1,720,980 research outputs found
Leptin enhances STAT-3 phophorylation in mammari cells: effect on beta-casein mRNA expression and on cell viability
No full textSTAT-3 interfered mammary cells are irresponsive to beta-casein mRNA expression induced by leptin
No full text
Amplification failure of the amelogenin gene (AMELX) caused by a primer binding site mutation.
No full textIn Quantitative Fluorescent Polymerase Chain Reaction
(QF-PCR), genetic identification of sex and detection
of chromosome X and Y major numerical disorders
is routinely performed analyzing PCR products generated
from the amplification of the amelogenin gene, in
conjunction with other sex-typing markers and short tandem
repeat (STR) loci (Cirigliano et al., 1999). The
amelogenin gene is located in the pseudoautosomal
region of the sex chromosomes, on Xp22.3 and on
Yp11.2, respectively; sequence differences between the
two homologs have been commonly used to differentiate
males from females. In particular, PCR products generated
from the X- (AMELX) and Y- (AMELY) chromosome
can be discriminated from one another using
primers flanking a 6 bp deletion in the first intron of
the X chromosome (Sullivan et al., 1993). Almost all
QF-PCR assays have implemented primer sets of variable
amplicon size targeting this deletion. However, the
reliability of the amelogenin test in prenatal diagnosis
may sometimes be challenged, mainly because of occasional
amplification failure of AMELY in normal males,
possibly leading to false gender identification, because
of different Yp deletions encompassing the amelogenin
locus. Several types of rare nonrecurrent deletions have
been observed in Caucasians, whereas a single recurrent
deletion is particularly frequent in the Indian subcontinent,
involving about 2–8% of males (Jobling et al.,
2007). In contrast, PCR drop-out of the X-homologue of
the amelogenin gene, remaining undetected in females
carrying a heterozygous genotype and thus not affecting
DNA-based sex tests, have rarely been reported in the
literature, and always as a consequence of point mutations
in the PCR primers binding sites (Shadrach et al.,
2004; Alves et al., 2006)
15-Deoxy-delta 12,14-prostaglandin J2 induces apoptosis in human malignant B cells: an effect associated with inhibition of NF-kappa B activity and down-regulation of antiapoptotic proteins.
No full textCyclopentenone prostaglandins are potent inhibitors of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B), a transcription factor with a critical role in promoting inflammation and connected with multiple aspects of oncogenesis and cancer cell survival. In the present report, we investigated the role of NF-kappa B in the antineoplastic activity of the cyclopentenone prostaglandin 15-deoxy-Delta(12,14)-PGJ(2) (15d-PGJ(2)) in multiple myeloma (MM) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) cells expressing constitutively active NF-kappa B. 15d-PGJ(2) was found to suppress constitutive NF-kappa B activity and potently induce apoptosis in both types of B-cell malignancies. 15d-PGJ(2)-induced apoptosis occurs through multiple caspase activation pathways involving caspase-8 and caspase-9, and is prevented by pretreatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor ZVAD (z-Val-Ala-Asp). NF-kappa B inhibition is accompanied by rapid down-regulation of NF-kappa B-dependent antiapoptotic gene products, including cellular inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP-1), cIAP-2, X-chromosome-linked inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein (XIAP), and FLICE-inhibitory protein (cFLIP). These effects were mimicked by the proteasome inhibitor MG-132, but not by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) agonist troglitazone, suggesting that 15d-PGJ(2)-induced apoptosis is independent of PPAR-gamma. Knockdown of the NF-kappa B p65-subunit by lentiviral-mediated shRNA interference also resulted in apoptosis induction in malignant B cells with constitutively active NF-kappa B. The results indicate that inhibition of NF-kappa B plays a major role in the proapoptotic activity of 15d-PGJ(2) in aggressive B-cell malignancies characterized by aberrant regulation of NF-kappa B
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
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