1,721,059 research outputs found
Different combinations of cytokines and activating receptor stimuli are required for human natural killer cell functional diversity.
No full textAlthough cytokine induced NK cell activation protocols are commontly used in many laboratories Worldwide, a systematic study of the effect of different cytokines either alone or in combination of NK cell function is lacking. In this study we performed a comparative evaluation of several cytokines potentially important for NK cell stimulation, focusing particularly on IL21 because of its promising role in anti-tumor therapy. To simulate in vivo physiological condition, we evaluated cytokine stimulation in total peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), as accessory cells are responsible for the secretion of many soluble factors and cain simultaneously trigger multiple activation signals through engagement of NK cell activating receptors. We show here that NK cell responses are finely regulated by several incoming stimuli and that combinations of IL21+IL2 or IL21+IL15 strongly induced NK cell function. Cytokine stimulation combined with NK receptor engagement can be helpful in the dissection of NK cell responses in health and disease
Are human Vδ2pos T cells really resistant to aging and Human Cytomegalovirus infection?
Full text linkIn their recent paper, Weili Xu et al. [1] described the different behaviors of Vδ1pos and Vδ2pos T cell subsets in response to lifelong stress and claimed that Vδ2pos T cells are not affected by aging and Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. While we agree that these two γδ T cell subsets diverge both in phenotype/function and in tissue distribution, we are somewhat surprised that authors did not take into account the several previously published and contradictory experimental evidence in regards to senescence of Vδ2pos T cells [2,3]. These latter studies reported that HCMV infection not only induces a clonal expansion of a distinct Vγ9neg/Vδ2pos T cell subset, but also determines a concomitant adaptive differentiation from CD27high naïve cells to CD27low/neg terminal-effectors. However, Weili Xu et al. argued that the expression and kinetics of both CD27 and CD45RA surface markers do not change and follow the homeostatic changes of Vδ2pos T cells. This statement goes in the opposite direction to previously reported findings as the CD27/CD45RA phenotype has been shown to mark the maturation and differentiation (TNaïve, TCentral-Memory, Teffector-Memory and TEffectory-Memory RA) of Vδ2pos T cells. Indeed, the different surface expression of both CD27 and CD45 parallel the progressive decrease of telomere length, the proliferative capacity as well as the different effector-functions and resistance to death of Vδ2+ T cells in response to antigens and homeostatic cytokines [4,5]. Hence, we believe that these controversial issues require further discussion beyond the unilateral conclusion given by the study of Weili Xu et al
NK cells isolated from synovial fluid amplify the inflammatory response of fibroblast-like synoviocytes
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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
Editorial: Activation, functions, and generation of immunological memory in T lymphocytes: lessons from nonhuman primates
No full textDispelling 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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