1,721,008 research outputs found

    Use of suramin in treatment of prostatic carcinoma refractory to conventional hormonal manipulation

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    Suramin and related compounds, in view of their growth factor and enzyme binding properties, represent in many respects a novel approach to the treatment of cancer. Although in this preliminary analysis of suramin use in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, the objective response rate does not appear impressive, much work still needs to be done to optimize suramin's administration to patients and to elucidate its various postulated mechanisms of action. The development of related compounds with more specific enzyme and growth factor antagonist properties is under way

    Effect of suramin on human prostate cancer cells in vitro

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    Suramin, a polyanionic compound with known antiparasitic activity, has been shown to be adrenocorticolytic in primates and to have clinical efficacy in the treatment of patients with metastatic prostate cancer refractory to conventional hormonal manipulation. To better characterize the activity of suramin on prostate cancer biology, we studied the effect of the drug on plasma adrenal androgens of patients and on the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines PC-3, DU 145 and LNCaP-FGC. Five cancer patients treated with suramin had an approximate 40% decline in circulating androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels. The drug inhibited the colony formation in two of the three cell lines at concentrations clinically achievable in humans without excessive drug-related toxicity. The presence of suramin 300 micrograms./ml. partially inhibited the growth stimulatory effect of testosterone and basic fibroblast growth factor, but not that of epidermal growth factor. The cellular concentration of suramin following exposure to a single dose increases linearly over time in each of the cell lines with LNCaP-FGC accumulating the highest levels of the drug; cellular levels of suramin, not androgen or growth factor sensitivity, correlated with the sensitivity to the drug. The concentrations of prostatic acid phosphatase and prostatic specific antigen released by LNCaP-FGC cells in cell culture medium declined in the presence of increasing levels of suramin in a manner which exceeded the decrease in cell number. We conclude that suramin, aside from decreasing circulating androgens through its adrenocorticolytic effect, is also capable exerting a direct inhibitory effect on cell proliferation of prostate cancer cells, and interfere at a cellular level with the growth stimulatory effects of exogenous testosterone and basic fibroblast growth factor

    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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