1,720,963 research outputs found

    Neuroprotection and neuroregeneration: roles for the white matter

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    Efficient strategies for neuroprotection and repair are still an unmet medical need for neurodegenerative diseases and lesions of the central nervous system. Over the last few decades, a great deal of attention has been focused on white matter as a potential therapeutic target, mainly due to the discovery of the oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the adult central nervous system, a cell type able to fully repair myelin damage, and to the development of advanced imaging techniques to visualize and measure white matter lesions. The combination of these two events has greatly increased the body of research into white matter alterations in central nervous system lesions and neurodegenerative diseases and has identified the oligodendrocyte precursor cell as a putative target for white matter lesion repair, thus indirectly contributing to neuroprotection. This review aims to discuss the potential of white matter as a therapeutic target for neuroprotection in lesions and diseases of the central nervous system. Pivot conditions are discussed, specifically multiple sclerosis as a white matter disease; spinal cord injury, the acute lesion of a central nervous system component where white matter prevails over the gray matter, and Alzheimer’s disease, where the white matter was considered an ancillary component until recently. We first describe oligodendrocyte precursor cell biology and developmental myelination, and its regulation by thyroid hormones, then briefly describe white matter imaging techniques, which are providing information on white matter involvement in central nervous system lesions and degenerative diseases. Finally, we discuss pathological mechanisms which interfere with myelin repair in adulthood

    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

    Localization of cannabinoid receptors CB1, CB2, GPR55, and PPARα in the canine gastrointestinal tract

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    The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is composed of cannabinoid receptors, their endogenous ligands, and the enzymes involved in endocannabinoid turnover. Modulating the activity of the ECS may influence a variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes. A growing body of evidence indicates that activation of cannabinoid receptors by endogenous, plant-derived, or synthetic cannabinoids may exert beneficial effects on gastrointestinal inflammation and visceral pain. The present ex vivo study aimed to investigate immunohistochemically the distribution of cannabinoid receptors CB1, CB2, G protein-coupled receptor 55 (GPR55), and peroxisome proliferation activation receptor alpha (PPARα) in the canine gastrointestinal tract. CB1 receptor immunoreactivity was observed in the lamina propria and epithelial cells. CB2 receptor immunoreactivity was expressed by lamina propria mast cells and immunocytes, blood vessels, and smooth muscle cells. Faint CB2 receptor immunoreactivity was also observed in neurons and glial cells of the submucosal plexus. GPR55 receptor immunoreactivity was expressed by lamina propria macrophages and smooth muscle cells. PPARα receptor immunoreactivity was expressed by blood vessels, smooth muscle cells, and glial cells of the myenteric plexus. Cannabinoid receptors showed a wide distribution in the gastrointestinal tract of the dog. Since cannabinoid receptors have a protective role in inflammatory bowel disease, the present research provides an anatomical basis supporting the therapeutic use of cannabinoid receptor agonists in relieving motility disorders and visceral hypersensitivity in canine acute or chronic enteropathies

    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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