1,720,955 research outputs found
Distinct roles of T-cell lymphopenia and the microbial flora for gastrointestinal and CNS autoimmunity
No full textT-cell lymphopenia is a major risk factor for autoimmunity. Here we describe congenic Lewis (LEW) rats with a loss-of-function mutation in the Gimap5 gene, leading to a 92% reduction in peripheral T-cell numbers. Gimap5-deficient LEW rats developed eosinophilic autoimmune gastroenteritis accompanied by a 40-fold increase in IgE serum levels. This phenotype was ameliorated by antibiotic treatment, indicating a critical role of the microbial flora in the development of inflammatory bowel disease. Interestingly, Gimap5-deficient LEW rats showed strongly aggravated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) after immunization with guinea pig myelin basic protein. This phenotype, however, persisted after antibiosis, confirming that the enhanced CNS autoimmune response in T-cell lymphopenic Gimap5-deficient LEW rats was unrelated to the composition of the microbial flora. Rather, it seems that it was caused by the 7-fold increase in the percentage of activated T cells producing IL-17 and IFN-gamma, and the skewed T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, both of which were the result of T-cell lymphopenia and not affected by antibiosis. This notion was supported by the observation that adoptive T-cell transfer corrected the TCR repertoire and improved EAE. Collectively, our findings confirm a critical albeit differential role of T-cell lymphopenia in the susceptibility to organ-specific autoimmune responses.-Fischer, H.J., Witte, A.-K., Walter, L., Grone, H.-J., van den Brandt, J., Reichardt, H.M. Distinct roles of T-cell lymphopenia and the microbial flora for gastrointestinal and CNS autoimmunity
The Insulin Receptor Plays a Critical Role in T Cell Function and Adaptive Immunity
No full textT cell activation is an energy-demanding process fueled by increased glucose consumption and accompanied by upregulation of the insulin receptor (INSR). In this article, we report that silencing the INSR in inducible knockdown rats impairs selective T cell functions but not thymocyte development. Glucose transport and glycolysis in activated CD4(+) T cells were compromised in the absence of the INSR, which was associated with alterations in intracellular signaling pathways. The observed metabolic defects coincided with reduced cytokine production, proliferation, and migration, as well as increased apoptosis of CD4(+) T cells. The cytotoxicity of CD8(+) T cells in response to alloantigens was also diminished under these conditions, whereas the frequency and suppressive capacity of regulatory T cells were unaffected. The observed impairments proved to be decisive in vivo because silencing of the INSR attenuated clinical symptoms in animal models of acute graft-versus-host disease and multiple sclerosis. Taken together, our results suggest that upregulation of the INSR on T cells following activation is required for efficient adaptive immunity
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
The role of the antiapoptotic gene Gimap5 on the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory diseases
No full textT-cell lymphopenia is a major risk factor for autoimmunity. A loss-of-function mutation in the Gimap5 gene leads to a reduction in peripheral T-cell numbers in Congenic Lewis rats. Gimap5-deficient Lewis rats developed eosinophilic autoimmune gastroenteritis accompanied by an increase in IgE serum levels. This phenotype was ameliorated by antibiotic treatment, indicating a critical role of the microbial flora in the development of inflammatory bowel disease. Gimap5-deficient Lewis rats showed strongly aggravated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis after immunization with guinea pig myelin basic protein. This phenotype, however, persisted after antibiosis, confirming that the enhanced CNS autoimmune response in T-cell lymphopenic Gimap5-deficient Lewis rats was unrelated to the composition of the microbial flora. Rather, it seems that it was caused by the increase in the percentage of activated T cells producing IL-17 and IFN-g, and the skewed T-cell receptor repertoire, both of which were the result of T-cell lymphopenia and not affected by antibiosis. This notion was supported by the observation that adoptive T-cell transfer corrected the T-cell receptor repertoire and improved experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Collectively, the findings confirm a critical albeit differential role of T-cell lymphopenia in the susceptibility to organ-specific autoimmune responses.2017-11-1
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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