1,722,221 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
Evolutionary medicine and bone loss in chronic inflammatory diseases—A theory of inflammation-related osteopenia
No full textAbstractObjectiveBone loss is typical in chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel diseases, pemphigus vulgaris, and others. It is also typical in transplantation-related inflammation and during the process of aging. While we recognized that bone loss is tightly linked to immune system activation or inflamm-aging in the form of acute, chronic active, or chronic smoldering inflammation, bone loss is typically discussed to be an “accident of inflammation.”MethodsExtensive literature search in PubMed central.ResultsUsing elements of evolutionary medicine, energy regulation, and neuroendocrine regulation of homeostasis and immune function, we work out that bone waste is an adaptive, evolutionarily positively selected program that is absolutely necessary during acute inflammation. However, when acute inflammation enters a chronic state due to the inability to terminate inflammation (e.g., in autoimmunity or in continuous immunity against microbes), the acute program of bone loss is a misguided adaptive program.ConclusionsThe article highlights the complexity of interwoven pathways of osteopenia
Aromatase and regulation of the estrogen‐to‐androgen ratio in synovial tissue inflammation: common pathway in both sexes
No full textSex hormones play an active role in inflammatory responses, with androgens being anti-inflammatory, whereas estrogens have both pro-and anti-inflammatory effects. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, low levels of androgens and high levels of estrone are found in the synovial fluid. Aromatase is the key enzyme for the conversion of androgens into estrogens. Proinflammatory cytokines stimulate aromatase activity so that the inflammatory milieu can induce conversion of androgens to estrogens. Moreover, testosterone inhibits aromatase activity. As local androgen levels are low in RA, this can contribute to high aromatase activity in the synovium. Importantly, aromatase-converted estrogens are converted into proproliferative and proinflammatory 16-hydroxylated estrogens. A hormone involved in aromatase activity is vitamin D, which downregulates aromatase in human RA macrophages. Collectively, evidence suggests a key role of aromatase in sex hormone balance during chronic inflammation and points to the importance of vitamin D as a possible new tool for aromatase modulation
Estrogen’s effects in chronic autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and progression to cancer
No full textEndocrine-immune system interactions are the basis for predominance of autoimmune diseases in women with differences between the fertile and the postmenopausal periods. B cell-driven diseases reach the maximum incidence rate in the reproductive years, at least in women under the effects of serum estrogens and their metabolites (endocrine synthesis). On the other hand, the prevalent peripheral synthesis of estrogens, especially in advanced ages (intracrine synthesis), through the action of aromatases, modulate the immune/inflammatory response in peripheral tissues similarly in both female and male patients (final common pathway). Interestingly, tissue injury that occurs during chronic immune/inflammatory reaction induces tissue repair and homeostatic responses including cell proliferation, growth factor production and angiogenesis that might facilitate cancer progression. The successful treatment of chronic immune/inflammatory diseases obtained by using medications initially developed for use in oncology, such as antiproliferative drugs, B-cell depleting monoclonal antibodies support the inflammation-cancer link
A history of psycho-neuro-endocrine immune interactions in rheumatic diseases
No full textBackground All active scientists stand on the shoulders of giants and many other more anonymous scientists, and this is not different in our field of psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology in rheumatic diseases. Too often, the modern world of publishing forgets about the collective enterprise of scientists. Some journals advise the authors to present only literature of the last decade, and it became a natural attitude of many scientists to present only the latest publications. In order to work against this general unempirical behavior, Neuroimmunomodulation devotes the 30-year anniversary issue to the history of medical science in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology. Summary Keywords were derived from the psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology research field very well known to the authors (R.H.S. collects a list of key words since 1994). We screened PubMed, the Cochran Library of Medicine, Embase, Scopus database, and the ORCiD database to find relevant historical literature. The Snowballing procedure helped to find related work. According to the historical appearance of discoveries in the field, the order of presentation follows the subsequent scheme: 1. The sensory nervous system, 2. The sympathetic nervous system, 3. The vagus nerve, 4. Steroid hormones (glucocorticoids, androgens, progesterone, estrogens, and the vitamin D hormone), 5. Afferent pathways involved in fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, and depression (in-cludes pathophysiology), and 6. Evolutionary medicine and energy regulation - an umbrella theory. Key Messages A brief history on psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology cannot address all relevant aspects of the field. The authors are aware of this shortcoming. The reader must see this review as a viewpoint through the biased eyes of the authors. Nevertheless, the text gives an overview of history in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology of rheumatic diseases
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
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