1,720,973 research outputs found
Structural bioinformatics: methods development and applications to biomedical problems
Full text linkIn this thesis, I have used a variety of structural bioinformatics methods to investigate different biological and biomedical problems in collaboration with experimental groups, and I have developed a program to help protein structure comparisons. I have combined structure analyses and virtual screenings of several compound libraries to investigate the ligand binding properties of the sigma-1 receptor, which is an attractive therapeutic target for its roles in neural protection and pain. These studies have allowed me to: i) Propose steroid-based compounds as likely physiological ligands sigma-1 receptor; and ii) identify six FDA-approved drugs that were experimentally demonstrated to bind the receptor and improve the growth of cell from Huntington’s disease patients and can be therefore repurposed for use in this disease. I also carried out structure analyses and virtual screening towards COX-2 and COX-1 to compare the predicted binding of compounds with anti-inflammatory potential, obtained from olive oil with eco-sustainable procedures, with classic COX inhibitors. I performed sequence and structure analyses to identify the structural determinants of the biological activity of several Arabidopsis thaliana proteins, in comparison with their human homologues: i) the antiproliferative activity of the two sirtuins; and ii) the substrate specificity of N-acetyltransferase 2. Finally, I have implemented an automated pipeline that compares protein structure alignments produced by multiple programmes and identifies the consensus regions in their output
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
Commoning the Stage: The Complex Semantics of the Theatre Commons
No full textThe paper investigates the present role of theatre in society; in particular, it seeks to identify theatre as a peculiar, complex commons, with a precise spatial, relational and cultural syntax outlined in the first section with relevant examples. The stratification of meanings, archetypes and formats of such commons and the cultural value it has generated in different times and for different societies are described in the second section. Theatre is analysed through the commons analytical framework in the third section, identifying its characteristics of a semantic commons. The policy and strategic implications of the conceptualisation of theatre as a commons are expressed in the fourth section: in particular, its features of publicity and togetherness testify for its power to catalyse powerful instances such as the right to the city and the claim for the resurgence of the public sphere. Examples of policies and practices from the international context are provided that illustrate the emerging map of actions going towards such objectives
The folding pathway of an engineered circularly permuted PDZ domain
No full textTo understand the role of sequence connectivity in the folding pathway of a multi-state protein, we have analysed the folding kinetics of an engineered circularly permuted PDZ domain. This variant has been designed with the specific aim of posing two of the strands participating in the stabilisation of an early folding nucleus as contiguous elements in the primary structure. Folding of the circularly permuted PDZ2 has been explored by a variety of different experimental approaches including stopped-flow and continuous-flow kinetics, as well as ligand-induced folding experiments. Data reveal that although circular permutation introduces a significant destabilisation of the native state, a folding intermediate is stabilised and accumulated prior folding. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of the observed kinetics indicates an acceleration of the early folding events by more than two orders of magnitude. The results support the importance of sequence connectivity both in the mechanism and the speed of protein folding. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe 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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