1,720,991 research outputs found
JHC772798_Supplemental_Material – Supplemental material for Immunolocalization of Advanced Glycation End Products, Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases, and Transforming Growth Factor-β/Smads in Pelvic Organ Prolapse
No full textSupplemental material, JHC772798_Supplemental_Material for Immunolocalization of Advanced Glycation End Products, Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases, and Transforming Growth Factor-β/Smads in Pelvic Organ Prolapse by Antonella Vetuschi, Simona Pompili, Anna Gallone, Angela D’Alfonso, Maria Gabriella Carbone, Gaspare Carta, Claudio Festuccia, Eugenio Gaudio,
Alessandro Colapietro and Roberta Sferra in Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry</p
Antisteatotic and antifibrotic activity of a new synthetic GPR120 receptor agonist in mice overfed with a “Western-style diet”
No full textSeveral factors such as genetic variants, obesity, and unhealthy lifestyle with unbalanced diets are correlated to the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
(NAFLD). This is a complex disorder ranging from simple steatosis to inflammation (nonalcoholic fatty liver, NAFL), worsening into fibrosis (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, NASH). The driving injury is the alteration of lipids homeostasis, leading to an abnormal accumulation of triglycerides and other lipids in the liver parenchyma.
Currently, no resolutive pharmacological treatment for NAFLD is available, and the only therapeutic approach is represented by a healthy diet and physical exercise,
although many reports suggest the potential druggability of specific receptors for fatty acids to improve liver fitness in many metabolic contexts. In this study, we
targeted the G-protein-coupled receptor 120/free fatty acid receptor 4 (GPR120/FFAR4), with a new and specific synthetic agonist, GprA. We monitored the progression of liver damage in mice fed for different periods (26 weeks, NAFL stage; and 30 weeks, NASH stage), with a “Western-style” diet (WSD) and treated daily by
oral gavage with 3 doses (30-60-90 mg/Kg) of GprA. The analyses highlighted that GprA is able to reduce signs of steatosis at the two time-point of WSD-fed mice, both
at the histological and molecular levels, when used at 90mg/Kg. Furthermore, in NASH-like treated mice, GprA is also effective in the reduction of collagen maturation and deposition, fibrosis development, and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression. Altogether, our data confirm the central role of FFAR4 in the context of NAFL/NASH onset and progression and reveal that GprA could represent an interesting candidate for the development of a new therapeutic approach in NAFL
treatment
PPAR-Gamma coordinates EMT, AGE, and senescence signaling and mitigates the intestinal fibrosis in IBDs
No full textInflammatory bowel disease (IBD), represents a wide range of intestinal disorders that commonly lead to an anomalous production and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and consequently to fibrosis. Despite much progress made in the last twenty years in the treatment of IBD, once the fibrogenesis process is onset, the only resolutive treatment for IBD complications is still the surgical approach. The main driver of fibrosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), as shown by the anti-fibrotic action exerted by several molecules able to modulate its signaling such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ and its agonists. We investigated the contribution of AGE/R AGE (advanced glycation end products/receptor of AGEs), and the senescence pathways, other than the EMT in the context of the complex pathophysiology of IBD. We evaluated human biopsies from control and patients in remission stage of IBD, and a mouse model of colitis dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced, treated or not with GED (PPAR-gamma-agonist), or 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), a reference drug commonly used in the IBD treatment. In the human samples, we highlighted an increase in EMT markers (β-catenin, E-cadherin, vimentin), AGE/RAGE signaling, and senescence (β-gal, MMP1, IL-1β) pathways, compared to controls. Coherently, we found overexpression of the same pathways in DSS-treated mice. Surprisingly, the GED can reduce all the pro-fibrotic signaling, often more efficiently than 5-ASA. Our data suggest that a molecule able to act simultaneously on multiple pathways involved in the fibrogenesis process could be a valid target candidate for IBD treatment. In this context, PPAR-γ activation, enhanced by an agonist such as GED, may represent a good strategy for mitigating IBD progression
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
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