1,721,022 research outputs found
Investigating the Role of Actin57B Gene on Age-Related Changes in Immune Response
No full textThe age-related decline in the innate immune response, or immunosenescence, is highly variable among eukaryotes and has been shown to have a genetic basis. Using Drosophila melanogaster as
the model organism, previous studies have identified several candidate genes that could affect an organism’s infection clearance ability. One of the genes identified is Actin57B, which is upregulated in older flies. This gene has been studied for its involvement in embryonic muscle development, but little is known about its role in the
innate immune response. To assess the role of Actin57B in immune response, we knocked down its expression in hemocytes using the Gal4/UAS system in Drosophila melanogaster to activate RNA interference against the gene. To evaluate the immune response, one and five week old flies were injected with an E. coli solution and were
given 24-hours to recover and clear the infection. The surviving flies were homogenized and plated on agar plates. The resulting bacterial colonies were counted and used as the phenotype that reflects the remaining infection. Through measuring the impact of Actin57B on the innate immune response, our results will validate findings that this gene contributes to immunity and aid in the development of more effective, personalized therapeutics to improve healthspan.https://ur.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2024/04/UMBC_Review_2024Volume-25_Digital.pd
At the Helm: Leading Your Laboratory, 2nd edition. K. Barker. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. 2010. 372 pages. ISBN 9780879698669. Price $59 (hardback)
No full texthttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/genetics-research/article/at-the-helm-leading-your-laboratory-2nd-edition-k-barker-cold-spring-harbor-laboratory-press-2010-372-pages-isbn-9780879698669-price-59-hardback/15BC1F4F53CC63EE0272ED30A6FC766
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
Identification of Genetic Variants Influencing Efficacy of Lisinopril Treatment on Age-specific Physical Performance: A Genome-wide Analysis in Drosophila melanogaster
No full textAge-related decline in physical performance is a general phenomenon in most organisms and in humans confers high risk for disability and mortality. Despite the near ubiquity of senescence and extensive variation among individuals in age-related decline in physical performance, we know little about the genes responsible for this variation. In humans, alterations in the Renin-Angiotensin System (RAS) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of late life physical decline. Pharmacological blockade of RAS, such as that by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor Lisinopril, has been proposed as a treatment to attenuate such age-related declines. Some studies have shown effectiveness of these drugs for treatment of late-age declines while others have failed to show any effect. Conflicting results between studies can potentially be explained by genetic differences among individuals. The primary goal of this research was to develop methods to measure physical performance with age and identify, via genome-wide association (GWA) and follow-up functional genetic studies, genes associated with physical ability at late age and those that contribute to differences among genotypes in the phenotypic response (climbing speed and endurance) to Lisinopril. I used Drosophila melanogaster as a model system and the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) for GWA mapping. The second goal was to map climbing speed and endurance in untreated and Lisinopril-treated flies. This revealed genetic pathways that are acted on by this drug and polymorphisms that altered individual responses to the drug. My results have contributed to our understanding of the genetic bases of natural variation in physical performance at older ages. Many of the genes identified this study have human orthologs. As a result, my findings have laid the groundwork for designing personalized medical applications to treat age-related declines in physical performance and provide novel genetic targets for pharmaceutical development to extend health span in older adults
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
- …
