1,720,986 research outputs found
Cellular receptors for mammalian viruses
No full textThe interaction of viral surface components with cellular receptors and other entry factors determines key features of viral infection such as host range, tropism and virulence. Despite intensive research, our understanding of these interactions remains limited. Here, we report a systematic analysis of published work on mammalian virus receptors and attachment factors. We build a dataset twice the size of those available to date and specify the role of each factor in virus entry. We identify cellular proteins that are preferentially used as virus receptors, which tend to be plasma membrane proteins with a high propensity to interact with other proteins. Using machine learning, we assign cell surface proteins a score that predicts their ability to function as virus receptors. Our results also reveal common patterns of receptor usage among viruses and suggest that enveloped viruses tend to use a broader repertoire of alternative receptors than non-enveloped viruses, a feature that might confer them with higher interspecies transmissibility.This work was financially supported by Advanced Grant 101019724—EVADER from the European Research Council, grant PID2020-118602RB-I00—ZooVir from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and grant 202130-31 from Fundació La Marató de TV3 to R.S. R.S. and A.V-R. received a salary from the European Research Council. C.B-D. received a salary from the Fundació La Marató de TV3.Peer reviewe
Ochratoxin A in overripe grapes, raisings and special wines in vitro and in vivo studies on fungi isolated from grapes and raisins affected by physical, chemical and biotic agents
No full textOchratoxin A (OTA) is a fungal secondary metabolite produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium species. It has been detected in a wide range of commodities, including cereals, coffee, grapes, raisins, must and wine. Within grape derivative products, the raisins, red wine and sweet wines have reported to contain the highest OTA levels. Aspergillus section Nigri (A. niger and A. carbonarius) are considered the OTA source in these commodities and they are commonly isolated among other fungi from grapes and raisins.Starting from this basis the objectives of this thesis were focused into three main aspects: (1) Evaluation of the food products: vine dried fruits and special wines, concerning the mycobiota and OTA occurrence and incidence; (2) Ecophysiological studies of the ochratoxigenic fungi and accompanying mycobiota as affected by environmental conditions; (3) Control and preventive methods such as the evaluation of residual activity of pre-harvest fungicides during grape dehydration and the use of modified atmospheres.Wine origin and winemaking procedure showed to be determinant for the final OTA content. All special wines analysed from northern European regions were negative for OTA while more than 50% of wines from warmer regions were positive for OTA contamination. The wines with higher OTA levels were fortified musts followed by those made from dried grapes. Acoholic and malo-lactic fermentations, biological 'crianza' (Flor yeast) and the action of Botrytis cinerea in noble rot of grapes may diminish the OTA levels in wine.In grapes, the presence of Aspergillus section Nigri became predominant at harvest and mainly during sun-drying. Prevalence of Aspergillus section Nigri can be explained by their adaptation to environmental conditions of sun-drying, and by their ability to dominate other fungal species involved when coming into contact with them. Among the Aspergillus section Nigri, A. niger aggregate was dominant, although A. carbonarius increased its inc
Molecular mechanisms that contribute to horizontal transfer of plasmids by the bacteriophage SPP1
No full textNatural transformation and viral-mediated transduction are the main avenues of horizontal gene transfer in Firmicutes. Bacillus subtilis SPP1 is a generalized transducing bacteriophage. Using this lytic phage as a model, we have analyzed how viral replication and recombination systems contribute to the transfer of plasmid-borne antibiotic resistances. Phage SPP1 DNA replication relies on essential phage-encoded replisome organizer (G38P), helicase loader (G39P), hexameric replicative helicase (G40P), recombinase (G35P) and in less extent on the partially dispensable 5 0 ! 3 0 exonuclease (G34.1P), the single-stranded DNA binding protein (G36P) and the Holliday junction resolvase (G44P). Correspondingly, the accumulation of linear concatemeric plasmid DNA, and the formation of transducing particles were blocked in the absence of G35P, G38P, G39P, and G40P, greatly reduced in the G34.1P, G36P mutants, and slightly reduced in G44P mutants. In contrast, establishment of injected linear plasmid DNA in the recipient host was independent of viral-encoded functions. DNA homology between SPP1 and the plasmid, rather than a viral packaging signal, enhanced the accumulation of packagable plasmid DNA. The transfer efficiency was also dependent on plasmid copy number, and rolling-circle plasmids were encapsidated at higher frequencies than theta-type replicating plasmids
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
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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