1,720,959 research outputs found
Involvement of Toxoplasma gondii and associated inflammatory markers in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus
No full textType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) continues to be a major challenge for public health authorities worldwide due to its growing prevalence rates. This chronic disorder is characterised by persistent hyperglycaemia with disturbances in fat, carbohydrate, and protein metabolism resulting from abnormalities in insulin secretion, action, or both. While potential causes such as obesity, physical inactivity, and dietary patterns have been proposed to explain the growing epidemic, there may also be additional unidentified novel risk factors, such as subclinical inflammation caused by infectious agents, that contribute to this rising prevalence. The intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been identified as an understudied pathogen of interest. Infecting approximately one third of the world’s population, T. gondii is considered one of the most successful human parasites. However, while more than 25,000 original research articles, several books, and book chapters have been published on this parasite, there are still many aspects of its biology, natural life cycle, and epidemiology of which we know relatively little about, including the prevalence rate in the general Australian human population. An emerging field of research is beginning to investigate the potential of this pathogen to cause low-grade inflammation that may subsequently increase the risk and development of various metabolic conditions, particularly T2DM.
The main objectives of the present study were to: 1) determine seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in a representative Australian human population [Study One] ; 2) determine the seroprevalence of T. gondii in subjects with T2DM compared with control subjects [Study One]; 3) identify additional risk factors for T. gondii infection [Study One]; 4) examine cat ownership as an alternative risk factor for T2DM [Study Two]; 5) determine if T. gondii infection participates in the inflammatory process leading to the development of T2DM [Study Three]; and, 6) determine whether an inflammatory 11-biomarker panel could discriminate between controls, subjects with T. gondii infection, and T2DM patients, independently of other diagnostic indicators [Study Three].
Our group undertook the first set of case-control studies of their kind in Australia by utilising sera samples and survey data collected by the Busselton Population Medical Research Institute during the 2005-2007 Busselton Health Survey. The cohort comprised of 150 participants with T2DM and 150 age- and gender- matched control subjects. Commercial in-vitro diagnostic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to measure the IgG and IgM seroprevalence rates for study one and high-sensitivity multiplex methods were used to simultaneously measure the 11 biomarkers in study three.
From the 300 subjects tested, 64% had T. gondii IgG antibodies detected and 7.7% had IgM antibodies detected. IgG seropositivity increased rapidly in all age groups remaining at over 70% in the 65–74, 75–84, and \u3e84 age groups (p \u3c0.05). No significant difference was observed in the T. gondii IgG seroprevalence rates between the T2DM group (62%) and the healthy control group (66%) (OR: 0.84; p = 0.471). Toxoplasma gondii IgM antibodies were detected in 5% of the T2DM patients and in 10% of the control subjects (OR: 0.51; p = 0.135). There were no significant differences between male and female IgG seroprevalence rates for both the T2DM and the control groups (OR: 0.88 and 0.80; p = 0.723 and p = 0.507, respectively). The IgG seropositivity rate increased significantly in T2DM patients aged 45 to 84 years in comparison to those aged 18 to 44 years (p \u3c0.05). This trend was not observed in the healthy non-T2DM subjects. No risk factors were associated with T. gondii seropositivity in both T2DM patients and healthy controls. IL-β, IL-4, IL-6, and IL-12(p40) were not being produced or were below the levels of detection in the majority of subjects. Serum levels of leptin, IL-4, IL-10 and PAI-1 (total) were positively associated with age in the control T. gondii seronegative group. In contrast, decreasing levels of leptin, IL-10, and PAI-1 (total) was observed in the control seropositive and T2DM seronegative groups. Age was also positively associated with IFN-γ levels in control subjects and negatively associated in the T2DM group. Increased weight, BMI, waist circumference, glucose, insulin, triglycerides, white cell count, leptin, and PAI-1 (total) results were significantly associated with T2DM (p \u3c0.05), while no significant associations with T. gondii infection were identified (p \u3e0.05). Strong positive associations between IL-6 and IL-4; and IL-1RA and IL-β were observed in T. gondii seropositive subjects regardless of which group they belonged to. Likewise, IL-10 showed a strong positive correlation with IL-1RA only in seronegative subjects. High-density lipoprotein displayed significant correlation (p \u3c0.01) with: IL-6 (r = 0.506); IL-4 (r = 0.492); IL-1β (r = 0.456); IL-1RA (r = 0.507); and, IFN-γ (r = 0.456) exclusively in seropositive subjects belonging to the T2DM group.
We conclude that T. gondii infection in Western Australia is highly prevalent. Our results also showed that there is no serological evidence of an association between T. gondii infection and T2DM in the studied subjects. Although some biomarkers displayed strong association with T. gondii and/or T2DM, the differences were not significant enough in terms of discriminatory power hence the 11-biomarker panel selected for the present study is not suited for use in clinical practice independently of other diagnostic indicators. In addition, no evidence of an inflammatory association between T. gondii infection and T2DM was found. Further research is warranted to evaluate the potential of additional biomarkers as alternative and/or additional diagnostic targets to provide results with better clinical applicability. It is recommended that Australian health authorities should focus on raising awareness of toxoplasma infection and target T. gondii transmission control
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
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
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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