1,720,973 research outputs found
Equine amniotic epithelial or bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells differently support in vitro embryo development in a bovine ivc model
No full textThere are indications that the culture system and the medium composition can affect embryo quality. In fact, various studies have been shown that the in vitro culture environment is one of the key determinants of the blastocyst output. In light of this, recently, some studies used co-culture with mouse embryonic fibroblasts in the effort to improve the development of bovine and ovine in vitro-derived embryos. Despite the progress in equine IVM and ICSI technologies and the different culture conditions reported for preimplantation development of ICSI fertilized horse oocytes, the yield of blastocysts remained low. In the present study we investigated the benefits of co-culturing bovine embryos with equine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSC) or equine amniotic epithelial stem cells (AE-SC) on blastocyst development. This study employed the bovine embryo as a model and represents the initial step towards standardization of a protocol for the culture of equine embryos in our laboratory. BM specimens were obtained aseptically from sternal aspirates of horses under local anaesthesia and layered over HystopaqueTM 1.080, then centrifuged for 20 min at 400g and 4°C. Cell pellets were resuspended in 10 mL Dulbecco Modified Earle’s Medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 1% non-essential amino acids, penicillin (100 U mL–1) and streptomycin (100 μg mL–1) and seeded in 24-well plates. Amniotic membranes were obtained from fresh placentas and, to release the AE cells, amniotic fractions were incubated at 37°C with 0.05% trypsin for 45 min. Separated AE cells were plated on 25 cm2 flask in standard culture media containing 10 ng mL–1 epidermal growth factor. Seven hundred fifty cumulus–oocyte complexes with a homogeneous cytoplasm and two or more layers of cumulus cells were used. After IVM and IVF cumulus-free presumptive zygotes were randomly transferred into one of three co-culture systems in which they were cultured for up to Day 7: 1) co-culture with granulosa cells (control); 2) co-culture with BM-MSC; 3) co-culture with AE-SC. The culture medium was TCM 199 + 10% fetal bovine serum, pyruvate and gentamicin at 38.5°C in 5% CO2. Statistical analyses was performed by chi square test. Blastocysts developmental rates were similar among control, AE-SC and BM-MSC (35%, 41% and 30%, respectively), but the co-culture with AE-SC gave a significantly greater percentage of blastocysts compared to BM-MSC (P < 0.05). In conclusion, despite the absence of a significant increment in blastocysts attainment using stem cells as feeders for embryo culture, the AE-SC monolayer create a more suitable microenvironment necessary for inducing local cell activation and proliferation of the growing embryos in comparison with BM-MSC. It can be suggested that these cells secrete biologically active substances including signaling molecules and growth factors of epithelial nature different from those of the BM cells of mesenchymal origin
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
Equine bone marrow mesenchymal or amniotic epithelial stem cells as feeder in a model for the in vitro culture of bovine embryos
No full textVarious studies have shown that the in vitro culture environment is one of the key determinants of the blastocyst output. In the present study we investigated the effects of co-culturing bovine embryos with
equine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) or equine amniotic epithelial stem cells (AESCs) on in vitro blastocysts development. BMspecimens were obtained aseptically from sternal aspirates
of horses under local anaesthesia and the isolated cells were resuspended in Dulbecco Modified Earle’s Medium supplemented with 10 ng/ml of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Amniotic membranes were obtained from fresh placentas and, to release the AE cells, amniotic fragments were incubated
with 0.05% trypsin for 45 min. Separated AE cells were plated in standard culture medium containing 10 ng/ml epidermal growth factor (EGF). Seven hundred and five cumulus–oocyte complexes were used and, after IVM and IVF, cumulus-free presumptive zygotes were randomly transferred into one of three
co-culture systems in which they were cultured up to day 7: (1) co-culture with cumulus cells (control);(2) co-culture with BM-MSCs; and (3) co-culture with AE-SCs. Statistical analyses were performed by
ANOVA. Blastocyst developmental rates were significantly different (p < 0.001) between control, AESCs and BM-MSCs (respectively 35.45, 41.84 and 30.09%). In conclusion, the AE-SC monolayer create a more suitable microenvironment necessary for inducing local cell activation and proliferation of the growing embryos in comparison with BM-MSCs and cumulus cells. It can be suggested that these cells secrete biologically active substances, including signalling molecules and growth factors of epithelial nature, different to those of the BM cells of mesenchymal origin
Vitalità di spermatozoi di verro in diluitori a breve e lunga conservazione valutata mediante colorazione multipla fluorescente e sistema CASA
No full textkoamabayili/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
- …
