1,721,241 research outputs found

    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

    Function of region I and II adhesive motifs of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein in sporozoite motility and infectivity

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    The circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium falciparum contains two conserved motifs (regions I and II) that have been proposed to interact with mosquito and vertebrate host molecules in the process of sporozoite invasion of salivary glands and hepatocytes, respectively. To study the function of this protein we have replaced the endogenous circumsporozoite protein gene of Plasmodium berghei with that of P. falciparum and with versions lacking either region I or region II. We show here that P. falciparum circumsporozoite protein functions in rodent parasite and that P. berghei sporozoites carrying the P. falciparum CS gene develop normally, are motile, invade mosquito salivary glands, and infect the vertebrate host. Region I-deficient sporozoites showed no impairment of motility or infectivity in either vector or vertebrate host. Disruption of region II abolished sporozoite motility and dramatically impaired their ability to invade mosquito salivary glands and infect the vertebrate host. These data shed new light on the role of the CS protein in sporozoite motility and infectivity

    Disruption of Plasmodium berghei merozoite surface protein 7 gene modulates parasite growth in vivo.

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    Merozoite invasion of red blood cells is crucial to the development of the parasite that causes malaria. Merozoite surface proteins (MSPs) mediate the first interaction between parasite and erythrocyte. In Plasmodium falciparum, they include a complex of products from at least 3 genes (msp1, msp6, and msp7), one of which, msp7, is part of a gene family containing 3 and 6 adjacent members in Plasmodium yoelii and Plasmodium falciparum, respectively. We have identified and disrupted msp7 in the Plasmodium berghei gene family. The protein is expressed in schizonts and colocalizes with MSP1. The synthesis and processing of MSP1 was unaffected in the parasite with the disrupted gene (MSP7ko). Disruption of msp7 was not lethal but affected blood-stage parasite growth. MSP7ko parasites initially grew more slowly than wild-type parasites. However, when reticulocytes were prevalent, the rate of increase in parasitemia was similar, suggesting that MSP7ko parasites prefer to invade and grow within reticulocytes

    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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