1,721,112 research outputs found
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
Studio di una metodologia numerica per l’analisi del comportamento a crash di un sedile aeronautico
No full textMolecular characterization of Thelazia lacrymalis (Nematoda: Spirurida) affecting equids a tool for vector identification
No full textThe role of intestinal inflammation on the gut-liver axis
Full text linkThe gut and the liver are anatomically related by portal circulation, and their functional unit realizes the gut-liver axis (GLA) with the integrity of intestinal barrier crucial for the maintenance of liver homeostasis.
The GLA connects the liver with the intestine via bile acid metabolism. Bile acids (BAs) are amphipathic steroid acids, synthesized from cholesterol in the liver, that regulate lipid, glucose and energy metabolism. Moreover, a specific role of BAs as immunomodulators is emerging.
The regulatory functions of BAs are predominantly mediated by the bile receptors, such as the nuclear receptors farnesoid-X-receptor (FXR) and pregnane-X-receptor (PXR) as well as the membrane G-protein-coupled-receptor TGR5.
Recent findings suggest that the occurrence of gut inflammation, featured by altered epithelial and vascular permeability that causes the major translocation of bacterial antigens, may affect the healthy liver as well as worsen the severity of liver diseases, in particular of the non-alcholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its progressive form, the non- alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Aims:
Accordingly, the whole purpose of this project is to assess the impact of gut inflammation on liver health and disease
For this purpose, in a first part of the thesis we aimed to:
1.Investigate in vitro and in vivo the possibility that gut inflammation affects the healthy liver by altering BA receptors FXR, PXR and TGR5 and increasing the production of inflammatory and oxidative stress molecules;
2.analyze ex vivo the expression pattern of BA receptors and the apical sodium- dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT) in the inflamed colonic tissues of a group of pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and age-matched controls.
In a second part of the thesis, we aimed to:
1. develop an animal model of hepatic steatosis, displaying the disease both in its early (NAFLD) and late (NASH) phase, in which an important intestinal inflammation was also induced;
2. use this model to assess that gut inflammation significantly contributes to the progression of the liver disease (from NAFLD to NASH) by altering BA receptor expression and increasing inflammatory (IL-6, TNF, NLRP3, TLR4, MCP-1, HMGB1) as well as fibrotic (TGF-, -SMA) mediator expression;
3. evaluate the potential of the anti-inflammatory molecule, the dipotassium glycyrrhizate (DPG), to improve the liver disease by reducing gut inflammation.
Results:
Results and conclusions of the first part of experimentation are reported in the original paper published in Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (Negroni A, Fiaschini N, Palone F, Vitali R, Colantoni E, Laudadio I, Oliva S, Aloi M, Cucchiara S, Stronati L. “Intestinal inflammation alters the expression of hepatic bile acid receptors causing liver impairment” J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2020 Aug;71(2):189-196) that has been attached to the thesis.
Results of the second part of experimentation are fully described in the thesis. We have developed an animal model with intestinal inflammation and liver steatosis/steatohepatitis by treating C57BL/6J mice with dextran sodium sulphate (DSS) to induce colitis and high fat diet (HFD) with high glucose/fructose for different times to induce NAFLD/NASH. Mice with NAFLD/NASH without colitis served as control group. A further group of NAFLD/NASH-DSS-mice were also treated with DPG.
Results show that gut inflammation, assessed by the release of the alarmin HMGB1 in the stools, and consequent altered intestinal epithelial and vascular permeability, confirmed by a reduced expression of the tight junction protein zonulin-1 (ZO-1) and an increased level of the endothelial cell-specific protein plasmalemma vesicle-associated protein 1 (PV1), correlate with altered BAs receptor expression (TGR5 and PXR), increase of inflammatory marker expression (IL-6, TNF, NLRP3, TLR4, MCP-1, HMGB1) and inflammatory infiltrate in the steatotic liver of NASH-DSS mice. Moreover, the latter showed a significant rise of collagen fiber deposition and increased fibrotic marker (-
SMA and TGF-) expression as compared to DSS-mice. The administration of DPG to DSS- NASH mice significantly reduced these effects.
Conclusions:
These data confirm our hypothesis that the presence of gut inflammation causes liver injury and accelerates fibrosis in a steatotic liver, contributing to the progression of NAFLD towards NASH. We also suggest that reducing gut inflammation by using DPG could represent an interesting novel strategy for the management of the hepatic disease
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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