1,720,974 research outputs found
Increased serum high-mobility group box-1 and cleaved receptor for advanced glycation endproducts levels and decreased endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation endproducts levels in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with heart failure
No full textAims: High-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is a ligand for the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE). An
HMGB1–RAGE interaction has been implicated in cardiac dysfunction. We assessed the association of HMGB1
and RAGE isoforms with heart failure (HF) in diabetic and non-diabetic patients.
Methods and results:
We assayed serum levels of HMGB1, cleaved RAGE (cRAGE), endogenous secretory RAGE (esRAGE), high-sensitivity
C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in parallel with assessment
of left ventricular volumes and function in 125 diabetic and 222 non-diabetic Chinese patients with chronic HF.
Of the total, 79 diabetic patients without HF and 220 normal subjects served as diabetic and normal controls,
respectively. Serum HMGB1, cRAGE, hsCRP, and NT-proBNP levels were higher and, in contrast, esRAGE levels
lower in HF patients than in subjects without HF (for all; P , 0.01), with higher levels of cRAGE and hsCRP in diabetic
HF vs. non-diabetic HF patients (P , 0.01). For HF patients—with or without diabetes—HMGB1 levels correlated
positively with left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (r 1⁄4 0.267 and r 1⁄4 0.321, respectively) and
NT-proBNP values (r 1⁄4 0.497), and were inversely related to ejection fraction (r 1⁄4 20.461; all P , 0.001). Serum
cRAGE levels correlated with NT-proBNP values (r 1⁄4 0.451) and New York Heart Association functional class
(r 1⁄4 0.402; both P , 0.001). Multivariable regression analysis revealed that HMGB1, cRAGE, and esRAGE were consistently
associated with HF in diabetic and non-diabetic patients.
Conclusion: Heart failure patients have increased serum HMGB1 and cRAGE and decreased esRAGE levels, and these are related
to the severity of HF in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Such associations are worth further investigation
Plasma gasification based monetization of poultry litter: System optimization and comprehensive 5E (Energy, Exergy, Emergy, Economic, and Environmental) analysis
No full textPlasma gasification (PG) based tri-generation process for dimethyl ether (DME) and power generation has been developed to valorize the poultry litter with an objective of energy, exergy, emergy, economic, and environment (5E) sustainability. PG process has been optimized by the application of a radial basis function surrogate optimization algorithm. Comparative analysis of the base and the optimized process has been performed. The results reveal that the economic performance of the optimized process is better than base process with 6% additional DME generation. The energy efficiencies of the optimized process and the base process are 44% and 48%, respectively while there is no significant difference in the results of exergy analysis. Process thermal energy has been converted into electrical energy through steam turbine powered generator, and 1271 kW electricity can be produced through it. Emergy analysis indicates that the sustainability index of the process is 2.509, to some extent, which means that the process is sustainable. Finally, the economic analysis shows that the capital payback period of the optimized process (7.2 year at 70% process efficiency) is shorter while the base process is not feasible when the process efficiency is below 90%. Therefore, this PG tri-generation optimized process is a feasible solution for biomass waste valorization based on 5E analysis
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
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
Sludge Valorization Process for Waste-to-Value-Added Products: Process Simulation, Sustainability Assessment, and Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making
No full textIn this paper, a decision-making framework based on process simulation and the fuzzy PROMETHEE II method was proposed to evaluate the performances of the waste management alternatives considering the situation of lacking data and uncertainty. Process simulation and fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods were applied to deal with the problem of insufficient data and uncertain information from linguistic descriptions. First, a criteria system covering environmental, economic, technical, and social aspects was established for sustainability evaluation. Then, sustainability assessment was conducted based on the results of process simulation. The fuzzy best-worst method was applied to obtain the fuzzy weights for the criteria based on the preferences of stakeholders, and the fuzzy PROMETHEE II approach was presented to generate the ranking for all the alternatives. A case study for the prioritization of sludge-to-energy technologies was carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework. Sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis were also conducted to verify the stability and robustness of the model. Results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed model on providing reference for the waste-to-energy alternatives ranking and giving constructive suggestions for the industry and future research directions. The constructed model can not only provide useful references for decision-makers but also can inspire researchers to investigate biomass management technologies in a similar framework, and the application may even extend to other fields
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