1,721,168 research outputs found
Immune System of the Brain
No full textThis chapter summarizes the role of immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS) in maintaining immune response. An effective innate immune response is crucial for the elimination of pathogens and is vital for survival in the CNS. The CNS is considered to be an immune-privileged organ system, for its absence of lymphatic irrigation, the low expression of major histocompatibility complex molecules, and the presence of a blood-brain barrier. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the CNS, are of mesodermal origin and constitutes about 10% of total glial cell population. Microglia constitutively expresses low levels of immune receptors essential to the initiation and propagation of immune responses. Toll like receptors, which are essential for mounting an immune response against infection, control microglial activation and also regulate microglial death following pathological activation. The harmful effect of pathogen invasion is counteracted by the host inflammatory reaction, which is inevitably associated with tissue injury
An Overview of Immunodeficiency Disorders
No full textThis chapter provides a brief overview of major primary and acquired immunodeficiency disorders of the human immune system. It aims to assimilate information regarding immunodeficiency diseases, their current classification, causes and treatment options. Immunodeficiency diseases are a major cause of mortality and morbidity. These diseases result from the malfunction of the immune system and this malfunction can stem from many causes. The International Union of Immunological Societies Expert Committee on Primary Immunodeficiency has reviewed the classification of Primary immunodeficiency diseases every 2 years since its inception in 1973. Human severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) was first reported by Swiss workers more than 50 years ago. X-linked recessive severe combined immunodeficiency is the most common form of SCID and accounts for roughly 46% of the cases in the United States. Common variable immune deficiency as a heterogeneous group of primary immune deficiencies is characterized by insufficient serum levels of immunoglobulins, reduced response to specific antigens and higher incidence of repeated infections
From Imaging to Functional Traits in Interactions Between Roots and Microbes
No full textThe microbes in the rhizosphere constitute very complex communities, in which some are beneficial, others are pathogenic, but the vast majority of microbes are neutral commensals. Methods to unravel the interactions between roots and rhizospheric microbes have involved genetic approaches to determine the molecular bases of plant-microbe recognition and specific adaptive programs for either symbiosis or defense. In addition, imaging techniques have become particularly important to describe and understand the processes that occur within the spatially highly complex environments in and around the roots. Recently developed imaging techniques, in conjunction with appropriate labeling procedures, allow to address functional questions involving tissue-specific gene expression and elemental fluxes in the interactions between roots and rhizospheric microbes. Here, we discuss several imaging techniques from in situ hybridization, that allows the visualization of plant and microbial transcripts, to surface analytical imaging methods that can visualize chemical elements and molecules with micrometer resolution. These spectrometric techniques reveal the distribution of nutrient elements or toxic substances and allow, in combination with stable isotope labeling, to study nutrient fluxes within and between plants and microbes. Finally, we give an example of live-tissue imaging with fluorescent proteins to understand in more detail the process of root colonization through novel transcellular apoplastic compartments. All these techniques have virtually unlimited potential in their applications to other research questions in rhizosphere research
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
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
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