2,927 research outputs found
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe 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
Financial Summit: J.R. Briggs & Dave Briggs
No full textDave and J.R. Briggs speak on stewardship of finances.
Dave Briggs currently serves as the stewardship director at Central Christian Church of Arizona. Previously he served in a similar role at Willowcreek Church and prior to that was a finance manager for GE for 27 years. He has developed numerous financial seminars and classes and regularly speaks at churches and conferences around the country. Dave and his wife Debbie had two sons attend Taylor and served for three years on the Taylor Parents’ Cabinet.
J.R. Briggs wears a variety of ministry hats. On a local level, he serves as one of the pastors of The Renew Community. He is also the Founder and Director of Kairos Partnerships and Director of Leadership and Congregation Formation for the Ecclesia Network. He is a life coach, consultant, frequent speaker, and author of seven books. He and his wife Megan, along with their two sons Carter and Bennett, live in the Philadelphia area
The effect of turbulence on particle impaction om a cylinder in a cross flow
No full textParticle impaction on a cylinder in a cross flow is investigated with the use of Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), with a focus on the effect of turbulence on the impaction efficiency. It is found that for particles with Stokes numbers in the boundary stopping mode there is up to ten times more front side impaction for turbulence with a large integral scale, than for a corresponding laminar flow. The back side impaction efficiency is also found to be influenced by the turbulence. The highest back side impaction efficiency is found for turbulence with small integral scales
Functional and structural characterization of LysM proteins in interactions between fungi and plants
No full textPlants possess an innate immune system that recognizes various types of molecules that accurately betray microbial invasion, also known as invasion patterns (IPs), that include microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). This recognition occurs through invasion pattern receptors (IPRs) that activate a wide range of immune responses that aim to halt microbial infections. In turn, successful microbes secrete effector proteins to deregulate plant immunity. Chapter 1 introduces the significant role of the major fungal cell wall component, chitin, in the interactions between plants and fungi. On the one hand, this chapter focuses on chitin perception systems that have been characterized in detail in several plant species, while on the other hand the chapter focuses on effector proteins containing lysin motifs (LysM effectors) employed by the tomato leaf mould pathogen Cladosporium fulvum and the wheat Septoria tritici blotch pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici.To date, all chitin receptors identified in plants belong to either the LysM-containing receptor-like kinases (LysM-RLKs) or LysM-containing receptor-like proteins (LysM-RLPs). For instance, the Arabidopsis LysM-RLK AtLYK5 binds chitin with high affinity and forms a tripartite receptor complex with two further LysM-RLKs, AtLYK4 and AtCERK1, to initiate chitin signaling. Similarly, the rice chitin perception system is composed of the LysM-RLK OsCERK1 in association with the LysM-RLP OsCEBiP. In Chapter 2, by using chitin affinity-purification followed by mass spectrometry we identified two candidate chitin receptor proteins in tomato, the LysM-RLK SlLYK4 and the LysM-RLP SlCEBiP. Silencing of either SlLYK4 or SlCEBiP resulted in significantly impaired chitin responsiveness. Using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9 (CRISPR-Cas9) we generated mutants of both genes and evaluated their role in chitin signalling. While the function of SlCEBiP needs further assessment because it presently remains unclear whether the mutant that was generated truly disrupts gene function, SlLYK4 was found to play an essential role in mediating chitin signal transduction as SlLYK4 mutants displayed not only greatly compromised chitin-induced immunity but also enhanced susceptibility to C. fulvum infection. We propose that SlLYK4 is a crucial component of the chitin receptor complex of tomato.To overcome the chitin-induced tomato immunity, C. fulvum secretes the LysM effector Ecp6 to outcompete immune receptors for chitin binding. Two of its three LysMs undergo intracellular LysM dimerization, thus forming a chitin-binding groove (LysM1-LysM3) with ultra-high substrate affinity that goes beyond the affinity of host receptors. The remaining singular LysM domain of Ecp6, LysM2, also displays the capability to bind chitin, albeit with a relatively low affinity that does not permit to outcompete chitin receptors. Chapter 3 aims to investigate whether LysM2 contributes to the virulence function of Ecp6 and how it confers such contribution. Inoculation assays with C. fulvum transformants that express a suite of Ecp6 mutants in the various LysMs revealed that LysM2 contributes to C. fulvum virulence, probably through suppression of chitin-responsive gene expression. Interestingly, a physical interaction of Ecp6 with Arabidopsis AtLYK5 and with tomato SlLYK4 that was characterized in chapter could been demonstrated. Moreover, it appears that while LysM2 confers an interaction with these receptors in a chitin-independent manner, the composite LysM1-LysM3 binding groove contributes to the interaction in a chitin-dependent manner. Thus, besides competing with plant immune receptors for chitin binding, Ecp6 may perturb the assembly of functional chitin receptor complexes that are crucial for the activation of chitin-induced immunity.Many fungal LysM effectors comprise two LysMs, such as MoSlp1 from the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, Vd2LysM from the broad host range vascular wilt fungus Verticillium dahliae, and ChElp1 and ChElp2 from the Brassicaceae anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum higginsianum. They all bind chitin, suppress chitin-triggered host immunity and contribute to fungal virulence. Chapter 4 describes the functional and structural analyses to investigate whether these fungal LysM effectors with two LysMs bind chitin through intramolecular LysM dimerization, like Ecp6, or rather through intermolecular dimerization. As our considerable efforts to obtain a crystal structure of any of these effectors by X-ray crystallography failed since crystal growth did not occur, we hypothesized that these findings could suggest the occurrence of intermolecular chitin binding for these LysM effectors. With DLS measurements and centrifugation assays we were able to confirm that the formation of chitin-induced polymeric complexes for MoSlp1, V2LysM and ChElp2 occurs, potentially mediating the elimination of chitin oligomers at infection sites by precipitation to suppress the activation of chitin-induced plant immunity.The wheat-specific pathogen Z. tritici encodes three LysM effector proteins, Mg1LysM and Mg1LysM_b that contain a single LysM, and Mg3LysM that possesses three LysMs. Previously, Mg1LysM_b was disregarded as a presumed pseudogene, while Mg1LysM and Mg3LysM were functionally characterized. Chapter 5 provides evidence to show that Mg1LysM_b is not a pseudogene and is functional during wheat colonization. We show that Mg1LysM_b binds chitin, protects fungal hyphae against chitinase hydrolysis and is able to suppress a chitin-induced ROS burst. Fungal inoculation assays reveal that while Mg3LysM confers a major contribution to Z. tritici virulence, also Mg1LysM and Mg1LysM_b contribute to virulence, albeit with smaller contributions, and that all LysM effectors display partial functional redundancy. Thus, we show that Zymoseptoria tritici utilizes three LysM effectors to disarm chitin-triggered wheat immunity.In Chapter 6, we determined a crystal structure of Z. tritici Mg1LysM to try and explain how this LysM effector protects fungal hyphae against chitinase hydrolysis. Intriguingly, the crystal structure revealed the formation of chitin-independent homodimers as well as chitin-induced dimerization of two Mg1LysM protomers. Based on DLS measurements and centrifugation assays in the presence and absence of chitin oligomers, it could be concluded that Mg1LysM forms a chitin-induced supramolecular structure that, anchored to chitin in the cell wall, may prevent hydrolysis by host chitinases. Interestingly, it could be demonstrated that Mg1LysM_b, as well as RiSLM from the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Rhizophagus irregularis that similarly contains a single LysM, polymerize in the presence of chitin as well, suggesting that they also undergo chitin-induced dimerization of ligand independent homodimers.Besides chitin, several other cell wall polysaccharides have previously been characterized as invasion pattern, such as β-glucan and bacterial peptidoglycan. Chapter 7 synthesizes the findings in this thesis and places them into a broader perspective to highlight the importance of chitin as well as other cell wall components in interactions between plants and microbes
J.R. Léveillé, 45th Annual ODU Literary Festival
No full textJ. R. Léveillé is a renowned figure in Franco-Manitoban and francophone literature. He is the author of over thirty interdisciplinary works of poetry, fiction, television documentaries and theater. He is included in many anthologies and his work is studied in many Canadian schools. His 2001 novel, The Setting Lake Sun (Le soleil du lac qui se couche) won the Prix Rue-Deschambault prize in 2002 and was selected for the 2020 edition of Le Combat des Livres. Some of his recent works include New York Trip (2003); Pierre Lardon (2011); Poème, Pierre, Prière (Poeme, Rock, Prayer, 2011); L\u27Invocation de Rutebeuf et the Villion (2012); Ganiishomong, ou l\u27extase du temps (2020) and Ex-Nihilo in 2021 with E.D. Blodgett. He was awarded the Manitoba Arts Council\u27s Award of Distinction in 2012
Romans en marge: les trois premières fictions de J.R. Léveillé
No full textLors de la publication des trois premières fictions de J.R. Léveillé: Tombeau (1968), La disparate (1975) et Plage (1984) – qui ont été rééditées dans l’oeuvre intitulée Romans –, la critique littéraire avait souligné le caractère d’avant-garde innovateur du style d’écriture de l’écrivain franco-manitobain. Issu d’un milieu minoritaire, et proposant des textes en marge du mainstream, J.R. Léveillé incarne, à notre avis, l’artiste postmoderne par excellence qui conçoit chaque «projet d’écriture» sous un nouvel angle expérimental. À l’instar de Rimbaud, J.R. Léveillé déploie différentes stratégies pour dérégler non seulement les sens, mais aussi «le sens», ou la cohérence attendue d’un récit. Une étude des procédés mis en oeuvre dans ces trois fictions nous permettra de voir, d’une part, comment le matériau premier du texte, à savoir les mots et les images, est manipulé par l’auteur et quel impact ces manipulations ont sur la cohérence attendue d’un récit. Nous espérons, d’autre part, pouvoir dégager la portée d’une telle écriture qui se renouvelle avec chaque nouveau titre en explorant la richesse de la marge, voire de «l’extrême marge».When the first three fictional works of Franco-Manitoban writer J.R. Léveillé were published (Tombeau, 1968, La disparate, 1975, and Plage, 1984, reissued in a single collection entitled Romans in 1995), literary critics pointed up the innovative, avant-garde character of Léveillé’s writing. J.R. Léveillé, a member of the French-speaking minority who produces writing that keeps resolutely to the fringes, is, in our opinion, the epitome of a post-modern artist, conceiving each new writing project from a new, experimental angle. Like Rimbaud, J.R. Léveillé deploys a variety of strategies to muddle not only the senses, but the meaning, direction, and coherency expected from a story. By examining the processes used in these three works of fiction, we will show, first of all, how the raw materials of the text—namely, the words and the images—are handled by the author, along with the impact that this handling has on the coherency expected from the story. Subsequently, we hope to flesh out the scope of such writing, which redefines itself with each new title, exploring the rich territory of the fringes, nay, the outer limits of the fringes
Forms of judaism in writings of F.R. Kraus, František Kafka, Hana Bělohradská and J.R. Pick
No full textTéma této práce zní Podoby židovství v dílech F.R. Krause, Františka Kafky, Hany Bělohradské a J.R. Picka. Soustředila jsem se na méně známé české autory, kteří se ve své tvorbě věnovali tématu židovství. Jedná se o texty související s 2. světovou válkou. V úvodu je nastíněn stručný přehled o působení Židů na našem území, následuje představení zvolené čtveřice autorů. Hlavním cílem bylo přiblížit a rozebrat vybraná díla a v závěru shrnout jejich odlišné a podobné znaky. Současně byly tyto texty zařazeny do kontextu české prózy s tematikou okupace.Katedra českého jazyka a literaturyObhájenoThe theme of this bachelor work is called Forms of judaism in writings of F.R. Kraus, František Kafka, Hana Bělohradská and J.R. Pick. In this thesis the author tried to concentrate on a few less-known Czech writers, who devoted their writing to the fate of Jews during the Second World War. In the first part of this work the author outlined the influence of the Jewish etnic group on the population of our country, with the aim to gain orientation in the historical backgound of that time. Next the author analysed the texts of selected books with the Jewish theme from different points of view and in the end of her work compared the books she used. In the closing of this work there is a contextual classification of the mentioned books into the category of works with the topic of occupation, from the end of the Second World War until today
Mythologization of time in the poetic reminiscences of J.R. Fowles’s “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”
No full textThe paper focuses on mythologization of time in “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” by John Fowles. The process of mythologization is carried out via the writer’s creative reception of his predecessors’ works. The present paper aims at a complex research of the reminiscences to poems by M. Arnold, T. Hardy, A. Tennyson and reinterpretation of time during the creative reception of verse. The author draws a conclusion about the mythologization of time, its particularities and meaning for J.R. Fowles’s novel
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