1,721,035 research outputs found
The Role of Immunosenescence in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: A Review.
Get PDFCerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is one of the most important causes of vascular de mentia. Immunosenescence and inflammatory response, with the involvement of the cerebrovascular
system, constitute the basis of this disease. Immunosenescence identifies a condition of deterioration
of the immune organs and consequent dysregulation of the immune response caused by cellular
senescence, which exposes older adults to a greater vulnerability. A low-grade chronic inflammation
status also accompanies it without overt infections, an “inflammaging” condition. The correlation
between immunosenescence and inflammaging is fundamental in understanding the pathogenesis of
age-related CSVD (ArCSVD). The production of inflammatory mediators caused by inflammaging
promotes cellular senescence and the decrease of the adaptive immune response. Vice versa, the
depletion of the adaptive immune mechanisms favours the stimulation of the innate immune system
and the production of inflammatory mediators leading to inflammaging. Furthermore, endothelial
dysfunction, chronic inflammation promoted by senescent innate immune cells, oxidative stress and
impairment of microglia functions constitute, therefore, the framework within which small vessel
disease develops: it is a concatenation of molecular events that promotes the decline of the central
nervous system and cognitive functions slowly and progressively. Because the causative molecular
mechanisms have not yet been fully elucidated, the road of scientific research is stretched in this
direction, seeking to discover other aberrant processes and ensure therapeutic tools able to enhance
the life expectancy of people affected by ArCSVD. Although the concept of CSVD is broader, this
manuscript focuses on describing the neurobiological basis and immune system alterations behind
cerebral aging. Furthermore, the purpose of our work is to detect patients with CSVD at an early
stage, through the evaluation of precocious MRI changes and serum markers of inflammation, to
treat untimely risk factors that influence the burden and the worsening of the cerebral disease
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
Case report: De novo mutation of a-galactosidase A in a female patient with end-stage renal disease: report of a case of late diagnosis of Anderson–Fabry disease
Get PDFBackground: Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is an X-linked disease that results from reduced activity of the enzyme galactosidase alpha (GLA). When the GLA gene sequence is altered by mutations that alter the normal DNA sequence, variants of the alpha-galactosidase A enzyme are produced, which may or may not function. These mutations are responsible for Fabry disease, and to date, over 800 different mutations of the gene have been described in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease. In this case, we report the case of a woman who is the sole family member with this type of mutation.Case presentation: We report a case of a 52-year-old woman with end-stage chronic kidney disease in dialysis treatment. The patient's alpha-galactosidase activity was 6.6 nmol/ml/h in whole blood, and lyso-GB3 levels were 11.45 nmol/L (normal range < 2.3 nmol/L). Alpha-galactosidase A gene sequence analysis revealed a pathogenic variant of c.947dupT in exon 6, leading to the p. I317NfsTer16 amino acid substitution. The genetic analysis did not detect the same mutation in any of the other screened family members.Conclusion: The international Fabry disease genotype-phenotype database (dbFGP) reports a pathogenic variant c.947dupT in exon 6 that is probably associated with a classical phenotype of Fabry disease. In this case report, we report the case of a woman who is the sole family member with this type of pathogenic variant. Similar situations have not been described in the literature for this pathogenic variant, and it represents an important case of inter- and intrafamilial variability in patients with Fabry disease. The literature shows that de novo pathogenic variants are frequently found in the context of Fabry disease
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
Molecular Pathogenesis of Central and Peripheral Nervous System Complications in Anderson–Fabry Disease
Get PDFFabry disease (FD) is a recessive monogenic disease linked to chromosome X due to more than two hundred mutations in the alfa-galactosidase A (GLA) gene. Modifications of the GLA gene may cause the progressive accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and its deacylated form, globotriasylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3), in lysosomes of several types of cells of the heart, kidneys, skin, eyes, peripheral and central nervous system (not clearly and fully demonstrated), and gut with different and pleiotropic clinical symptoms. Among the main symptoms are acroparesthesias and pain crisis (involving the peripheral nervous system), hypohidrosis, abdominal pain, gut motility abnormalities (involving the autonomic system), and finally, cerebrovascular ischemic events due to macrovascular involvement (TIA and stroke) and lacunar strokes and white matter abnormalities due to a small vessel disease (SVS). Gb3 lysosomal accumulation causes cytoplasmatic disruption and subsequent cell death. Additional consequences of Gb3 deposits are inflammatory processes, abnormalities of leukocyte function, and impaired trafficking of some types of immune cells, including lymphocytes, monocytes, CD8+ cells, B cells, and dendritic cells. The involvement of inflammation in AFD pathogenesis conflicts with the reported poor correlation between CRP levels as an inflammation marker and clinical scores such as the Mainz Severity Score Index (MSSI). Also, some authors have suggested an autoimmune reaction is involved in the disease's pathogenetic mechanism after the alpha-galactosidase A deficiency. Some studies have reported a high degree of neuronal apoptosis inhibiting protein as a critical anti-apoptotic mediator in children with Fabry disease compared to healthy controls. Notably, this apoptotic upregulation did not change after treatment with enzymatic replacement therapy (ERT), with a further upregulation of the apoptosis-inducing factor after ERT started. Gb3-accumulation has been reported to increase the degree of oxidative stress indexes and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Lipids and proteins have been reported as oxidized and not functioning. Thus, neurological complications are linked to different pathogenetic molecular mechanisms. Progressive accumulation of Gb3 represents a possible pathogenetic event of peripheral nerve involvement. In contrast, central nervous system participation in the clinical setting of cerebrovascular ischemic events seems to be due to the epitheliopathy of Anderson-Fabry disease with lacunar lesions and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). In this review manuscript, we revised molecular mechanisms of peripheral and central neurological complications of Anderson-Fabry Disease. The management of Fabry disease may be improved by the identification of biomarkers that reflect the clinical course, severity, and progression of the disease. Intensive research on biomarkers has been conducted over the years to detect novel markers that may potentially be used in clinical practice as a screening tool, in the context of the diagnostic process and as an indicator of response to treatment. Recent proteomic or metabolomic studies are in progress, investigating plasma proteome profiles in Fabry patients: these assessments may be useful to characterize the molecular pathology of the disease, improve the diagnostic process, and monitor the response to treatment
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