1,721,823 research outputs found

    Proper chromatin condensation and maintenance of histone H3 phosphorylation during mouse oocyte meiosis requires protein phosphatase activity

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    We have shown okadaic acid (OA) and calyculin-A (CLA) inhibition of mouse oocyte phosphoprotein phosphatase 1 (PPP1C) and/or phosphoprotein phosphatase 2A (PPP2CA) results in aberrant chromatin condensation, as evidenced by the inability to resolve bivalents. Phosphorylation of histone H3 at specific residues is thought to regulate chromatin condensation. Therefore, we examined changes in histone H3 phosphorylation during oocyte meiosis and the potential regulation by protein PPPs. Western blot and immunocytochemical analysis revealed histone H3 phosphorylation changed during mouse oocyte meiosis, with changes in chromatin condensation. Germinal vesicle-intact (GV-intact; 0 h) oocytes had no phospho-Ser10 but did have phospho-Ser28 histone H3. Oocytes that had undergone germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD; 2 h) and progressed to metaphase I (MI; 7 h) and MII (16 h) had phosphorylated Ser10 and Ser28 histone H3 associated with condensed chromatin. To determine whether OA-induced aberrations in chromatin condensation were due to alterations in levels of histone H3 phosphorylation, we assessed phosphorylation of Ser10 and Ser28 residues following PPP inhibition. Oocytes treated with OA (1 mu M) displayed increased phosphorylation of histone H3 at both Ser10 and Ser28 compared with controls. To begin to elucidate which OA-sensitive PPP is responsible for regulating chromatin condensation and histone H3 phosphorylation, we examined spatial and temporal localization of OA-sensitive PPPs, PPP1 C, and PPP2CA. PPPC2A did not localize to condensed chromatin, whereas PPP1 beta (PPP1 CB) associated with condensing chromatin in GVBD, MI, and MII oocytes. Additionally, Western blot and immunocytochemistry confirmed presence of the PPP1C regulatory inhibitor subunit 2 (PPP1R2) in oocytes at condensed chromatin during meiosis and indicated a change in PPP1R2 phosphorylation. Inhibition of oocyte glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) appeared to regulate phosphorylation of PPP1R2. Furthermore, inhibition of GSK3 resulted in aberrant oocyte bivalent formation similar to that observed following PPP inhibition. These data suggest that PPP1CB is the OA/CLA-sensitive PPP that regulates oocyte chromatin condensation through regulation of histone H3 phosphorylation. Furthermore, GSK3 inhibition results in aberrant chromatin condensation and appears to regulate phosphorylation of PPP1R2

    Italian Amateur Pop-Rock Musicians on Facebook: Mixed Methods and New Findings in Music Making Research

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    This chapter investigates how and why amateur musicians use social networking sites, employing a mixed-methods approach. Attention is focused on four big Italian Facebook communities of pop-rock musicians: drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard players (overall, 2,101 active users), analyzing the relational and textual data extracted from the web. The chapter analyzes the network structures emerging from the interactions among the users. It also identifies and maps the main areas of discussion (sound shaping, studio recording, marketplace, musical references, computer production, and relations) and the latent semantic dimension characterizing Facebook users’ activities, through social network analysis and lexical correspondence analysis. Meanings, values, aesthetics, and representations of amateur music making, emerging from the data, are framed within two orthogonal dimensions: theory versus praxis, and competence versus music production. The Italian singularity is then explained with respect to this space. Some theoretical conclusions are finally drawn

    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

    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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