1,720,959 research outputs found
Sugar-pucker force-induced transition in single-stranded DNA
Full text linkThe accurate knowledge of the elastic properties of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is key to characterize the thermodynamics of molecular reactions that are studied by force spectroscopy methods where DNA is mechanically unfolded. Examples range from DNA hybridization, DNA ligand binding, DNA unwinding by helicases, etc. To date, ssDNA elasticity has been studied with different methods in molecules of varying sequence and contour length. A dispersion of results has been reported and the value of the persistence length has been found to be larger for shorter ssDNA molecules. We carried out pulling experiments with optical tweezers to characterize the elastic response of ssDNA over three orders of magnitude in length (60–14 k bases). By fitting the force-extension curves (FECs) to the Worm-Like Chain model we confirmed the above trend:the persistence length nearly doubles for the shortest molecule (60 b) with respect to the longest one (14 kb). We demonstrate that the observed trend is due to the different force regimes fitted for long and short molecules, which translates into two distinct elastic regimes at low and high forces. We interpret this behavior in terms of a force-induced sugar pucker conformational transition (C3′-endo to C2′-endo) upon pulling ssDNA
Cooperativity-Dependent Folding of Single-Stranded DNA
Full text linkThe folding of biological macromolecules is a fundamental process of which we lack a full comprehension. Mostly studied in proteins and RNA, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) also folds, at physiological salt conditions, by forming nonspecific secondary structures that are difficult to characterize with biophysical techniques. Here, we present a helix-coil model for secondary-structure formation, where ssDNA bases are organized in two different types of domains (compact and free). The model contains two parameters: the energy gain per base in a compact domain, ε, and the cooperativity related to the interfacial energy between different domains, γ. We test the ability of the model to quantify the formation of secondary structure in ssDNA molecules mechanically stretched with optical tweezers. The model reproduces the experimental force-extension curves in ssDNA of different molecular lengths and varying sodium and magnesium concentrations. Salt-correction effects for the energy of compact domains and the interfacial energy are found to be compatible with those of DNA hybridization. The model also predicts the folding free energy and the average size of domains at zero force, finding good agreement with secondary-structure predictions by mfold. We envision the model could be further extended to investigate native folding in RNA and proteins
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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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