1,721,056 research outputs found
TUMORS INDUCED BY MOLONEY MURINE SARCOMA-VIRUS ARE CLONAL IN RATS, NOT CLONAL IN MICE
Moloney murine sarcoma virus (M-MSV) induces rapidly growing tumours in adult mice of most conventional strains. Rats are less susceptible to M-MSV oncogenesis, but the few rhabdomyosarcomas that do develop after viral inoculation of newborn animals closely resemble conventional malignancies: they develop after a long latency, grow progressively, and metastasize to regional lymph nodes and lungs. Southern blot analysis with a v-mos-specific probe of M-MSV-induced tumours in both species demonstrated an oligo-, monoclonal pattern of exogenous v-mos integration only in the rat system, while mouse tumours were not clonal in origin. Furthermore, the same type of analysis of lymph node and lung metastases showed that cell clones already present in the primary rat lesion colonized secondary sites during tumour progression. Apparently, Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) was not involved in rhabdomyosarcoma pathogenesis since M-MuLV-specific DNA sequences could not be demonstrated in three of the six rat tumours. Finally, in all mouse tumours, unintegrated linear M-MSV proviruses could be readily detected
Tamalin is a critical mediator of electroconvulsive shock-induced adult neuroplasticity.
RanBPM is essential for mouse spermatogenesis and oogenesis
RanBPM is a recently identified scaffold protein that links and modulates interactions between cell surface receptors and their intracellular signaling pathways. RanBPM has been shown to interact with a variety of functionally unrelated proteins; however, its function remains unclear. Here, we show that RanBPM is essential for normal gonad development as both male and female RanBPM(-/-) mice are sterile. In the mutant testis there was a marked decrease in spermatogonia proliferation during postnatal development. Strikingly, the first wave of spermatogenesis was totally compromised, as seminiferous tubules of homozygous mutant animals were devoid of post-meiotic germ cells. We determined that spermatogenesis was arrested around the late pachytene-diplotene stages of prophase I; surprisingly, without any obvious defect in chromosome synapsis. Interestingly, RanBPM deletion led to a remarkably quick disappearance of all germ cell types at around one month of age, suggesting that spermatogonia stem cells are also affected by the mutation. Moreover, in chimeric mice generated with RanBPM(-/-) embryonic stem cells all mutant germ cells disappeared by 3 weeks of age suggesting that RanBPM is acting in a cell-autonomous way in germ cells. RanBPM homozygous mutant females displayed a premature ovarian failure due to a depletion of the germ cell pool at the end of prophase I, as in males. Taken together, our results highlight a crucial role for RanBPM in mammalian gametogenesis in both genders
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency causes hyperactivity and increased sensitivity to inflammatory stimuli
Nedd4-2 (NEDD4L in humans) is a ubiquitin protein ligase best known for its role in regulating ion channel internalization and turnover. Nedd4-2 deletion in mice causes perinatal lethality associated with increased epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) expression in lung and kidney. Abundant data suggest that Nedd4-2 plays a role in neuronal functions and may be linked to epilepsy and dyslexia in humans. We used a mouse model of Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency to investigate whether an alteration in Nedd4-2 levels of expression affects general nervous system functions. We found that Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice are hyperactive, have increased basal synaptic transmission and have enhanced sensitivity to inflammatory pain. Thus, Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice provide a new genetic model to study inflammatory pain. These data also suggest that in human, SNPs affecting NEDD4L levels may be involved in the development of neuropsychological deficits and peripheral neuropathies and may help unveil the genetic basis of comorbidities
Variations on the Author
“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
Delayed onset of inherited ALS by deletion of the BDNF receptor TrkB.T1 is non-cell autonomous
The pathophysiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease caused by the gradual degeneration of motoneurons, is still largely unknown. Insufficient neurotrophic support has been cited as one of the causes of motoneuron cell death. Neurotrophic factors such as BDNF have been evaluated in ALS human clinical trials, but yielded disappointing results attributed to the poor pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of BDNF. In the inherited ALS G93A SOD1 animal model, deletion of the BDNF receptor TrkB.T1 delays spinal cord motoneuron cell death and muscle weakness through an unknown cellular mechanism. Here we show that TrkB.T1 is expressed ubiquitously in the spinal cord and its deletion does not change the SOD1 mutant spinal cord inflammatory state suggesting that TrkB.T1 does not influence microglia or astrocyte activation. Although TrkB.T1 knockout in astrocytes preserves muscle strength and co-ordination at early stages of disease, its specific conditional deletion in motoneurons or astrocytes does not delay motoneuron cell death during the early stage of the disease. These data suggest that TrkB.T1 may limit the neuroprotective BDNF signaling to motoneurons via a non-cell autonomous mechanism providing new understanding into the reasons for past clinical failures and insights into the design of future clinical trials employing TrkB agonists in ALS
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
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
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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