1,721,085 research outputs found
Malaria eradication in Italy. The story of a first success
No full textAn essay on the eradication of malaria in Ital
Genetics of susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum: from classical malaria resistance genes towards genome-wide association studies.
No full textPlasmodium falciparum represents one of the strongest selective forces on the human genome. This stable and perennial pressure has contributed to the progressive accumulation in the exposed populations of genetic adaptations to malaria. Descriptive genetic epidemiology provides the initial step of a logical procedure of consequential phases spanning from the identification of genes involved in the resistance/susceptibility to diseases, to the determination of the underlying mechanisms and finally to the possible translation of the acquired knowledge in new control tools. In malaria, the rational development of this strategy is traditionally based on complementary interactions of heterogeneous disciplines going from epidemiology to vaccinology passing through genetics, pathogenesis and immunology. New tools including expression profile analysis and genome-wide association studies are recently available to explore the complex interactions of host-parasite co-evolution. Particularly, the combination of genome-wide association studies with large multi-centre initiatives can overcome the limits of previous results due to local population dynamics. Thus, we anticipate substantial advances in the interpretation and validation of the effects of genetic variation on malaria susceptibility, and thereby on molecular mechanisms of protective immune responses and pathogenesis
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
The Anopheles gambiae gSG6 salivary protein: a serological marker of exposure to African malaria vectors.
No full textWith the final aim to develop novel additional tools for the evaluation of exposure to malaria vectors we started an analysis of the human humoral response to recombinant salivary proteins of the major African vector Anopheles gambiae. We started focusing our efforts on gSG6 (gambiae Salivary Gland protein 6), a small protein specifically expressed in adult female glands where it plays some important role in blood feeding (Lanfrancotti A et al., 2002; Arcà B et al., 2005; Lombardo F et al., 2009). This protein seemed especially suitable because it is relatively abundant in the An. gambiae saliva, is restricted to anopheline species and earlier studies indicated its immunogenicity to humans (Orlandi-Pradines E et al., 2007; Poinsignon A et al., 2008).
We optimized conditions for expression and purification of a recombinant version of gSG6 and we used it to measure by ELISA the anti-gSG6 IgG response in human sera collected during three consecutive years in a rural malaria hyperendemic area of Burkina Faso. The IgG response in the exposed population varied according to malaria transmission and was short-lived, as indicated by a drop in the IgG levels during the dry low transmission season. The response started very early, with a maximum in one-two years old children, and then decreased according to age; a similar pattern has been previously observed with whole mosquito saliva (Peng Z et al., 2004) and interpreted as possible desensitization to salivary antigens. Interestingly, the response was significantly different in Mossi and Fulani, two sympatric ethnic groups already shown to differentially respond to several Plasmodium falciparum antigens (Modiano D et al., 1996; Torcia MG et al., 2008).
An. gambiae, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus are the three main African malaria vectors and they all carry in their saliva the SG6 protein. Since the An. arabiensis (aSG6) and the An. funestus (fSG6) homologues share 98% and 80% identities with gSG6, it is likely (although verification is needed) that the antibody response to gSG6 may be used to evaluate exposure to all three main African malaria vectors. In conclusion, our study provides strong support to the idea that anopheline-specific salivary antigens may represent a solid serological marker of exposure to malaria vectors and indicates that a reliable evaluation should also take into consideration the age and, if pertinent, the ethnic group of the populations analyzed. Moreover, comparative analysis of mosquito sialomes also highlights the existence of a relatively large group of culicine-specific salivary proteins suggesting their possible exploitation as indicators of exposure to Aedes and Culex vectors
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
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