1,721,003 research outputs found
Symbiotic, opportunistic, and probiotic microbes: new advances in understanding their interaction with immune system
Full text linkIn this thesis we analysed the impact of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Lactobacillus reuteri on human immune system.
S. cerevisiae is a yeast harboring the human gastrointestinal tract, and the interaction with human blood dendritic cells (DCs) was never been investigated. We found that conventional DC (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) sense S. cerevisiae and that cDCs induce IL-6 and IL-17 production, while pDCs IFN-α and IL-10 with pro- and anti-inflammatory properties, respectively. These results could have relevant implication in health and diseases associated to microbiota dysbiosis.
A. baumannii is a nosocomial bacteria promoting pathology in immunocompromised hosts. We analysed for the first time the response of human innate immune cells to A. baumannii ATCC19606T (low virulence) and ACICU (high virulence). We found that macrophages promote killing of both bacterial strains, monocytes kill preferentially ATCC19606T, DCs and monocytes produce cytokines. Importantly, ACICU induces lower expression of two cytokines that have been associated to protection against A. baumannii: IL-10, IFN-α. Thus, we identified mechanisms potentially related to the high virulence of the multidrug-resistant strain.
L. reuteri is a probiotic with beneficial properties. We studied the effect of L. reuteri in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social problems and gastrointestinal dysbiosis. Since we previously demonstrated a pro-social effect of L. reuteri supplementation, we analysed the effects of probiotic on immune system and microbiota. We observed an increase of fecal F.prausnitzii and E. rectale, with anti-inflammatory properties, and a decrease of plasmatic soluble CD40L, with pro-inflammatory properties, in probiotic-treated ASD children. These results indicate an anti-inflammatory role of probiotic L. reuteri in ASD children.
Overall, we uncovered new mechanisms involved in the regulation of host/microbe interaction, with potential implication in the response to pathogenic infections, prevention of excessive inflammation, and exploitation of beneficial effect of microbiota and probiotic
La Campania degli Etruschi
No full textIl contributo contiene una breve sintesi sulla presenza etrusca in Campania dall'Età del Ferro fino alla romanizzazione
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
Modelling non-linear behaviur of aluminium alloy gusset joints for single layer lattices domes
No full textEven though aluminium latticed domes are widely used as roofing structures in case of very large areas, few researchers have focused their attention on the influence of the structural details on the overall structural behaviour and on the development of models to account for such influence in the design process. Conversely, the most significant part of the research efforts is devoted to steel structures. In particular, the semi-rigidity of joint behaviour can play an essential role in the structural response. In this paper, the behaviour of bolted Aluminium Alloy Gusset (AAG) joints under axial force and bending moment is investigated by developing a mechanical model based on the application of the component method which is currently codified for the analysis of steel connections. The experimental tests available in the technical literature have been analysed to gain insight into the actual behaviour of AAG joints. The proposed mechanical model is presented, leading to the evaluation of both the moment-rotation curve and the axial force versus axial displacement curve of AAG joints. Finally, the analytical results obtained from the mechanical model herein proposed have been compared with the experimental results showing the accuracy of the component method also for the modelling of non-conventional connections such as those used in the case of aluminium alloy latticed domes
The use of the component method for the evaluation of monotonic behaviour of Aluminium Alloy Gusset Joints
No full textDispelling 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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