1,721,050 research outputs found

    Proteasome inhibitors reconstitute the presentation of cytotoxic T-cell epitopes in Epstein-Barr virus-associated tumors

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    EBV-infected cells and EBV-associated tumors may evade CTL recognition by defective antigen processing, resulting in poor presentation of CTL epitopes. Since the proteasome is the major source of MHC class I-presented peptides, we analyzed the effect of proteasome inhibitors on the expression of surface HLA class I and the generation of EBV-derived CTL epitopes presented by the HLA-A2 and HLA-A11 alleles. Treatment with covalent and reversible inhibitors of the proteasome partially reduced the total and allele-specific expression of surface HLA class I in EBV-carrying LCLs. HLA-A2 expression was also decreased by treatment with leupeptin and bestatin, while HLA-A11 expression was affected by treatment with phenanthroline. Despite their general inhibitory effect on HLA class I expression, all proteasome inhibitors tested enhanced the presentation of 2 subdominant HLA-A2 epitopes from EBV LMP1 and LMP2, while the presentation of the immunodominant HLA-A11-restricted epitope from EBNA4 was inhibited by MG132 and lactacystin and increased by ZL3VS. Treatment with ZL3VS restored the presentation of endogenously expressed EBNA4 in I HLA-A11-positive BL cell line. These findings suggest that specific inhibitors of the proteasome may be used to increase the antigenicity of virus-infected and malignant cells that are per se inefficient at generating particular CTL target epitopes. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc

    Fusidic acid betamethasone lipid cream

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    Bacterial infections of the skin and soft tissues are frequent disorders. They can be primitive infections (e.g. impetigo, folliculitis) or secondary infections complicating other diseases, particularly atopic dermatitis. The most common aetiologic agent is Staphylococcus aureus. Topical antibiotic therapy may be sufficient in many instances to control these infections. Fusidic acid is an antibiotic used topically on the skin which is very active against S. aureus, including methicillin-resistant strains, and other Gram-positive bacteria. Resistance rates to fusidic acid are stably low. A fusidic acid and betamethasone formulation in a lipid-enriched cream (lipid cream) has been recently developed in order to provide effective antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities in conjunction with a powerful emollient and moisturising effect. This preparation may be especially useful in patients with atopic-infected eczem

    Safe by Design of nanomaterials in industrial production processes: nanomaterials in the cosmetic field

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    Cosmetic pleasantness of products containing inorganic UV filters depends on an unwanted whitening effect which is inversely correlated to their size. To overcome this effect, diameter has been reduced to nanosized but thus increasing the surface area and biological reactivity and carrying questions about the safety of humans and environment. Following a “safe and sustainability by design” approach, we designed a new class of optimized sunscreen UV filters by chemical functionalization of ZnO and TiO2 with Oxisol. If compared with the simple physical mixture, the new coated filters show different properties and benefits: a higher SPF (ISO 24443:2012), a better cytotoxic profile (MTT and NRU assay), a radical scavenging action (PCL assay) and an improved safety profile with a strong reduction of photocatalytic activity (Acid blue 9 test). In conclusion, our Safe by Design (acronym SbD) approach presents a new generation of UV filters bonded with booster molecules (by means of synergistic antioxidant effects) as the best compromise in the conscientious UV protectio

    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

    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

    Author Index

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