1,721,088 research outputs found
Eserciziario di Botanica Farmaceutica
No full textLibro di esercitazioni per gli studenti del corso di laurea in Farmaci
Ethnopharmacology inthe fight against Plasmodium parasites and brain disorders: In memoriam of Philippe Rasoanaivo
No full textProf. Philippe Rasoanaivo was a highly dedicated and brilliant scientist in the field of ethnopharmacology.He worked for the Institut Malgache de Recherches Appliquées and the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. His research was mainly focused on the endemic medicinal and aromatic plants used by traditional healers in Madagascar against a range of parasites, with special reference to Plasmodium spp. In this Editorial, we resumed the key findings of his research activity, with special reference to the discovery of alkaloids that markedly enhance the action of chloroquine against malaria parasites
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
Professor Philippe Rasoanaivo Unveiling the ethnopharmacological potential of the flora of Madagascar: in memory of Philippe Rasoanaivo
Full text linkProfessor Philippe Rasoanaivo, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, died on Wednesday,
13 July 2016 from a heart attack, at the age of 70. Professor Rasoanaivo was well known as one of the most distinguished African phytochemists, as also recognised by several international prizes. He won the 2015 Olusegun Obasanjo Prize for using traditional medicine to improve the efficacy of existing drugs for brain disorders and also treating sexual dysfunction among men. He had just been awarded the Prize at the last General Assembly meeting in Kasane, Botswana, in June 2016. Professor Rasoanaivo authored several
books and more than 150 international research articles, including some recently published in Natural Product Research. Professor Rasoanaivo developed a unique mixture of scientific knowledge dedicated to the utilisation of endemic plants for ethnobotanical, economic, medicinal and social uses. He wanted to learn everything that was necessary to understand and study the extraordinary flora of his country, obtaining this information to help its people. Throughout his life, countless examples of his remarkableness can easily be found. He was an excellent botanist and, living in a country well known for an exceptional endemic flora, he was able to find and collect many species, and show the world their importance. He was a great ethnopharmacologist, learning the popular uses of plants from the people of his country, and using this information to start a scientific validation of their efficacy. He was a modern researcher: in times of fragmented research, he was able to perform the full range of research on natural products, from chemistry to applied pharmacology. He was successful and organised director of the Institut Malgache de Recherches Appliquées, promoting the cultivation of crops of economic importance. In this obituary, we have provided a synthesis of his important scientific achievements and human qualities, since we had the privilege of working with him and he was able to teach us what modern ethnopharmacology is
Commentary: Making Green Pesticides Greener? The Potential of Plant Products for Nanosynthesis and Pest Control
No full textThe resurgence of interest on natural substances and their progressive affirmation in the market open doors for novel marketed products, with intrinsic original approaches. Evident examples are in the food supplements sector as well as in mix of synthetic drugs and natural substances, as novel drugs. A decisive key role will be played by technology and the capacity of throw novel opportunities out of the normal landscape. As in other fields, most of the future technology developments rely on nanotechnology. In this Commentary, after the discussion focused on
the novel roles of natural products, we report the recent results in the application of nanotechnology in one of the most relevant challenge for mankind, consisting in the resurgence of important vector-borne diseases and emergence of new epidemic alerts. In particular, the green synthesis of nanopesticides is cheap and environmental friendly, since it does not require the employment of highly toxic chemicals or elevate energy inputs. In the conclusions, a brief agenda summarizing the challenges for nano-based pest control is outlined
Not ordinary antimalarial drugs: Madagascar plant decoctionspotentiating the chloroquine action against Plasmodium parasites
No full textMalaria mortality rates have fallen by 47% globally since 2000 and by 54% in the African region, but theyare still a major problem. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, vectored to people through Anophe-les mosquitoes, which mainly bite between dusk and dawn. Currently, a growing number of Plasmodiumspecies and strains developed resistance to the most commonly used anti-malarial drugs. Chloroquine(CQ), the most commonly used anti-malarial drug, actually is not effective in a number of cases, and grow-ing Plasmodium resistance has been already observed to artemisinin. New approaches are necessary toface this challenge. One of the strategies to overcome the drug resistance in different Plasmodium speciesis the search for compounds known as resistance-modifiers or chemosensitizers. These compounds mayrestore the CQ sensitivity in CQ-resistant strains of Plasmodium. The studies started from the knowledgethat some Madagascar populations use decoctions of some local plants in association with low dosesof CQ to complement the CQ action against chronic malaria. In such way, resistance insurgence is low-ered, as well as collateral effects. Phytochemical analyses on twelve plant species commonly used bylocal populations to treat malaria evidenced the presence of complex alkaloids, which showed in vitroand/or in vivo efficacy against CQ-resistant Plasmodium strains, attesting the potential use of the mix ofCQ and medicinal plant preparations or compounds therein present. The approach, in accordance withrecent tendencies on multidrug resistance control, is based on mixtures of natural products and classicantimalarial drugs, with a relevant coincidence between the ethnobotanical reports and the scientificevidence
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
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