1,721,517 research outputs found

    Emerging patterns and implications of HIV-1 integrase inhibitor resistance

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    This review highlights recent data on the pathways of resistance that impact the clinical activity of first-generation and second-generation integrase inhibitors. RECENT FINDINGS: Raltegravir (RAL) and elvitegravir (EVG) are highly efficacious in first-line antiretroviral therapy, with small numbers of virological failures observed in clinical trials. Durable activity in treatment-experienced patients requires a fully supportive background regimen. RAL and EVG show a low-to-moderate genetic barrier to resistance and extensive cross-resistance, which preclude their sequential use. Resistance to dolutegravir (DTG) is not selected as readily in vitro and has not emerged in studies of treatment-naïve patients to date. Both in vitro and in vivo, DTG retains activity against several RAL and EVG resistant strains, but susceptibility is variably impaired by multiple mutations within the G148 pathway, which are common after RAL or EVG failure. Cross-resistance can be partially overcome by doubling DTG dosing to twice daily, but durability of responses remains dependent on a supportive background regimen. There is variability in the integrase gene of circulating HIV strains, which does not appear to reduce drug activity, although it may influence the emergence and evolution of integrase resistance. Transmission of integrase resistance remains rare but surveillance is required. SUMMARY: Integrase inhibitors provide a potent option for the treatment of HIV infection. Drug resistance remains a challenge, which may be partially overcome by the introduction of second-generation compounds. Prompt management of RAL and EVG failure is required to prevent the accumulation of multiple resistance mutations that reduce DTG susceptibility

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

    Novel drug resistance mutations in HIV: Recognition and clinical relevance

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    During its spread among humans, HIV-1 has developed an extraordinary degree of genetic diversity. The pol region encoding for viral enzymes such as the reverse transcriptase and the protease, and the env region encoding for the viral glycoprotein gp41 are subjected not only to natural variation, but also to the selection pressure imposed by the pharmacologic treatment. Under these conditions in HIV-1 infected people, the virus is able to escape from antiviral drugs by accumulating mutations, either alone or in clusters. The patterns of mutations accumulated by HIV-1 under drug pressure are quite variable, depending on the backbone of virus strains, the level and type of pharmacologic pressure, and the length of therapy. To date, a high number of mutations in protease, reverse transcriptase, and gp41 have been associated with reduced susceptibility to the antiretroviral drugs currently available. However, a number of studies continuously highlight the existence of additional mutations beyond those currently known to be involved in the development of drug resistance in vivo. Most of these so-called "novel" mutations are involved in agonistic correlations with the classical drug resistance mutations on divergent evolutionary pathways, and are associated with an increased resistance to specific drugs. At the same time, the presence of some novel mutations at therapeutic failure has also been significantly associated with an increase of viremia, thus suggesting that they may also play a compensatory role leading to improved viral replication. Interestingly, some natural polymorphisms in drug-naive patients have been significantly associated with the development of drug resistance mutations at failure, thus suggesting their ability to decrease the genetic barrier to the development of drug resistance. In contrast, other novel mutations are negatively associated with specific antiviral treatment, showing negative interactions with relevant drug resistance mutations, and are associated with increased susceptibility to specific drugs. This article reviews the importance of recognition and the clinical relevance of novel mutations involved in resistance to the currently used antiretroviral drugs, discussing in particular the role of novel drug resistance mutations in the reverse transcriptase enzyme. Such novel mutations should be considered for improved prediction of clinical response to antiretroviral drugs and for assessing the efficacy of next-generation drugs

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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