6,915 research outputs found
TACC3-ch-TOG track the growing tips of microtubules independently of clathrin and Aurora-A phosphorylation
No full textThe interaction between TACC3 (transforming acidic coiled coil protein 3) and the microtubule polymerase ch-TOG (colonic, hepatic tumor overexpressed gene) is evolutionarily conserved. Loading of TACC3–ch-TOG onto spindle microtubules requires the phosphorylation of TACC3 by Aurora-A kinase and the subsequent interaction of TACC3 with clathrin to form a microtubule binding surface. Whether there is a pool of TACC3–ch-TOG that is independent of clathrin in human cells, and what is the function of this pool, are open questions. Here, we report that TACC3 is recruited to the plus-ends of microtubules by its association with ch-TOG and that this pool is independent of phosphorylation and binding to clathrin. The plus-end binding of TACC3–ch-TOG persists in interphase and we propose that one cellular function of TACC3–ch-TOG is to modulate cell migration. We also describe the distinct subcellular pools of TACC3, ch-TOG and clathrin. TACC3 is often described as a centrosomal protein, but we show that there is no significant population of TACC3 at centrosomes. The delineation of distinct protein pools reveals a simplified view of how these proteins are organized and controlled by post-translational modification
Reconnaissance du droit d’asile par la Cour pénale internationale (CPI, Ch. 1re Inst. II, 9 juin 2011, Affaire le procureur c/ Germain Katanga et Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui)
No full texthttp://combatsdroitshomme.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/06/14/reconnaissance-du-droit-dasile-par-la-cour-penale-internationale-cpi-ch-1re-inst-ii-9-juin-2011-affaire-le-procureur-c-germain-katanga-et-mathieu-ngudjolo-chui/Combats pour les droits de l'homm
Reconnaissance du droit d’asile par la Cour pénale internationale (CPI, Ch. 1re Inst. II, 9 juin 2011, Affaire le procureur c/ Germain Katanga et Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui)
No full texthttp://combatsdroitshomme.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/06/14/reconnaissance-du-droit-dasile-par-la-cour-penale-internationale-cpi-ch-1re-inst-ii-9-juin-2011-affaire-le-procureur-c-germain-katanga-et-mathieu-ngudjolo-chui/Combats pour les droits de l'homm
Reconnaissance du droit d’asile par la Cour pénale internationale (CPI, Ch. 1re Inst. II, 9 juin 2011, Affaire le procureur c/ Germain Katanga et Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui)
No full texthttp://combatsdroitshomme.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/06/14/reconnaissance-du-droit-dasile-par-la-cour-penale-internationale-cpi-ch-1re-inst-ii-9-juin-2011-affaire-le-procureur-c-germain-katanga-et-mathieu-ngudjolo-chui/Combats pour les droits de l'homm
The role of work integration social enterprises in welfare provision: Critical perspectives from nonprofits
No full textPeople with disabilities (PWDs) have been systematically excluded from mainstream market place in Hong Kong, a city whose public policies have been heavily influenced and informed by the productivist welfare regime that places heavy emphasis on profit maximization and economic growth and productivity in lieu of social rights and inclusion (Holliday, 2000). As a result, disparities in poverty rates and other human capital outcomes can be observed among PWDs.
Over the past decade, various countries across the East Asian region, including Hong Kong, have witnessed the rapid proliferation of social enterprises, especially in the form of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs). This phenomenon has partially resulted from the implementation of “aggressive” policy measures aimed at facilitating the setting up of social enterprises as a way to combat rising unemployment and poverty rates, especially among PWDs, during the Asian financial crisis. These WISEs are overwhelmingly operated by nonprofits in Hong Kong.
While previous research has shown that WISEs were able to generate a range of positive social values for disadvantaged employees (Chui et al., 2018), its role in relation to welfare policies is less clear. Critics have for instance questioned whether WISEs have simply been used as a convenient outlet for the government to cede its own responsibility for poverty alleviation to the third sector. Relatedly, many WISEs continue to rely on some form of government subsidy or affiliated nonprofits for survival, thereby violating the principle of “double bottom line”. This poses the question as to whether or not WISEs are a viable and sustainable form of organization capable of fulfilling their originally intended function of poverty alleviation. Furthermore, that WISEs have to continue rely on nonprofits for survival may also incur unexpected costs for the nonprofit, which also puts into question the sustainability of WISEs and their effect on nonprofits.
This study attempts to address these issues through a combination of document analysis and in-depth qualitative interviews with a sample of founders and CEOs of WISEs and representatives of nonprofits in Hong Kong (n=11). Data was analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006).
Several insights can be generated from our findings. First, we found that while benefits can be gleaned from WISEs for employees on the individual level, the operation of WISEs have also incurred unexpected negative consequences and costs to nonprofits at the organisational level. Participants revealed that almost always is the case where the parent nonprofit would dilute its own resources in order to subsidise the WISE. This, in turn, jeopardised the quality of traditional services rendered to clients. Second, participants also viewed that while the government promotes and encourages nonprofits to set up social enterprises, the dearth of corresponding measures (e.g. efforts to lower rental costs) poses serious challenges to the smooth operation of WISEs, with some participants revealing that the WISE model may not an ideal form of organisation (or 'social innovation') after all. Third, we found that although WISEs have been “branded” in the public policy discourse as an anti-poverty measure, their actual effects in assisting disadvantaged people out of poverty remain ambiguous at best, if not unfounded. Finally, some participants expressed that while WISEs do provide employment opportunities for PWDs, they should not be taken as panacea for the government's lack of systematic disability or work integration policies. In this light, the productivist welfare institutional logic prevails.
With reference to international literature (Defourny & Nyssens, 2010; Gerrard, 2017), discussion pertaining to the role of social enterprise in the production of welfare and future directions for work integration social enterprises are presented. Specifically, our study contributes critical insights into the viability and sustainability of the WISE model as a form of anti-poverty measure and its relation to government responsibility from the perspectives of nonprofit representatives of WISEs.
References:
Chui, C. H. K., Shum, H. Y. M., & Lum, T. Y S. (2018). Work integration social enterprises as vessels of empowerment? Perspectives from employees. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 1-16.
Defourny, J., & Nyssens, M. (2010). Social enterprise in Europe: At the crossroads of market, public policies and third sector. Policy and Society, 29(3), 231-242.
Esping-Andersen, Gosta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton University Press.
Gerrard, J.( 2017). Welfare rights, self-help and social enterprise: Unpicking neoliberalism’s mess. Journal of Sociology, 53(1), 47-62.
Holliday, I. (2000). Productivist Welfare Capitalism: Social Policy in East Asia. Political Studies, 48(4), 706-723
In vitro anti-cancer activity of a novel microbial fermentation product on human carcinomas
No full textThe possible anti-proliferation and cell death induction potential of a novel microbial fermentation extract named as oncogen XP-180 (or simply as XP-180) was tested on three human solid tumour carcinoma cell lines (non-small cell lung cancer A549, breast cancer MDA-MB231, liver adenocarcinoma SK-Hep1) and on the acute myelogenous leukaemia KG1a cell line. Anti-proliferative activity of XP-180 was observed on all of these cancer cell lines with comparable efficiency and in a dose-dependent manner. Morphological investigation further suggested that common features of apoptosis, including cell shrinkage and rounding, are present in XP-180 treated cells. Loss of adhesion properties of these solid tumour cell lines was observed upon XP-180 incubation. Anchorage-dependent clonogenicity assay on solid tumour cell lines and semi-solid methylcellulose colony formation assay on leukaemia cell line further revealed that XP-180 strongly inhibited the regeneration potential of these cancer cells. Using KG1a as an experimental model system, XP-180 was shown to stimulate the activity of caspase 3, 8 and 9 without significant change in caspase 6 activity. Furthermore, XP-180 readily induced collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential after 2 h of incubation. However, the use of the generic caspase specific inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK does not significantly reverse XP-180 mediated cell death. The results obtained suggest that XP-180-mediated cancer cell death could involve mitochondria and both caspase-dependent and -independent pathways. Therefore, XP-180 is an efficient anti-cancer regimen in vitro
Antiproliferative and apoptosis-inducing activity of Brucea javanica extract on human carcinoma cells
No full textWe have recently demonstrated the antiproliferative and apoptotic activities of herbal traditional Chinese medicines, including the analomous fruit extract of Gleditsia sinensis, the fresh juice of Scutellaria barbata and the warmed water extract of Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis on a series of human carcinoma cells. Here, we further report the potential anti-cancer activity of the warmed water extract of Brucea javanica (BJE). Four cancer cell lines, including A549 non-small cell lung cancer, Hep3B hepatocellular carcinoma, MDA-MB231 breast cancer and SLMT-1 oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, were incubated with BJE and strong apoptotic induction was observed under inverted microscopic investigation for all of the four cell lines tested. Using the MDA-MB231 breast cancer cell line as an experimental model, additional analyses supported the hypothesis that the mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization pathway was induced by BJE. The APO-1/Fas receptor death induction pathway was not activated under the influence of BJE, as studied by staining with Fas ligand and Fas receptor specific antibodies. Accordingly, only weak activation of caspase 8 was observed upon BJE treatment. On the other hand, caspase 3 activity was stimulated up to five-fold in BJE-treated cells compared to untreated controls. Oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation formation was detected by labelling the nucleic acid ladders with TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labelling. Collectively, BJE-induced cancer cell death proceeds through a mitochondrial dependent pathway associated with caspase 3 activation
Paradoxical proliferative potential of iron (II) sulphate on cancer cells after the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium (MTS) assay
No full textThere are several scientific approaches for the determination of cellular growth influences of known or novel substances under in vitro conditions, among which colourimetric absorption measurement is considered to be one of the convenient methods. [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium] (MTS) assay is one of the commonly used colourimetric absorption assays based on the ability of dehydrogenase from viable cells to produce the brown soluble formazan detectable at 490 nm. Here we have tested the possible growth influence of iron (II) sulphate on two human cancer cell lines, the K562 chronic myelogenous leukaemia and T47D breast carcinoma cells, based on the MTS assay. We found that iron (II) sulphate possessed an inhibitory effect when added at 16- to 125-microM concentrations, but iron (II) sulphate became growth stimulatory when its concentration was further increased to 1000 microM. In addition, a dose-dependent increase in absorbance at the same wavelength was observed when we repeated the experiments without the addition of MTS and phenazine methosulfate. When we further repeated the cell growth determinations using adenosine triphosphate content assay for K562 and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay for T47D, iron (II) sulphate showed a consistent dose-dependent growth inhibitory effect. Morphological investigation after methylene blue staining clearly demonstrated that iron (II) sulphate, at a concentration of 1000 microM, is cytotoxic to T47D cells. Interestingly, a consistent increment for the absorbance at 490 nm was further observed with increased iron (II) sulphate concentration either in the presence or absence of MTS even in a cell-free environment. Thus we conclude that iron (II) sulphate is actually growth inhibitory and even cytotoxic at high concentrations towards the K562 and T47D cancer cells and the paradoxical proliferative activity of iron (II) sulphate on these two cancer cell lines using the MTS assay was solely due to the oxidation of initial pale green iron (II) to brownish iron (III) during incubation in the aqueous condition
In vivo antitumour activity of amphiphilic silicon(IV) phthalocyanine with axially ligated rhodamine B
No full textWe explore the possible cellular cytotoxic activity of an amphiphilic silicon(IV) phthalocyanine with axially ligated rhodamine B under ambient light experimental environment as well as its in vivo antitumour potential using Hep3B hepatoma cell model. After loading into the Hep3B hepatoma cells, induction of cellular cytotoxicity and cell cycle arrest were detected. Strong growth inhibition of tumour xenograft together with significant tumour necrosis and limited toxicological effects exerted on the nude mice could be identified.Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technolog
Les diminutifs basques avec ch
No full textSe presentan formaciones similares a los diminutivos vascos con "ch" en España y América latina. Se dan ejemplosThe author introduces similar formations to the Basque diminutive "ch" in Spain and Latin America. Examples are provide
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