1,720,979 research outputs found
Remote conferences in parasitology and entomology during the pandemic: Eliminate or maintain in a post-pandemic world? That is the dilemma!
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic brought enormous challenges for health, scientists and academic world two years ago. Social isolation and the inabilities of face-to-face activities generated the emergence of many educational and scientific initiatives. Remote activities gave information and brought company and affection to people which allowed students and professionals from different parts of the world to integrate. In this report we are showing the experience from three initiatives in South America of scientific dissemination in infectious diseases. We discuss the scope of having a permanent practice for access and integration in science using remote communication, which can give great benefits in unequal societies.Fil: Genta, Fernando Ariel. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz ; Fundacion Oswaldo Cruz ; Ministerio de Salud de Brasil;Fil: Edreira, Martin Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez, Marcel Ivan. Instituto Carlos Chagas; Brasi
Caracterização de inibidores de complemento liberados pelas formas metacíclicas de Tripanosoma cruzi e sua função na evasão da imunidade inata
No full textFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BrasilO Tripanosoma cruzi, agente etiológico da doença de Chagas, constitui um grave problema de saúde pública que afeta 18 milhões de pessoas na América latina. Para produzir a infecção formas tripomastigotas metacíclica de T. cruzi , liberadas durante a picada do inseto vetor, precisam evadir o sistema imune inato do hospedeiro vertebrado para infectar as células. O sistema complemento, devido à sua capacidade para rapidamente reconhecer e eliminar microrganismos constitui a principal linha de defesa do sistema imune inato. O sistema do complemento é composto por várias proteínas, ativadas em cascata por serino proteases, que culmina com a formação do complexo de ataque a membrana e lise do patógeno. Todavia, muitos organismos patogênicos desenvolveram formas de escapar do ataque do sistema do complemento por meio de diversos mecanismos. Visando à melhor caracterização dos fatores de virulência do T. cruzi, o grupo foi verificar se os sobrenadantes de formas metacíclicas apresentam atividade inibitória de complemento. Devido às vias do complemento serem ativadas por serino proteases, foi realizada uma busca no banco genômico de T. cruzi atrás de motivos de SERPINAS (inibidores de serino protease) que o parasito poderia estar liberando no primeiro contato parasito-hospedeiro. Foram realizados experimentos de lise mediada pelo complemento com sobrenadantes das formas metacíclicas de T. cruzi. Observou-se, ainda, que os sobrenadantes das formas metacíclicas do T. cruzi são capazes de inibir a lise mediada pelo complemento de formas epimastigotasThe Try panosoma cruzi, etiologic agent of Chagas disease, is a serious public health
concernthat affects 18 million people in Latin America. To produce the infection, metacyclic trypomastigotes de T cruzi released during the bite of the insect vector must evade the innate immune system of the vertebrate host to infect cells. The complement system, due to its ability to rapidly recognize and eliminate microorganisms is the major line of innate immune system defense. The complement system is composed of various proteins, activated by serine proteases cascade that culminates in the formation of the membrane attack complex and lysis of the pathogen. However, many pathogens have developed ways to evade the attack of the complement system through several mechanisms. Aiming to better characterize the virulence factors of
T. cruzi, the team was to verify whether the supernatants of metacyclic forms exhibit inhibitory activity of complement. Due to the complement pathways are activated by serine proteases, we seek in genomic library of T. cruzi motifs
related t
o
serpin (serine protease
inhibitors)
, a protein
that the parasite could be releasing
at
the first parasite
-
host
contact
.
Experiments were carried out to complement
-
mediated lysis with supernatants of metacyclic
forms of
T. cruzi
.
F
urthermore
, i
t was ob
served,
that the supernatants of metacyclic forms of
T. cruzi
are capable of inhibiting the complement mediated lysis of epimastigote
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
Modulatory Effect of Trypanosoma cruzi Infective Stages in Different Dendritic Cell Populations in vitro
Full text linkTrypanosoma cruzi is a protozoan parasite that infects at least 7 million persons in the world (OMS, 2019). In endemic areas, infection normally occurs by vectorial transmission; however, outside, it normally happens by blood and includes congenital transmission. The persistence of T. cruzi during infection suggests the presence of immune evasion mechanisms and the modulation of the anti-parasite response to a profile incapable of eradicating the parasite. Dendritic cells (DCs) are a heterogeneous population of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that patrol tissues with a key role in mediating the interface between the innate and adaptive immune response. Previous results from our lab and other groups have demonstrated that T. cruzi modulates the functional properties of DCs, in vitro and in vivo. During vectorial transmission, metacyclic (m) trypomastigotes (Tps) eliminated along with the insect feces reach the mucous membranes or injured skin. When transmission occurs by the hematic route, the parasite stage involved in the infection is the circulating or blood (b) Tp. Here, we studied in vitro the effect of both infective mTp and bTp in two different populations of DCs, bone marrow–derived DCs (BMDCs) and XS106, a cell line derived from epidermal DCs. Results demonstrated that the interaction of both Tps imparts a different effect in the functionality of these two populations of DCs, suggesting that the stage of T. cruzi and DC maturation status could define the immune response from the beginning of the ingress of the parasite, conditioning the course of the infection.Fil: Gutierrez, Brenda Celeste. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Lammel, Estela María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez, Marcel Ivan. Fundación Oswaldo Cruz; Brasil. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: González, Stella Maris. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Poncini, Carolina Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentin
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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