Drawing upon a combination of ethnographic research and media and communication theory, Building Communities of Trust: Creative Work for Social Change offers pathways to building trust in a range of ...situations and communities. Ann Feldman presents rich examples from her own life and social-impact journey with nonprofit, Artistic Circles, along with supplemental case studies from interviews with 20 to 30-year-olds, to address how to create vibrant, trust-based societies and to determine what works and what doesn’t while advancing towards creating social impact. These case studies and shared experiences from real life media projects across 30 years, reveal behind-the-scenes stories of challenges, conflicts, and resolutions in global impact efforts ranging from women’s empowerment to water access. The book explains how the success – or failure – of social-impact initiatives depends on power struggles, funding, interpersonal misunderstandings, identity crises, fears, and stereotypes. The book’s goal is to help aspiring changemakers develop strategies for sustainable social-change projects. It serves as a guide for undergraduates, graduate students, and high-school upperclassmen in environmental studies, business, sociology, gender and sexuality, cross-cultural studies, music, religion, and communications and media. For more on Artistic Circles and Ann E Feldman’s work, please visit https://www.buildingcommunitiesoftrust.org/ The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003296423/building-communities-trust-ann-feldman
Vascular calcification is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with atherosclerosis, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. However, no viable treatments for ...this condition have been identified. This study aimed to determine whether farnesyl transferase inhibitors (FTIs) can reduce vascular calcification and the mechanism by which this reduction occurs.
We demonstrate that FTI-277 significantly inhibits phosphate-induced mineral deposition by vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) in vitro, prevents VSMC osteogenic differentiation, and increases mRNA expression of matrix Gla protein (MGP), an inhibitor of mineralization. FTI-277 increases Akt signaling in VSMC in short-term serum-stimulation assays and in long-term mineralization assays. In contrast, manumycin A has no effect on Akt signaling or mineralization. Co-incubation of VSMC with FTI-277 and SH6 (an Akt inhibitor) significantly reduces the inhibitory effect of FTI-277 on mineralization, demonstrating that FTI-277 inhibits calcification by activating Akt signaling. Over-expression of the constitutively active p110 sub-unit of PI3K in VSMC using adenovirus activates Akt, inhibits mineralization, suppresses VSMC differentiation and significantly enhances MGP mRNA expression. FTI-277 also inhibits phosphate-induced activation of caspase 3 and apoptosis of VSMC, and these effects are negated by co-incubation with SH6. Finally, using an ex vivo model of vascular calcification, we demonstrate that FTI-277 inhibits high phosphate-induced mineralization in aortic rings derived from rats with end-stage renal failure.
Together, these results demonstrate that FTI-277 inhibits VSMC mineral deposition by up-regulating PI3K/Akt signaling and preventing apoptosis, suggesting that targeting farnesylation, or Akt specifically, may have therapeutic potential for the prevention of vascular calcification.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objective To review all available data and recommend a definition for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) based on published peer-reviewed data, whether already in use or not, to guide clinical ...diagnosis and future research. Design Literature review and expert consensus. Setting Professional society. Patients None. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) A systematic review of the published peer-reviewed medical literature, by querying MEDLINE databases, to identify studies evaluating the epidemiology or phenotypic aspects of PCOS. Result(s) The Task Force drafted the initial report, following a consensus process via electronic communication, which was then reviewed and critiqued by the Androgen Excess and PCOS (AE-PCOS) Society AE-PCOS Board of Directors. No section was finalized until all members were satisfied with the contents, and minority opinions noted. Statements were not included that were not supported by peer-reviewed evidence. Conclusion(s) Based on the available data, it is the view of the AE-PCOS Society Task Force that PCOS should be defined by the presence of hyperandrogenism (clinical and/or biochemical), ovarian dysfunction (oligo-anovulation and/or polycystic ovaries), and the exclusion of related disorders. However, a minority considered the possibility that there may be forms of PCOS without overt evidence of hyperandrogenism, but recognized that more data are required before validating this supposition. Finally, the Task Force recognized and fully expects that the definition of this syndrome will evolve over time to incorporate new research findings.
Objective: The Androgen Excess Society (AES) charged a task force to review all available data and recommend an evidence-based definition for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), whether already in use ...or not, to guide clinical diagnosis and future research.
Participants: Participants included expert investigators in the field.
Evidence: Based on a systematic review of the published peer-reviewed medical literature, by querying MEDLINE databases, we tried to identify studies evaluating the epidemiology or phenotypic aspects of PCOS.
Consensus Process: The task force drafted the initial report, following a consensus process via electronic communication, which was then reviewed and critiqued by the AES Board of Directors. No section was finalized until all members were satisfied with the contents and minority opinions noted. Statements that were not supported by peer-reviewed evidence were not included.
Conclusions: Based on the available data, it is the view of the AES Task Force on the Phenotype of PCOS that there should be acceptance of the original 1990 National Institutes of Health criteria with some modifications, taking into consideration the concerns expressed in the proceedings of the 2003 Rotterdam conference. A principal conclusion was that PCOS should be first considered a disorder of androgen excess or hyperandrogenism, although a minority considered the possibility that there may be forms of PCOS without overt evidence of hyperandrogenism but recognized that more data are required before validating this supposition. Finally, the task force recognized, and fully expects, that the definition of this syndrome will evolve over time to incorporate new research findings.
The composition of the mammalian gut microbiota can be influenced by a multitude of environmental variables such as diet and infections. Studies investigating the effect of these variables on gut ...microbiota composition often sample across multiple separate populations and habitat types. In this study we explore how variation in the gut microbiota of the house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) on the Isle of May, a small island off the east coast of Scotland, is associated with environmental and biological factors. Our study focuses on the effects of environmental variables, specifically trapping location and surrounding vegetation, as well as the host variables sex, age, body weight and endoparasite infection, on the gut microbiota composition across a fine spatial scale in a freely interbreeding population. We found that differences in gut microbiota composition were significantly associated with the trapping location of the host, even across this small spatial scale. Sex of the host showed a weak association with microbiota composition. Whilst sex and location could be identified as playing an important role in the compositional variation of the gut microbiota, 75% of the variation remains unexplained. Whereas other rodent studies have found associations between gut microbiota composition and age of the host or parasite infections, the present study could not clearly establish these associations. We conclude that fine spatial scales are important when considering gut microbiota composition and investigating differences among individuals.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Highlights • COL11A1 is a highly specific biomarker of activated CAFs in multiple epithelial cancer types. • COL11A1 is not expressed in mesenchymal precursors or fibroblasts associated with ...non-cancerous conditions, such as inflammation and organ fibrosis. • Activated CAFs across genetically different epithelial cancer types express a highly conserved gene signature.
The receptor tyrosine kinase Ret plays a critical role in regulating enteric nervous system (ENS) development. Ret is important for proliferation, migration, and survival of enteric progenitor cells ...(EPCs). Ret also promotes neuronal fate, but its role during neuronal differentiation and in the adult ENS is less well understood. Inactivating RET mutations are associated with ENS diseases, e.g., Hirschsprung Disease, in which distal bowel lacks ENS cells. Zebrafish is an established model system for studying ENS development and modeling human ENS diseases. One advantage of the zebrafish model system is that their embryos are transparent, allowing visualization of developmental phenotypes in live animals. However, we lack tools to monitor Ret expression in live zebrafish. Here, we developed a new BAC transgenic line that expresses GFP under the
promoter. We find that EPCs and the majority of ENS neurons express
during ENS development. In the adult ENS, GFP
neurons are equally present in females and males. In homozygous mutants of
and
-another important ENS developmental regulator gene-GFP
ENS cells are absent. In summary, we characterize a
transgenic line as a new tool to visualize and study the Ret signaling pathway from early development through adulthood.
Compartments in food webs are subgroups of taxa in which many strong interactions occur within the subgroups and few weak interactions occur between the subgroups. Theoretically, compartments ...increase the stability in networks, such as food webs. Compartments have been difficult to detect in empirical food webs because of incompatible approaches or insufficient methodological rigour. Here we show that a method for detecting compartments from the social networking science identified significant compartments in three of five complex, empirical food webs. Detection of compartments was influenced by food web resolution, such as interactions with weights. Because the method identifies compartmental boundaries in which interactions are concentrated, it is compatible with the definition of compartments. The method is rigorous because it maximizes an explicit function, identifies the number of non-overlapping compartments, assigns membership to compartments, and tests the statistical significance of the results. A graphical presentation reveals systemic relationships and taxa-specific positions as structured by compartments. From this graphic, we explore two scenarios of disturbance to develop a hypothesis for testing how compartmentalized interactions increase stability in food webs.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The first decade of the 21st century brought major challenges to higher education, all of which have implications for and impact the future of faculty professional development. This volume provides ...the field with an important snapshot of faculty development structures, priorities and practices in a period of change, and uses the collective wisdom of those engaged with teaching, learning, and faculty development centers and programs to identify important new directions for practice. Building on their previous study of a decade ago, published under the title of Creating the Future of Faculty Development, the authors explore questions of professional preparation and pathways, programmatic priorities, collaboration, and assessment. Since the publication of this earlier study, the pressures on faculty development have only escalated-demands for greater accountability from regional and disciplinary accreditors, fiscal constraints, increasing diversity in types of faculty appointments, and expansion of new technologies for research and teaching. Centers have been asked to address a wider range of institutional issues and priorities based on these challenges. How have they responded and what strategies should centers be considering? These are the questions this book addresses.For this new study the authors re-surveyed faculty developers on perceived priorities for the field as well as practices and services offered. They also examined more deeply than the earlier study the organization of faculty development, including characteristics of directors; operating budgets and staffing levels of centers; and patterns of collaboration, re-organization and consolidation. In doing so they elicited information on centers' "signature programs," and the ways that they assess the impact of their programs on teaching and learning and other key outcomes. What emerges from the findings are what the authors term a new Age of Evidence, influenced by heightened stakeholder interest in the o
Stem-cell niche signaling is short-range in nature, such that only stem cells but not their differentiating progeny receive self-renewing signals. At the apical tip of the Drosophila testis, 8 to 10 ...germline stem cells (GSCs) surround the hub, a cluster of somatic cells that organize the stem-cell niche. We have previously shown that GSCs form microtubule-based nanotubes (MT-nanotubes) that project into the hub cells, serving as the platform for niche signal reception; this spatial arrangement ensures the reception of the niche signal specifically by stem cells but not by differentiating cells. The receptor Thickveins (Tkv) is expressed by GSCs and localizes to the surface of MT-nanotubes, where it receives the hub-derived ligand Decapentaplegic (Dpp). The fate of Tkv receptor after engaging in signaling on the MT-nanotubes has been unclear. Here we demonstrate that the Tkv receptor is internalized into hub cells from the MT-nanotube surface and subsequently degraded in the hub cell lysosomes. Perturbation of MT-nanotube formation and Tkv internalization from MT-nanotubes into hub cells both resulted in an overabundance of Tkv protein in GSCs and hyperactivation of a downstream signal, suggesting that the MT-nanotubes also serve a second purpose to dampen the niche signaling. Together, our results demonstrate that MT-nanotubes play dual roles to ensure the short-range nature of niche signaling by (1) providing an exclusive interface for the niche ligand-receptor interaction; and (2) limiting the amount of stem cell receptors available for niche signal reception.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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