On Merve Sancak's Institutions, Skills, Production Regimes and the Near Periphery, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022

A leading scholar on the political economy of skill formation, Kathleen Thelen once noted that focusing on vocational training may not be the ‘most scintillating’ topic for some social scientists (Thelen, 2004, p. xi). Sancak’s book begs to differ. This is a very timely contribution to existing debates, given the limited number of studies that problematize vocational education policies in the Global South. Importantly, the book provides a multilayered study of training systems in two emerging markets: Mexico and Turkey. These economies have built ever closer ties with the global value chains over the last few decades. Especially in the ambit of automobile production, the demand for skilled labor in both countries has increased. In response to these pressures, Sancak finds that a lack of coordinated public investment in vocational education in Mexico has led to sub-optimal growth performance while Turkey has built a system that is characterized by strong state involvement in skill formation, leading to an inclusive growth trajectory

On Merve Sancak's Institutions, Skills, Production Regimes and the Near Periphery, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022

A leading scholar on the political economy of skill formation, Kathleen Thelen once noted that focusing on vocational training may not be the ‘most scintillating’ topic for some social scientists (Thelen, 2004, p. xi). Sancak’s book begs to differ. This is a very timely contribution to existing debates, given the limited number of studies that problematize vocational education policies in the Global South. Importantly, the book provides a multilayered study of training systems in two emerging markets: Mexico and Turkey. These economies have built ever closer ties with the global value chains over the last few decades. Especially in the ambit of automobile production, the demand for skilled labor in both countries has increased. In response to these pressures, Sancak finds that a lack of coordinated public investment in vocational education in Mexico has led to sub-optimal growth performance while Turkey has built a system that is characterized by strong state involvement in skill formation, leading to an inclusive growth trajectory

Developing a scoring function for NMR structure-based assignments using machine learning

Determining the assignment of signals received from the ex- periments (peaks) to speci_c nuclei of the target molecule in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR1) spectroscopy is an important challenge. Nuclear Vector Replacement (NVR) ([2, 3]) is a framework for structure- based assignments which combines multiple types of NMR data such as chemical shifts, residual dipolar couplings, and NOEs. NVR-BIP [1] is a tool which utilizes a scoring function with a binary integer programming (BIP) model to perform the assignments. In this paper, support vector machines (SVM) and boosting are employed to combine the terms in NVR-BIP's scoring function by viewing the assignment as a classi_ca- tion problem. The assignment accuracies obtained using this approach show that boosting improves the assignment accuracy of NVR-BIP on our data set when RDCs are not available and outperforms SVMs. With RDCs, boosting and SVMs o_er mixed results

Morphologic variation of the diaphragmatic crura: a correlation with pathologic processes of the esophageal hiatus?

The contributions of muscle fibers from the right and left diaphragmatic crura to the formation of the esophageal hiatus have been documented in several studies, none coming to a complete consensus on the number of anatomic variations or the prevalence of these variations in the human population. These variations may play a role in the pathogenicity of specific diseases that involve the esophageal hiatus, such as hiatal hernias. We examined a total of two hundred adult cadavers during 2000-2007. The variations in the diaphragmatic crura, particularly their muscular contributions to the formation of the esophageal hiatus, were grossly examined and revealed a bilateral occurrence of diaphragmatic crura in all 200 specimens. The results of the various morphological patterns of circumferential muscle fibers forming the esophageal hiatus were classified into six groups. The most common type (Type I, 45%) formed the esophageal hiatus from muscular contributions arising solely from the right crus. In Type II (20%) the esophageal hiatus was formed by muscular contributions from the right and left crura. In Type III (15%), the right and left muscular contributions arose from the right crus with an additional band from the left crus. Type IV (10%) showed that the right and left muscular contributions arose from the right crus, with two additional (anterior and posterior) bands arising from the left crus. Type V (5%) demonstrated the contributions arising solely from the left crus. In Type VI (5%) the right and left contributions originated from the left crus with two additional bands, one from the right crus and one from the left crus. These variations may play a role in the pathogenicity of specific diseases that involve the esophageal hiatus such as hiatal hernia, gastroesophageal reflux disease and Dunbar’s syndrome

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α gene polymorphisms and cancer risk: a meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The results from the published studies on the association between <it>hypoxia-inducible factor -1α </it>(HIF-1α) polymorphisms and cancer risk are conflicting. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to investigate the association between <it>HIF-1α </it>1772 C/T and 1790 G/A polymorphisms and cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The meta-analysis for 1772 C/T polymorphism included 4131 cancer cases and 5387 controls, and for 1790 G/A polymorphism included 2058 cancer cases and 3026 controls. Allelic and genotypic comparisons between cases and controls were evaluated. Subgroup analyses by cancer types, ethnicity, and gender were also performed. We included prostate cancer in male subgroup, and female specific cancers in female subgroup.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For the 1772 C/T polymorphism, the analysis showed that the T allele and genotype TT were significantly associated with higher cancer risk: odds ratio (OR) = 1.29 [95% confidence interval (CI, 1.01, 1.65)], P = 0.04, P_{heterogeneity}< 0.00001, and OR = 2.18 [95% CI (1.32, 3.62)], P = 0.003, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, respectively. The effect of the genotype TT on cancer especially exists in Caucasians and female subjects: OR = 2.40 [95% CI (1.26, 4.59)], P = 0.008, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, and OR = 3.60 [95% CI (1.17, 11.11)], P = 0.03, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.02, respectively. For the 1790 G/A polymorphism, the pooled ORs for allelic frequency comparison and dominant model comparison suggested a significant association of 1790 G/A polymorphism with a decreased breast cancer risk: OR = 0.28 [95% CI (0.08, 0.90)], P = 0.03, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.45, and OR = 0.29 [95% CI (0.09, 0.97)], P = 0.04, P_{heterogeneity}= 0.41, respectively. The frequency of the <it>HIF-1α </it>1790 A allele was very low and only two studies were included in the breast cancer subgroup.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our meta-analysis suggests that the <it>HIF-1α </it>1772 C/T polymorphism is significantly associated with higher cancer risk, and 1790 G/A polymorphism is significantly associated with decreased breast cancer risk. The effect of the 1772 C/T polymorphism on cancer especially exists in Caucasians and female subjects. Only female specific cancers were included in female subgroup, which indicates that the 1772 C/T polymorphism is significantly associated with an increased risk for female specific cancers. The association between the 1790 G/A polymorphism and lower breast cancer risk could be due to chance.</p

Relativistic K shell decay rates and fluorescence yields for Zn, Cd and Hg

In this work we use the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method to calculate the transition probabilities for all possible decay channels, radiative and radiationless, of a K shell vacancy in Zn, Cd and Hg atoms. The obtained transition probabilities are then used to calculate the corresponding fluorescence yields which are compared to existing theoretical, semi-empirical and experimental results

Anatomical classification of the shape and topography of the stomach

The aim of the study was to present the classification of anatomical variations of the stomach, based on the radiological and historical data. In years 2006–2010, 2,034 examinations of the upper digestive tract were performed. Normal stomach anatomy or different variations of the organ shape and/or topography without any organic radiologically detectable gastric lesions were revealed in 568 and 821 cases, respectively. Five primary groups were established: abnormal position along longitudinal (I) and horizontal axis (II), as well as abnormal shape (III) and stomach connections (IV) or mixed forms (V). The first group contains abnormalities most commonly observed among examined patients such as stomach rotation and translocation to the chest cavity, including sliding, paraesophageal, mixed-form and upside-down hiatal diaphragmatic hernias, as well as short esophagus, and the other diaphragmatic hernias, that were not found in the evaluated population. The second group includes the stomach cascade. The third and fourth groups comprise developmental variations and organ malformations that were not observed in evaluated patients. The last group (V) encloses mixed forms that connect two or more previous variations

Effects of Salt Stress on Three Ecologically Distinct Plantago Species

Comparative studies on the responses to salt stress of taxonomically related taxa should help to elucidate relevant mechanisms of stress tolerance in plants. We have applied this strategy to three Plantago species adapted to different natural habitats, P. crassifolia and P. coronopus both halophytes and P. major, considered as salt-sensitive since it is never found in natural saline habitats. Growth inhibition measurements in controlled salt treatments indicated, however, that P. major is quite resistant to salt stress, although less than its halophytic congeners. The contents of monovalent ions and specific osmolytes were determined in plant leaves after four-week salt treatments. Salt-treated plants of the three taxa accumulated Na+ and Cl- in response to increasing external NaCl concentrations, to a lesser extent in P. major than in the halophytes; the latter species also showed higher ion contents in the non-stressed plants. In the halophytes, K+ concentration decreased at moderate salinity levels, to increase again under high salt conditions, whereas in P. major K+ contents were reduced only above 400 mM NaCl. Sorbitol contents augmented in all plants, roughly in parallel with increasing salinity, but the relative increments and the absolute values reached did not differ much in the three taxa. On the contrary, a strong (relative) accumulation of proline in response to high salt concentrations (600 800 mM NaCl) was observed in the halophytes, but not in P. major. These results indicate that the responses to salt stress triggered specifically in the halophytes, and therefore the most relevant for tolerance in the genus Plantago are: a higher efficiency in the transport of toxic ions to the leaves, the capacity to use inorganic ions as osmotica, even under low salinity conditions, and the activation, in response to very high salt concentrations, of proline accumulation and K+ transport to the leaves of the plants.MAH was a recipient of an Erasmus Mundus pre-doctoral scholarship financed by the European Commission (Welcome Consortium). AP acknowledges the Erasmus mobility programme for funding her stay in Valencia to carry out her Master Thesis.Al Hassan, M.; Pacurar, AM.; López Gresa, MP.; Donat Torres, MDP.; Llinares Palacios, JV.; Boscaiu Neagu, MT.; Vicente Meana, Ó. (2016). Effects of Salt Stress on Three Ecologically Distinct Plantago Species. PLoS ONE. 11(8):1-21. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160236S12111

The Free Energy Landscape of Small Molecule Unbinding

The spontaneous dissociation of six small ligands from the active site of FKBP (the FK506 binding protein) is investigated by explicit water molecular dynamics simulations and network analysis. The ligands have between four (dimethylsulphoxide) and eleven (5-diethylamino-2-pentanone) non-hydrogen atoms, and an affinity for FKBP ranging from 20 to 0.2 mM. The conformations of the FKBP/ligand complex saved along multiple trajectories (50 runs at 310 K for each ligand) are grouped according to a set of intermolecular distances into nodes of a network, and the direct transitions between them are the links. The network analysis reveals that the bound state consists of several subbasins, i.e., binding modes characterized by distinct intermolecular hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic contacts. The dissociation kinetics show a simple (i.e., single-exponential) time dependence because the unbinding barrier is much higher than the barriers between subbasins in the bound state. The unbinding transition state is made up of heterogeneous positions and orientations of the ligand in the FKBP active site, which correspond to multiple pathways of dissociation. For the six small ligands of FKBP, the weaker the binding affinity the closer to the bound state (along the intermolecular distance) are the transition state structures, which is a new manifestation of Hammond behavior. Experimental approaches to the study of fragment binding to proteins have limitations in temporal and spatial resolution. Our network analysis of the unbinding simulations of small inhibitors from an enzyme paints a clear picture of the free energy landscape (both thermodynamics and kinetics) of ligand unbinding