130 research outputs found
Azadeh Westergaard Flora Stieglitz Straus Award 2025 Acceptance Speech
No full textAuthor Azadeh Westergaard wins the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award 2025 for The One and Only Googoosh: Iran\u27s Beloved Superstar from Bank Street College Children\u27s Book Committee
The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
Established in 1994 to honor Flora Straus, who led the Children’s Book Committee for many years, this award is presented annually for a distinguished work of nonfiction that serves as an inspiration to young people. Flora Straus stood for the values of courage, hard work, truth, and beauty while adapting to a changing world. She believed that books about varying cultures enrich and help all children in their growth. She championed diverse opinions and points of view and was a person of high principles, unfailing courtesy, and deep understanding.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cbc_awards/1021/thumbnail.jp
Expression of shelterin and shelterin-associated genes in breast cancer cell lines
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Mammalian telomeric DNA consists of tandem repeats of the sequence TTAGGG associated with a specialized set of proteins, known collectively as Shelterin. These telosomal proteins protect the ends of chromosomes against end-to-end fusion and degradation. The objective of this project was to investigate whether expression of Shelterin and Shelterin-associated proteins are altered, and influence the protection and maintenance of telomeres, in breast cancer cells. Initial findings showed that most of the Shelterin and Shelterin-associated genes were significantly down-regulated (at the mRNA expression level) in a panel of ten breast cancer cell lines. Epigenetic alterations to DNA (methylation at CpG Islands) and histones can result in altered expression of genes. Further investigations showed that the promoter region of POT1 was partially methylated in the breast cancer cell line, 21NT. To support these observations, a DNA methylation inhibitor, 5-aza-CdR, and a histone deacetylation inhibitor, TSA, were used in an attempt to reactivate the expression of silenced genes. This work generated novel findings. Treatment with 5-aza-CdR and TSA resulted in the highest recovery of TIN2 and POT1 mRNA levels at both short-term (48 and 72 hours) and long-term (3 weeks) treatment of the breast cancer cell line, 21NT cells. In addition, POT1 promoter methylation was analysed before and after treatment of 21NT cells. Bisulphite sequencing data were consistent with the mRNA expression results, showing up-regulation of POT1, as all methylation sites were demethylated after the treatment of 21NT cells with 5-aza-CdR. These studies also showed for the first time that both the short-term (72 hours) and 3 weeks treatment of 21NT cells with 5-aza-CdR was able to increase telomere lengths (using four measurement methods, i.e. TRF, q-PCR, flow-FISH and iQFISH). Breast cancer cell lines expressed low levels of several telosomal mRNAs and that this down-regulation was found to be due in part to promoter methylation. Methylation was shown to be relieved through treatment of the cells with 5-aza-CdR and TSA; specifically, POT1 was shown to be up-regulated to a higher extent compared with other Shelterin genes. Given that previous studies involved over-expression of POT1 in telomerase-positive cells to demonstrate telomere length elongation, we addressed the possibility that over-expression of POT1 may affect telomere length in 21NT breast cancer cells. The results showed that the average telomere length of the POT1 over-expressing clones was increased by 2 to 3 kb compared with 21NT non-transfected and empty vector controls. The study also demonstrated that increased telomere length (by ectopic over-expression of POT1) is not due to a direct effect of telomerase enzyme activity. One explanation for this could be that POT1 may induce a negative regulator of telomerase activity to maintain telomere length. Taken together, the results generated in this project suggest that POT1 may control a localised activation of telomerase enzyme at the telomere end, and regulate stability of the Shelterin complex
Corrigendum to “The association of food consumption and nutrient intake with endometriosis risk in Iranian women: A case-control study” [Int J Reprod BioMed 2019; 17: 661-670]
No full textThe authors have been informed of an error that occurred on page 661 in which the word “Iran” has been missed in the affiliation of the third author (Azadeh Mottaghi), which should be corrected as: “Research Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases, Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran”. On behalf of the author, the publisher wishes to apologize for this error. The online version of article has been updated on 15 November 2022 and can be found at https://doi.org/10.18502/ijrm.v17i9.5102
Spatial Integration and Asymmetric Price Transmission in Selected Iranian Chicken Markets
No full textThis study evaluates pattern of price adjustments in selected spatially separated chicken markets in Iran using weekly price data from 1998:17 to 2006:41 including 441 observations in total. The results of Tsay’s test suggest that threshold behavior characterize spatial price linkages among the selected markets that imply on using the threshold models. We use the multi-dimensional (two and three regime) threshold cointegration of TAR and M-TAR models. Our results confirm the different speed of adjustment in response to positive and negative shocks in every case. We also utilize impulse response function to investigate dynamic patterns of adjustments in response to shocks.Spatial Integration, Price Transmission, Threshold Autoregression, Chicken, International Relations/Trade, Marketing,
Unemployment insurance in Algeria : implications for a labor market in transition
No full textTo predict how Algeria's unemployment crisis will evolve, the author evaluates the Algerian unemployment insurance system's ability to finance itself, to affect employment decisions, and promote enterprise restructuring. The main conclusion is that industrial restructuring has serious and persistent implications for the labor market. In an environment where many equilibria are possible, there is a real danger of reaching a high unemployment equilibrium. The big-bang experience of structural adjustment in Central and Eastern Europe transition economies resulted in large-scale unemployment. Despite considerable restructuring progress, structural rigidities still exist in the labor market, and long-term unemployment has persisted. One advantage of the big-bang approach is adjustment speed, but the resulting unemployment may be too costly for Algeria's economy, especially if it persists. A more modern mixed bang approach would incorporate active employment measures to mitigate entrenched unemployment. The policies will maintain or enhance human capital through work, so idle workers don't lose their skills. Flex-time arrangements would help workers maintain an attachment to the labor force. However minor, such work would help workers avoid the traps of long-term unemployment. Two striking conclusions emerge from the Central and Eastern European experience: a) unemployment is not essential to enterprise restructuring and labor market adjustment;and b) growing long-term unemployment is self-fulfilling and results in higher and persistence unemployment. Although active employment measures are costly and have relatively low rates of return in the short run, they can be marginally effective as part of a long-term strategy.Health Economics&Finance,Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform
Corporate communication as a governance mechanism: A content analysis of corporate public disclosures
No full textCorporate communication efforts have mainly been viewed as a by-product of governmental regulations and board of directors’ oversight. In this paper, we examine the role of corporate communication as a stand-alone governance mechanism. We introduce a new business-related dictionary and conduct automated textual analysis of over 150,000 electronic documents filed by a sample of firms listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index from 1999 to the end of 2014. Our findings demonstrate the governing role of corporate communication by documenting the adverse market effects of deviations from the expected level of communication. Moreover, as a governance mechanism, corporate communication shows substitution/complementary relationships with other established governance mechanisms. In addition, we find a non-linear relationship between a firm’s communication efforts and its value and risk levels. Results are robust after controlling for major corporate events (M&A, spin-offs, financial distress and bankruptcy, and significant lawsuits). These findings contribute to corporate governance literature and the understanding of agency theory predictions of communications and disclosures’ economic effects
Corporate communication as a governance mechanism
No full textWe examine whether corporate communication is a stand-alone governance mechanism. Corporate communication is measured by length (to capture the amount), dictionary (to capture the informativeness), and communication index (to capture the diversity of disclosed information). Using content analysis technique on more than 150,000 filings of 98 Canadian firms from 1999 to 2014, we find that firms’ communication have governing powers. Our findings confirm substitution-complementary relationship between corporate communication and board size, independence, education, expertise, CEO duality, frequency of board meetings, gender diversity, institutional ownership, and product market competition. Moreover, we show that negative deviation from the expected transparency is associated with negative changes in Tobin’s Q, confirming the disciplinary role of corporate communications. We also find that communication has an inverted U-shaped association with Tobin’s Q, and a U-shaped association with firm’s risk, showing the non-linearity and existence of an optimum point in communications. Results are robust when controlling for corporate major events (M&A, Spin-offs, Financial distress and bankruptcy, and major lawsuits)
International capital flows : do short-term investment and direct investment differ?
No full textThe authors examine the behavior of four major components of international capital flows in 15 developing and industrial countries. Striking differences in the behavior of the component flows arise in general specifications that allow the flows to interact. For example, the behavior of international short-term investment appears to be sensitive to changes in all the other types of international capital flows, including direct investment, but direct investment appears to be insensitive to such changes. In finding that short-term investment appears to respond more dramatically to disturbances in other capital flows and in other countries than does direct investment, the authors provide empirical support for the conventional notion that short-term investment is"hot money"and direct investment is not.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Capital Markets and Capital Flows,Financial Intermediation,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Capital Flows
Cloud manufacturing with fuzzy inference system: A supply chain approach to post COVID-19 economy
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic shocked the managerial team with unprecedented fluctuations in supply, demand, and transportation of goods and services. The lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic proved the urgent need for agility and flexibility in response to similar future crises. This paper proposes a cloud manufacturing model as a clustered supply chain approach that incorporates fuzzy inference systems to provide a platform for the post-COVID-19-economy. Cloud manufacturing is a way to standardize and increase the system’s reliability, and a fuzzy inference system is suited to deal with highly uncertain circumstances. A fuzzy inference system is integrated into a cloud manufacturing model to incorporate uncertainties related to Time, Quality, Cost, Reliability, and Availability in finding the optimum supply chain of manufacturers and service centers. The model is illustrated via a simulation in the manufacturing context. The proposed approach provides a tool to address the uncertainties and disruptions resulting from wide-scale crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic
Control theory approach to determining premiums and coverage in relation to externalities associated with pension benefit guarantee insurance
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