1,721,076 research outputs found
Novel clay gels as regenerative microenvironments for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers
No full textPeople that suffer with diabetes have an elevated risk of developing diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), a type of chronic wound associated with hyperglycaemia. Current DFU treatments vary in their effectiveness and people that suffer with DFUs have an increased risk of eventual lower limb amputation. Biological agents including vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) and agonists of the Wnt signalling pathway have been investigated as agents that improve wound healing, yet delivery in an active economical form remains a significant clinical challenge. In this project, we tested the hypothesis that Laponite, a synthetic smectite clay biomaterial, can be used to localise bioactive molecules to skin injury sites and can increase the rate and quality of wound healing. Growth factor (VEGF) and small molecule (BIO, a Wnt pathway agonist) were incorporated in Laponite hydrogels, and their activity tested using cell-reporter assays. Laponite hydrogels were then administered subcutaneously and applied to circular wounds made on the dorsal skin of healthy and diabetic (db/db) mice. Bioactivity of localised VEGF by Laponite gels and its effect on wound healing was assessed by measuring the rate of wound closure and by histological analysis of blood vessel formation, the degree of cell invasion and the rate of re-epithelisation. Human vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) tube formation was significantly increased when cultured on Laponite gels premixed with 1-5 µg/ml VEGF (p = < 0.05-< 0.0001). Successful adsorption of BIO by Laponite from aqueous media was measured at early time points. There was substantial retention of premixed BIO by Laponite over 7 days with the only evidence of BIO release (4.76%) into aqueous media measured at 24 hours (p = < 0.01). Laponite hydrogels were successfully retained in vivo up to 21 days (subcutaneously) and 18 days (wounds). There was a significant increase in blood vessel ingrowth into subcutaneously injected Laponite gels premixed with 10-40 µg/ml VEGF after 21 days in healthy mice (p = < 0.05-< 0.0001). Treatment of back skin wounds of db/db mice with vehicle Laponite gels exhibited a significant increase in the rate of re-epithelisation (p = < 0.05) and improvement to wound healing quality both visually and histologically. No further improvements to the rate of wound closure, re-epithelisation and appearance (e.g. reduced redness) was present when treated with Laponite gels containing 40 µg/ml VEGF; 1.1% alginate gel controls containing 40 µg/ml VEGF did exhibit improved wound closure suggesting that more rapid release of VEGF was more appropriate to a wound model that requires < 30 days recovery. These results show the potential of Laponite hydrogels localising biologically active molecules to skin injury sites and improving the rate and quality of wound healing. However additional in vitro analysis and a modified murine model that would better characterise impaired wound healing in human DFUs, would be required to explore these findings in greater detail.<br/
Land Grant Application- Page, Daniel (Fairfield)
Get PDFLand grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office for Daniel Page for service in the Revolutionary War.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1694/thumbnail.jp
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
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