Transcriptional Regulation of Glucose Sensors in Pancreatic β-Cells and Liver: An Update

Pancreatic β-cells and the liver play a key role in glucose homeostasis. After a meal or in a state of hyperglycemia, glucose is transported into the β-cells or hepatocytes where it is metabolized. In the β-cells, glucose is metabolized to increase the ATP:ADP ratio, resulting in the secretion of insulin stored in the vesicle. In the hepatocytes, glucose is metabolized to CO2, fatty acids or stored as glycogen. In these cells, solute carrier family 2 (SLC2A2) and glucokinase play a key role in sensing and uptaking glucose. Dysfunction of these proteins results in the hyperglycemia which is one of the characteristics of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Thus, studies on the molecular mechanisms of their transcriptional regulations are important in understanding pathogenesis and combating T2DM. In this paper, we will review a recent update on the progress of gene regulation of glucose sensors in the liver and β-cells

Enhancing organisational competitiveness via social media - a strategy as practice perspective

The affordances, popularity and pervasive use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have made these platforms attractive to organisations for enhancing their competitiveness and creating business value. Despite this apparent significance of social media for businesses, they are struggling with the development of a social media strategy as well as understanding the implications of social media on practice within their organisations. This paper explores how social media has become a tool for competitiveness and its influence on organisational strategy and practice. Using the 'strategy as practice' lens and guided by the interpretivist philosophy, this paper uses the empirical case of a telecom organisation in Tanzania. The findings show that social media is influencing competitiveness through imitation and product development. Also, the findings indicate how social media affects the practices within an organisation, consequently making the social media strategy an emergent phenomenon

Does corporate reputation matter? Role of social media in consumer intention to purchase innovative food product

The exponential growth of the corporate reputation in food industry has resulted in innovations in every link of its supply chain. There have been studies that have characterized innovation in various industries from the perspective of technology, but far fewer in the area of corporate reputation, consumer perception, and intention towards innovations in food products. This research analyses the innovations in the food industry from the perspective of the consumer and provides a conceptual framework of food innovation stages. The study also investigates the relationship between corporate reputation and intention towards food innovation along with the other components of TPB model with an extension of social media engagement. The results from India and US samples confirm that social media engagement have a significant role to play in creating intention to purchase innovative food products. The study compares the US and Indian samples and identifies differences in subjective norms and perceived behavioural control

Orbital controls and high-resolution cyclostratigraphy of Late Jurassic Early-Cretaceous in the Neuquén Basin

Detailed cyclostratigraphic analyses have been made from seven Tithonian–Hauterivian sections of the Vaca Muerta and Agrio Formations, exposed in southern Mendoza area of the Neuquén Basin. Both lithostratigraphic units are characterized by decimeter-scale rhythmic alternations of marlstones and limestones, showing a well-ordered hierarchy of cycles, including elementary cycles, bundles, and superbundles. According to biostratigraphic data, elementary cycles have a periodicity of ~18–21 ky, which correlates with the precessional cycle of the Earth’s axis. Spectral analysis based on time series of elementary cycle thicknesses allowed us to identify frequencies of ~400 ky, and ~90–120 ky, which we interpret as the modulation of the precessional cycle by the Earth’s orbital eccentricity. A third band frequency of ~40 ky was also identified that can be assigned to the obliquity cycle. Cyclostratigraphy enabled the construction of almost continuous floating astronomical time scale for the Tithonian–Hauterivian, for which a minimum duration of 5.67 myr for the Tithonian, 5.27 myr for the Berriasian, >3.45 myr for the Valanginian, and 5.96 myr for the Hauterivian have been assessed. Additionally, the likely transference mechanisms of the orbital signal to the sedimentary record are analyzed, proposing the coexistence of carbonate exportation and dilution as the dominant mechanisms.Fil: Kietzmann, Diego Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Iglesia Llanos, Maria Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Kohan Martinez, Melisa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Magnetostratigraphy of the Jurassic through Lower Cretaceous in the Neuquén Basin

The first magnetostratigraphic scales for the Jurassic through Early Cretaceous from the Southern Hemisphere have been constructed over the last decades from marine sections in the Neuquén Basin. Paleomagnetic sites were tied to ammonite zones in order to achieve well-refined ages of studied sections. Diverse field tests for the paleomagnetic stability proved the primary origin of isolated magnetizations. In the case of Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous studies, magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data were combined with cyclostratigraphy. Finally, polarities were tied to Andean ammonite zones and from their correlation with the standard zones, calibrated to the GTS2016 (Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale 2016). For the Early Jurassic, a composite magnetostratigraphic scale was derived out of five sections spanning the Hettangian–Toarcian. The magnetostratigraphic scale portrays 16 reverse (Jr1–Jr16) and 16 normal (Jn1–Jn16) polarity zones that encompass at least 19 ammonite zones. A major difference between both scales rises in the Hettangian involving the Jr1–Jr3 polarity zones. For the Middle Jurassic, the resultant magnetostratigraphy obtained in the Lajas Formation outlines a dominantly reverse polarity pattern. According to the correlation with the GTS2016, the studied section is assigned to the Lower-uppermost Middle Bathonian (Chrons M41 through M39). For the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, the magnetostratigraphic scale obtained in the Vaca Muerta Formation comprises Subchrons M22r.2r through M15r, spanning the V. andesensis (Lower Tithonian)–S. damesi Zones (Upper Berriasian). The use of diverse chronostratigraphic tools such as biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy, enabled to determine with unprecedented precision the position of the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, as well as to assess durations of ammonite zonesFil: Iglesia Llanos, Maria Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas; ArgentinaFil: Kietzmann, Diego Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas; Argentin

Tectonic Setting of the Tordillo Formation in the Aconcagua Fold-and-Thrust Belt

At the northwestern Mendoza province, the Mesozoic infill of the Neuquén Basin is tectonically repeated in the Aconcagua fold-and-thrust belt. Particularly, the Tordillo Formation (commonly associated with the Kimmeridgian) represents a local low stand period of sea level, with mainly alluvial and fluvial sediments. Toward the western sector of the belt, it interfingers with volcanic and volcaniclastic materials and presents a marked increase in the thickness. This unit was studied in two localities at the Blanco River valley, at the undeformed sector and over the second thrust that produces a second repetition of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sequences in the Aconcagua fold-and-thrust belt. This transect exposes facies variations and a significant increase in thickness to the west. Additionally, provenance analysis and paleocurrent directions indicate that the sediment supply was located to the E-SE, and that the underlying units were exhumed at the time of deposition of the Late Jurassic red beds. A consistent thickness increment of the Upper Jurassic deposits to the west through the Aconcagua fold-and-thrust belt suggests that sedimentation was controlled by NNW-directed structures. This is also supported by facies analyses that demonstrate high topographic breaks affecting a smooth westdipping fluvial ramp toward the volcanic arc. These features support an extensional setting for the deposition of the Tordillo Formation at the latitudes of the Aconcagua fold-and-thrust belt, as other authors have proposed for the Malargüe fold-and-thrust belt to the south. Plate tectonic reconstructions suggest trench rollback during this time previous to the westward migration of the South American plate, which is consistent with the back-arc extension proposed in the previous works.Fil: Acevedo, Eliana Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Rosselot, Eduardo Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Martos, Federico Exequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Fennell, Lucas Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Naipauer, Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geocronología y Geología Isotópica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geocronología y Geología Isotópica; ArgentinaFil: Folguera Telichevsky, Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; Argentin