721,727 research outputs found
Integrated single-label liquid-phase assay of APOE codons 112 and 158 and a lipoprotein study in British women
No full textBACKGROUND: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is an important element of lipid metabolism and, hence, cardiovascular disorders. APOE has 3 main allelic variants: epsilon3, epsilon4, and epsilon2. Of these, epsilon3 is the most common, followed by epsilon4 and epsilon2. The associations of these isoforms with cardiovascular disorders and Alzheimer disease have been widely studied in different populations. Most of the genotyping in these studies has been performed with gel-based methods, which have important limitations, particularly for large epidemiologic studies. We therefore developed an integrated "one-tube" liquid-phase assay. METHODS: To measure APOE isoforms, we developed an integrated single-label liquid-phase fluorescence assay containing 2 PCR primers, 2 probes, and 2 quencher oligonucleotides. We used a 384-well LightTyper, but the assay would be generically applicable for use with any fluorescence detector with thermal ramp control. We validated this method and applied it in the British Women's Heart and Health Study. RESULTS: There were 4 melting peaks, at 41, 56, 61, and 69 degrees C, which generated 6 distinctive patterns representing genotypic combinations of epsilon3, epsilon4, and epsilon2. The magnitude and direction of the associations found with total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and estimated LDL-cholesterol were consistent with previous reports. CONCLUSION: The one-tube LightTyper assay presented here enables accurate, convenient, and economical genotyping of APOE and can be used for large epidemiologic studie
The association of oestrogen receptor alpha-haplotypes with cardiovascular risk factors in the British Women's Heart and Health Study
No full textAims One previous study among women with established coronary heart disease found a gene–treatment interaction between the oestrogen receptor gene (ESR1) and hormone replacement in their association with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). We aimed to replicate these findings in a general population sample.Methods and results Cross-sectional associations were assessed in a study of 3404 women from 23 towns across Britain who were aged 60–79 at the time of assessment and were described as white by the examining nurse. Women with the T-A haplotype [constructed from two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the first intron of ESR1: c454-397T>C (rs2234693) and c454-351A>G (rs9340799)], which was predicted to be associated with reduced oestrogen response, were more likely to have been past [per haplotype odds ratio 1.16 (95% CI 1.01, 1.33), P = 0.02] or to be current users [per haplotype odds ratio 1.19 (95% CI 0.99, 1.42), P = 0.05] of hormone replacement. However, there was no association between haplotype or either SNP and HDL-c or other cardiovascular disease risk factors and no statistical evidence of an interaction between hormone replacement use and haplotype or either SNP with respect to HDL-c or any other cardiovascular disease risk factors.Conclusion Women with the T-A haplotype are more likely to use hormone replacement. However, genotyping of ESR1 rs2234693 or rs9340799 in post-menopausal women to tailor hormone replacement is unlikely to markedly improve cardiovascular risk
Associations of maternal iron intake and hemoglobin in pregnancy with offspring vascular phenotypes and adiposity at age 10: findings from the avon longitudinal study of parents and children.
Get PDFIron deficiency is common during pregnancy. Experimental animal studies suggest that it increases cardiovascular risk in the offspring
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
The association of the PON1 Q192R polymorphism with complications and outcomes of pregnancy: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health cohort study
No full textIt has been hypothesised that paraoxonase genes would be related to adverse pregnancy outcomes, via a maternal or fetal effect on placental hypoperfusion and thrombosis. To date only two studies have assessed this possibility. In this study we assessed the associations of the PON1 Q192R polymorphism with self-report of having pregnancy-induced hypertension, gestational hyperglycaemia and a preterm offspring birth. The associations were assessed in 3266 white women who were randomly selected from 23 British towns. There was no association between PON1 Q192R and either self-report of pregnancy-induced hypertension or gestational hyperglycaemia but the prevalence of reporting having a preterm birth increased with each R allele: per allele odds ratio 1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 1.41]. When our results were pooled with the one previous study of the association of this polymorphism with preterm birth, the pooled per allele odds ratio was 1.19 [95% CI 1.02, 1.39]. Our findings provide some further evidence to suggest that PON1 Q192R is associated with preterm birth; they invite further investigation of both maternal and fetal genotype for PON1 Q192R in relation to preterm birth
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
The association of the paraoxonase (PON1) Q192R polymorphism with depression in older women: findings from the British women's heart and health study
No full textBackground: The association between the R allele of PON1 Q192R and symptoms reported by sheep dippers and Gulf War veterans has been used to suggest a biological basis for these symptoms. In the absence of such studies in non-occupational populations, these conclusions may not be valid.Objective: To examine the association of paraoxonase (PON1) Q192R with a report of ever being diagnosed with depression among a random sample of 3266 British women, aged 60–79 years.Results: The R allele of PON1 Q192R was associated with depression: per-allele odds ratio 1.22 (95% confidence interval: 1.05 to 1.41) in this population.Conclusions: These findings suggest that the association of PON1 Q192R with symptoms of depression in occupationally exposed groups may be driven by exposure to toxins that everyone in the general population is exposed to rather than exposure to toxins specifically used by sheep dippers or Gulf War veterans, or that other mechanisms underlie the association. This is because the study population in which we have found an association consisted of British women aged 60–79 years, few of whom were sheep dippers or Gulf War veterans. When using genotype–outcome associations to infer causality with respect to an environmental exposure modified by the genotype, it is important to examine these associations in general populations and in those specifically exposed to the putative agent. The possible role of PON1 Q192R in psychiatric morbidity requires further examination
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