Visibility of collaboration on the Web

The emerging influence of new information and communication technologies (ICT) on collaboration in science and technology has to be considered. In particular, the question of the extent to which collaboration in science and in technology is visible on the Web needs examining. Thus the purpose of this study is to examine whether broadly similar results would occur if solely Web data was used rather than all available bibliometric co-authorship data. For this purpose a new approach of Web visibility indicators of collaboration is examined. The ensemble of COLLNET members is used to compare co-authorship patterns in traditional bibliometric databases and the network visible on the Web. One of the general empirical results is a high percentage (78%) of all bibliographic multi- authored publications become visible through search of engines in the Web. One of the special studies has shown Web visibility of collaboration is dependent on the type of bibliographic multi-authored papers. The social network analysis (SNA) is applied to comparisons between bibliographic and Web collaboration networks. Structure formation processes in bibliographic and Web networks are studied. The research question posed is to which extent collaboration structures visible in the Web change their shape in the same way as bibliographic collaboration networks over time. A number of special types of changes in bibliographic and Web structures are explained. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Tau Exon 10 Inclusion by PrPC through Downregulating GSK3β Activity

Tau protein is largely responsible for tauopathies, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), where it accumulates in the brain as insoluble aggregates. Tau mRNA is regulated by alternative splicing, and inclusion or exclusion of exon 10 gives rise to the 3R and 4R isoforms respectively, whose balance is physiologically regulated. In this sense, one of the several factors that regulate alternative splicing of tau is GSK3β, whose activity is inhibited by the cellular prion protein (PrP^C), which has different physiological functions in neuroprotection and neuronal differentiation. Moreover, a relationship between PrP^C and tau expression levels has been reported during AD evolution. For this reason, in this study we aimed to analyze the role of PrP^C and the implication of GSK3β in the regulation of tau exon 10 alternative splicing. We used AD human samples and mouse models of PrP^C ablation and tau overexpression. In addition, we used primary neuronal cultures to develop functional studies. Our results revealed a paralleled association between PrP^C expression and tau 4R isoforms in all models analyzed. In this sense, reduction or ablation of PrP^C levels induces an increase in tau 3R/4R balance. More relevantly, our data points to GSK3β activity downstream from PrP^C in this phenomenon. Our results indicate that PrP^C plays a role in tau exon 10 inclusion through the inhibitory capacity of GSK3β.     

Virtual Screening of FDA-Approved Drugs against Triose Phosphate Isomerase from Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia Identifies Inhibitors of Their Trophozoite Growth Phase

Infectious diseases caused by intestinal protozoan, such as Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica) and Giardia lamblia (G. lamblia) are a worldwide public health issue. They affect more than 70 million people every year. They colonize intestines causing primarily diarrhea; nevertheless, these infections can lead to more serious complications. The treatment of choice, metronidazole, is in doubt due to adverse effects and resistance. Therefore, there is a need for new compounds against these parasites. In this work, a structure-based virtual screening of FDA-approved drugs was performed to identify compounds with antiprotozoal activity. The glycolytic enzyme triosephosphate isomerase, present in both E. histolytica and G. lamblia, was used as the drug target. The compounds with the best average docking score on both structures were selected for the in vitro evaluation. Three compounds, chlorhexidine, tolcapone, and imatinib, were capable of inhibit growth on G. lamblia trophozoites (0.05–4.935 μg/mL), while folic acid showed activity against E. histolytica (0.186 μg/mL) and G. lamblia (5.342 μg/mL).     

Effect of low-sulfur fuels upon NH3 and N2O emission during operation of commercial three-way catalytic converters

The use of low-sulfur fuel is known to improve the performance of the three-way catalytic converter (TWC). However, in this work we report how low-sulfur operation of commercial TWC also favors formation of N₂O and NH₃ as by products. We found that low-sulfur rich operation above 300 °C increases the production of NH₃, inhibiting the formation of N₂O characteristic of high-sulfur operation. During lean operation, the production of N₂O near the stoichiometric point is not significantly affected by the sulfur level. The large production of N₂O observed during light-off is not affected by SO₂ when the operation is lean, but under rich conditions N₂O is produced up to 575 °C. The increased production of NH₃ and N₂O in TWC as a result of the introduction of low-sulfur gasoline is an area that requires further analysis because of its implication upon public health in large urban settings.     

Size of web domains and interlinking behavior of higher education institutions in Europe

The aim of this paper is to empirically test whether interlinking patterns between higher education institutions (HEIs) conform to a document model, where links are motivated by webpage content, or a social relationship model, where they are markers of underlying social relationships between HEIs. To this aim, we analyzed a sample of approximately 400 European HEIs, using the number of pages on their web domains and the total number of links sent and received; in addition we test whether these two characteristics are associated with organizational size, reputation, and the volume of teaching and research activities. Our main findings are as follows: first, the number of webpages of HEI websites is strongly associated with their size, and to a lesser extent, with the volume of their educational activities, research orientation, and reputation; differences between European countries are rather limited, supporting the insight that the academic Web has reached a mature stage. Second, the distribution of connectivity (as measured by the total degree of HEI’s) follows a lognormal distribution typical of social networks between organizations, while counts of weblinks can be predicted with good precision from organizational characteristics. HEIs with larger websites tend to send and receive more links, but the effect is rather limited and does not fundamentally modify the resulting network structure. We conclude that aggregated counts of weblinks between pairs of HEIs are not significantly affected by the web policies of HEIs and thus can be considered as reasonably robust measures. Furthermore, interlinking should be considered as proxies of social relationships between HEIs rather than as reputational measures of the content published on their websites.     

Removal of lindane using electrokinetic soil flushing coupled with air stripping

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - This paper evaluates the remediation of soil spiked with lindane using a combined treatment consisting of electrokinetic soil flushing (EKSF) with air...     

How old is the Web? Characterizing the age and the currency of the European scientific Web

The aim of this paper is to model and study the age of the Web using a sample of about four million of web pages from the 16 European Research Area countries obtained during 2004 and 2005. Web page time-stamp (date when the web pages were created or last changed for last time), format and size in bytes data have been analysed. Several indicators are introduced to measure longitudinal aspects of the Web. Half-age is proposed as a measure of the age distribution because this is found to be exponential. “Web Update Index” and “Lifespan Index” are introduced to measure the changing rate of a small sample over time. Results show that the British Web space has the youngest Web pages while the Greek and Belgian ones have the oldest. The study also compared Web pages topics and found that Biology pages are more stable than Physics pages.     

Simulation of transport and extravasation of nanoparticles in tumors which exhibit enhanced permeability and retention effect

Determining the factors that influence the delivery of sub-micron particles to tumors and understanding the relative importance of each of these factors is fundamental to the optimization of the particle delivery process. In this paper, a model that combines random walk with the pressure driven movement of nanoparticles in a tumor vasculature is presented. Nanoparticle movement in a cylindrical tube with dimensions similar to the tumor's blood capillary with a single pore is simulated. Nanoparticle velocities are calculated as a pressure driven flow over imposed to Brownian motion. The number and percentage of nanoparticles leaving the blood vessel through a single pore is obtained as a function of pore size, nanoparticle size and concentration, interstitial pressure, and blood pressure. The model presented here is able to determine the importance of these controllable parameters and thus it can be used to understand the process and predict the best conditions for nanoparticle-based treatment. The results indicate that the nanoparticle delivery gradually increases with pore size and decreases with nanoparticle size for tumors with high interstitial fluid pressure (in this work we found this behavior for head and neck carcinoma and for metastatic melanoma with interstitial pressures of 18 mmHg and 19 mmHg, respectively). For tumors with lower interstitial fluid pressure (rectal carcinoma with 15.3 mmHg) however, delivery is observed to have little sensitivity to particle size for almost the entire nanoparticle size range. Though an increase in nanoparticle concentration increases the number of nanoparticles being delivered, the efficiency of the delivery (percentage of nanoparticles delivered) is found to remain closely unaffected.     

Survey on the content of vitisin A and hydroxyphenyl-pyranoanthocyanins in Tempranillo wines

Little is known about the content and development of pyranoanthocyanins, pigments mainly formed during red wine ageing, in commercial wines. Some of the major pyranoanthocyanins in a wide selection of 1–10 years-old Spanish Tempranillo wines and also in a 29 years wide-vertical series of Tempranillo wines from an individual cellar have been determined. Great variability in pyranoanthocyanin concentrations was found (range, mg/l): vitisin A, 0–10.76; pinotin A, 0–4.26; and malvidin 3-glucoside-4-vinylphenol, 0.03–1.37. Vitisin A and malvidin 3-glucoside-4-vinylphenol were already present in 1–2 years-old wines, whereas pinotin A was only detectable in a few of the 1 and 2 years-old wines. Vitisin A tended to decrease with wine age, while hydroxyphenyl-pyranoanthocyanins showed the reverse trend. However, the aforementioned trends were interrupted by various temporary maxima, most likely due to some “refreshment” of the oldest wines (i.e., addition of young wine), as suggested by unexpected high concentrations of malvidin 3-glucoside, in contrast to the results found in the wine vertical series. The effects of addition of young wine on aged wine pyranoanthocyanin concentrations were confirmed by wine refreshment experiments.