1,720,957 research outputs found
Autophagic/lysosomal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease
No full textAutophagy serves as the sole catabolic mechanism for degrading organelles and protein aggregates. Increasing evidence implicates autophagic dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein misprocessing and accumulation. Under physiologic conditions, the autophagic/lysosomal system efficiently recycles organelles and substrate proteins. However, reduced autophagy function leads to the accumulation of proteins and autophagic and lysosomal vesicles. These vesicles contain toxic lysosomal hydrolases as well as the proper cellular machinery to generate amyloid-beta, the major component of AD plaques. Here, we provide an overview of current research focused on the relevance of autophagic/lysosomal dysfunction in AD pathogenesis as well as potential therapeutic targets aimed at restoring autophagic/lysosomal pathway function
Accumulation of C-terminal fragments of transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 leads to synaptic loss and cognitive deficits in human TDP-43 transgenic mice
No full textAccumulation of the transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is a major hallmark of several neurodegenerative disorders, collectively known as TDP-43 proteinopathies. The most common TDP-43 proteinopathies, frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43-positive inclusions, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, share overlapping neuropathological and clinical phenotypes. The development and detailed analysis of animal models of TDP-43 proteinopathies are critical for understanding the pathogenesis of these disorders. Transgenic mice overexpressing mutant human TDP-43 (herein referred to as hTDP-43) are characterized by neurodegeneration and reduced life span. However, little is known about the behavioral phenotype of these mice. Here we report the novel finding that hTDP-43 mice develop deficits in cognition, motor performance, and coordination. We show that these behavioral deficits are associated with the accumulation of nuclear and cytosolic TDP-43 C-terminal fragments, a decrease in endogenous TDP-43 levels, and synaptic loss. Our findings provide critical insights into disease pathology, and will help guide future preclinical studies aimed at testing the effects of potential therapeutic agents on the onset and progression of TDP-43 proteinopathies. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Mammalian target of rapamycin hyperactivity mediates the detrimental effects of a high sucrose diet on Alzheimer's disease pathology
No full textHigh sugar consumption and diabetes increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) by unknown mechanisms. Using an animal model of AD, here we show that high sucrose intake induces obesity with changes in central and peripheral insulin signaling. These pre-diabetic changes are associated with an increase in amyloid-beta production and deposition. Moreover, high sucrose ingestion exacerbates tau phosphorylation by increasing Cdk5 activity. Mechanistically, the sucrose-mediated increase in AD-like pathology results from hyperactive mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a key nutrient sensor important in regulating energy homeostasis. Specifically, we show that rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, prevents the detrimental effects of sucrose in the brain without altering changes in peripheral insulin resistance. Overall, our data suggest that high sucrose intake and dysregulated insulin signaling, which are known to contribute to the occurrence of diabetes, increase the risk of developing AD by upregulating brain mTOR signaling. Therefore, early interventions to modulate mTOR activity in individuals at high risk of developing diabetes may decrease their AD susceptibility. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
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
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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