1,721,022 research outputs found

    Crystal structures of bovine odorant-binding protein in complex with odorant molecules

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    The structure of bovine odorant-binding protein (bOBP) revealed a striking feature of a dimer formed by domain swapping [Tegoni, M., Ramoni, R., Bignetti, E., Spinelli, S. & Cambillau, C. (1996) Nat. Struct. Biol.3, 863-867; Bianchet, M.A., Bains, G., Pelosi, P., Pevsner, J., Snyder, S.H., Monaco, H.L. & Amzel, L.M. (1996) Nat. Struct. Biol.3, 934-939] and the presence of a naturally occuring ligand [Ramoni, R., Vincent, F., Grolli, S., Conti, V., Malosse, C., Boyer, F.D., Nagnan-Le Meillour, P., Spinelli, S., Cambillau, C. & Tegoni, M. (2001) J. Biol. Chem.276, 7150-7155]. These features led us to investigate the binding of odorant molecules with bOBP in solution and in the crystal. The behavior of odorant molecules in bOBP resembles that observed with porcine OBP (pOBP), although the latter is monomeric and devoid of ligand when purified. The odorant molecules presented K(d) values with bOBP in the micromolar range. Most of the X-ray structures revealed that odorant molecules interact with a common set of residues forming the cavity wall and do not exhibit specific interactions. Depending on the ligand and on the monomer (A or B), a single residue--Phe89--presents alternate conformations and might control cross-talking between the subunits. Crystal data on both pOBP and bOBP, in contrast with binding and spectroscopic studies on rat OBP in solution, reveal an absence of significant conformational changes involving protein loops or backbone. Thus, the role of OBP in signal triggering remains unresolved

    Different Behavior of the Histidine Residue toward Cadmium and Zinc in a Cadmium-Specific Metallothionein from an Aquatic Fungus

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    Metallothioneins (MTs) are a large superfamily of ubiquitous cysteine-rich metalloproteins with main functions in metal ion homeostasis and detoxification. Neclu_MT1 is a metallothionein from the aquatic fungus Heliscus lugdunensis and so far the only known MT that is solely induced by CdII but not by ZnII or copper ions. In addition to eight cysteine residues, Neclu_MT1 also contains a less common single C-terminal histidine residue. To better understand the role of this histidine residue in metal ion binding, for the first time, potentiometric pH titrations are applied, revealing insights into the protonation and metal ion binding processes. Additional studies with absorption and NMR spectroscopy complement the finding that while the histidine residue is not crucial for the overall metal binding capacity, it does serve as a ligand in the ZnII but not in the CdII form of the protein

    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
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