1,720,989 research outputs found
Searching for a therapy for SARS-CoV-2
No full textMaking use of a large quantity of published data, I have hypothesized a possible therapy for SARS-CoV-2
Searching for a therapy for SARS-CoV-2
No full textMaking use of a large quantity of published data, I have hypothesized a possible therapy for SARS-CoV-2
Loris ZAMAI's Quick Files
No full textThe Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity
The Yin and Yang of ACE/ACE2 Pathways: The Rationale for the Use of Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibitors in COVID-19 Patients
No full textThe article describes the rationale for inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) pathways as specific targets in patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 in order to prevent positive feedback-loop mechanisms. Based purely on experimental studies in which RAS pathway inhibitors were administered in vivo to humans/rodents, a reasonable hypothesis of using inhibitors that block both ACE and ACE2 zinc metalloproteases and their downstream pathways in COVID-19 patients will be proposed. In particular, metal (zinc) chelators and renin inhibitors may work alone or in combination to inhibit the positive feedback loops (initially triggered by SARS-CoV-2 and subsequently sustained by hypoxia independently on viral trigger) as both arms of renin-angiotensin system are upregulated, leading to critical, advanced and untreatable stages of the disease
Loris ZAMAI's Quick Files
No full textThe Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Unveiling Human Non-Random Genome Editing Mechanisms Activated in Response to Chronic Environmental Changes: I. Where Might These Mechanisms Come from and What Might They Have Led To?
Full text linkThis article challenges the notion of the randomness of mutations in eukaryotic cells by unveiling stress-induced human non-random genome editing mechanisms. To account for the existence of such mechanisms, I have developed molecular concepts of the cell environment and cell environmental stressors and, making use of a large quantity of published data, hypothesised the origin of some crucial biological leaps along the evolutionary path of life on Earth under the pressure of natural selection, in particular, (1) virus-cell mating as a primordial form of sexual recombination and symbiosis; (2) Lamarckian CRISPR-Cas systems; (3) eukaryotic gene development; (4) antiviral activity of retrotransposon-guided mutagenic enzymes; and finally, (5) the exaptation of antiviral mutagenic mechanisms to stress-induced genome editing mechanisms directed at "hyper-transcribed" endogenous genes. Genes transcribed at their maximum rate (hyper-transcribed), yet still unable to meet new chronic environmental demands generated by "pollution", are inadequate and generate more and more intronic retrotransposon transcripts. In this scenario, RNA-guided mutagenic enzymes (e.g., Apolipoprotein B mRNA editing catalytic polypeptide-like enzymes, APOBECs), which have been shown to bind to retrotransposon RNA-repetitive sequences, would be surgically targeted by intronic retrotransposons on opened chromatin regions of the same "hyper-transcribed" genes. RNA-guided mutagenic enzymes may therefore "Lamarkianly" generate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and gene copy number variations (CNV), as well as transposon transposition and chromosomal translocations in the restricted areas of hyper-functional and inadequate genes, leaving intact the rest of the genome. CNV and SNP of hyper-transcribed genes may allow cells to surgically explore a new fitness scenario, which increases their adaptability to stressful environmental conditions. Like the mechanisms of immunoglobulin somatic hypermutation, non-random genome editing mechanisms may generate several cell mutants, and those codifying for the most environmentally adequate proteins would have a survival advantage and would therefore be Darwinianly selected. Non-random genome editing mechanisms represent tools of evolvability leading to organismal adaptation including transgenerational non-Mendelian gene transmission or to death of environmentally inadequate genomes. They are a link between environmental changes and biological novelty and plasticity, finally providing a molecular basis to reconcile gene-centred and "ecological" views of evolution
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