Muslim Feminists and Transnational Networking in Asia: Upholding the Origin and Diaspora

Globalization, with both its banes and boons, poses certain threats to the episteme of the religions across the globe. Islam is no exception in this connection especially when it comes to its practices and popular discourses on gender. The Muslim feminists, at a global level, should tend to secure a transcultural and diasporic identity while also maintaining their territorialized affiliations with their respective virtual centers. The ideal can be materialized through the notion of transnational networking while exploiting the modern means of communication. The authors, in this paper, tends to articulate that in face of the starkly exploding spirit of postmodernist simulacra characterizing the present-day world order, the Muslim feminists in Asia are supposed to uphold both their origin and diaspora on the parallel if they intend to sustain their essential identity as Muslims while also enjoying the citizenship of a world order which has become most globalized, challenging and kaleidoscopic today. Keywords: globalization, transnational networking, simulacra, diaspora, Islam, feminism, Othe

Productivity Trends and Pattern of Scientific Collaboration of Bibliometric Research: An Exploratory Analysis

Bibliometrics is an emerging thrust area of research and has become a standard tool of science policy and research management in the last decades and attracted much attention because of the substantial expansion of literature. This study aims to systematically review the worldwide productivity trends, the pattern of scientific collaboration, and research outputs of Bibliometrics research from Web of Science (WoS) web database, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E). A bibliographic database of scientific papers published by authors affiliated worldwide, and containing the keywords “Bibliometric(s)” or “Scientometric(s)” or “Informetric(s)” or “Altmetric(s)” was built. A corpus of 9,630 publications was obtained and analyzed using the Histcite, VosViewer, and Biblioshiny software to highlight the evolution of the research domain. Publication rates from 2006 to 2020, organization of the research, type of documents, language-wise distribution, publication and citations trend by year, most productive countries, organizations, and authors, preferred types of sources of researchers, citations, and use of influential research; top-ranked papers, most frequently used author keywords; co-occurrence network in Bibliometrics research, Trend Topics and Topic Dendrogram, Conceptual Structure Map of each word in Bibliometrics literature, Collaboration Network (Author, Institutions and Country) were considered and quantitatively analyzed. This study contributes to the Bibliometrics research field in several ways. First, it provides the latest research status for researchers who are interested in the field through literature analysis. Second, it helps scholars become more aware of the research subfields through trend topic identification. Third, it provides insights to researchers engaging in the field and motivates attention to the relevant research

Screening vaccine formulations for biological activity using fresh human whole blood.

Understanding the relevant biological activity of any pharmaceutical formulation destined for human use is crucial. For vaccine-based formulations, activity must reflect the expected immune response, while for non-vaccine therapeutic agents, such as monoclonal antibodies, a lack of immune response to the formulation is desired. During early formulation development, various biochemical and biophysical characteristics can be monitored in a high-throughput screening (HTS) format. However, it remains impractical and arguably unethical to screen samples in this way for immunological functionality in animal models. Furthermore, data for immunological functionality lag formulation design by months, making it cumbersome to relate back to formulations in real-time. It is also likely that animal testing may not accurately reflect the response in humans. For a more effective formulation screen, a human whole blood (hWB) approach can be used to assess immunological functionality. The functional activity relates directly to the human immune response to a complete formulation (adjuvant/antigen) and includes adjuvant response, antigen response, adjuvant-modulated antigen response, stability, and potentially safety. The following commentary discusses the hWB approach as a valuable new tool to de-risk manufacture, formulation design, and clinical progression

Depression in Cancer: the many biobehavioural pathways driving tumor progression

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is common among cancer patients, with prevalence rates up to four-times higher than the general population. Depression confers worse outcomes, including non-adherence to treatment and increased mortality in the oncology setting. Advances in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of depression have revealed shared biobehavioral mechanisms may contribute to cancer progression. Moreover, psychosocial stressors in cancer promote: (1) inflammation and oxidative/nitrosative stress; (2) a decreased immunosurveillance; and (3) a dysfunctional activation of the autonomic nervous system and of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Consequently, the prompt recognition of depression among patients with cancer who may benefit of treatment strategies targeting depressive symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, fatigue and sleep disturbances, is a public health priority. Moreover, behavioral strategies aiming at reducing psychological distress and depressive symptoms, including addressing unhealthy diet and life-style choices, as well as physical inactivity and sleep dysfunction, may represent important strategies not only to treat depression, but also to improve wider cancer-related outcomes. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the intertwined biobehavioural pathways linking depression to cancer progression. In addition, the clinical implications of these findings are critically reviewed

An adjuvant-modulated vaccine response in human whole blood

The restimulation of an immune memory response by in vitro culture of blood cells with a specific antigen has been used as a way to gauge immunity to vaccines for decades. In this commentary we discuss a less appreciated application to support vaccine process development. We report that human whole blood from pre-primed subjects can generate a profound adjuvant-modulated, antigen-specific response to several different vaccine formulations. The response is able to differentiate subtle changes in the quality of an immune memory response to vaccine formulations and can be used to select optimal conditions relating to a particular manufacture process step. Whilst questions relating to closeness to in vivo vaccination remain, the approach is another big step nearer to the more relevant human response. It has special importance for new adjuvant development, complementing other preclinical in vivo and in vitro approaches to considerably de-risk progression of novel vaccines prior to and throughout early clinical development. Broader implications of the approach are discussed

Effect of Polyethylene Glycol Conjugation on Conformational and Colloidal Stability of a Monoclonal Antibody Antigen-Binding Fragment (Fab′)

We have investigated the effects of site specific “hinge” polyethylene glycol conjugation (PEGylation) on thermal, pH, and colloidal stability of a monoclonal antibody antigen-binding fragment (Fab′) using a variety of biophysical techniques. The results obtained by circular dichroism (CD), ultraviolet (UV) absorbance, and fluorescence spectroscopy suggested that the physical stability of the Fab′ is maximized at pH 6–7 with no apparent differences due to PEGylation. Temperature-induced aggregation experiments revealed that PEGylation was able to increase the transition temperature, as well as prevent the formation of visible and subvisible aggregates. Statistical comparison of the three-index empirical phase diagram (EPD) revealed significant differences in thermal and pH stability signatures between Fab′ and PEG-Fab′. Upon mechanical stress, micro-flow imaging (MFI) and measurement of the optical density at 360 nm showed that the PEG-Fab′ had significantly higher resistance to surface-induced aggregation compared to the Fab′. Analysis of the interaction parameter, <i>k</i>_D, indicated repulsive intermolecular forces for PEG-Fab′ and attractive forces for Fab′. In conclusion, PEGylation appears to protect Fab′ against thermal and mechanical stress-induced aggregation, likely due to a steric hindrance mechanism