1,720,999 research outputs found
Advances in clinical malaria vaccine development - Improving evaluation of novel whole sporozoite and transmission-blocking vaccine strategies
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316901.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Malaria is a major global health problem, with 250 million cases and 500,000 deaths annually, primarily among young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Existing measures such as bed nets and medications are helpful, but challenges like increasing drug resistance persist. This dissertation focuses on new approaches to combat malaria, such as vaccines that prevent the disease or stop its transmission. One vaccination strategy investigated in this work uses live parasites combined with medication but proved less effective than anticipated. Another vaccine, aimed at halting the spread of parasites, was safe but not strong enough to significantly reduce transmission. This dissertation describes improved models and statistical tools that enable better vaccine evaluation and enhance our understanding of how the immune system responds to malaria. It provides insights that contribute to the development of more effective vaccines and strategies to eradicate malaria.Radboud University, 27 maart 2025Promotores : Sauerwein, R.W., Bousema, J.T. Co-promotor : McCall, M.B.B.274 p
Pro-inflammatory cytokine responses against Plasmodium falciparum: Induction, dynamics and protective role of interferon-gamma in malaria
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87187.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 17 juni 2011Promotores : Sauerwein, R.W., Netea, M.G. Co-promotores : Hermans, P.W.M., Figdor, C.G., Troye-Blomberg, M.240 p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
[Development of vaccines against malaria; progress with contributions from the Netherlands]
No full textFive years ago, the very first malaria vaccine, RTS,S/AS01, received a positive evaluation by the European Medicines Agency. Although this vaccine does not achieve the WHO's target of 75% protection, it does set the standard for all new vaccine candidates. In this article, we describe the progress made in the development of several second-generation malaria vaccines, an area where Dutch research has made major contributions. These include vaccines with live, attenuated Plasmodium falciparumsporozoites and transmission-blocking vaccines. Thanks in part to Dutch contributions, the development of vaccines against malaria has recently made significant progress on the way to the finish line: a vaccine that provides protection to the most vulnerable population - young children in Africa
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Interferon-gamma--central mediator of protective immune responses against the pre-erythrocytic and blood stage of malaria.
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87979.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Immune responses against Plasmodium parasites, the causative organisms of malaria, are traditionally dichotomized into pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage components. Whereas the central role of cellular responses in pre-erythrocytic immunity is well established, protection against blood-stage parasites has generally been ascribed to humoral responses. A number of recent studies, however, have highlighted the existence of cellular immunity against blood-stage parasites, in particular, the prominence of IFN-gamma production. Here, we have undertaken to chart the contribution of this prototypical cellular cytokine to immunity against pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage parasites. We summarize the various antiparasitic effector functions that IFN-gamma serves to induce, review an array of data about its protective effects, and scrutinize evidence for any deleterious, immunopathological outcome in malaria patients. We discuss the activation and contribution of different cellular sources of IFN-gamma production during malaria infection and its regulation in relation to exposure. We conclude that IFN-gamma forms a central mediator of protective immune responses against pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage malaria parasites and identify a number of implications for rational malaria vaccine development.01 december 201
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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