Stochastic modelling of air pollution impacts on respiratory infection risk

The impact of air pollution on people’s health and daily activities in China has recently aroused much attention. By using stochastic differential equations, variation in a 6 year long time series of air quality index (AQI) data, gathered from air quality monitoring sites in Xi’an from 15 November 2010 to 14 November 2016 was studied. Every year the extent of air pollution shifts from being serious to not so serious due to alterations in heat production systems. The distribution of such changes can be predicted by a Bayesian approach and the Gibbs sampler algorithm. The intervals between changes in a sequence indicate when the air pollution becomes increasingly serious. Also, the inflow rate of pollutants during the main pollution periods each year has an increasing trend. This study used a stochastic SEIS model associated with the AQI to explore the impact of air pollution on respiratory infections. Good fits to both the AQI data and the numbers of influenza-like illness cases were obtained by stochastic numerical simulation of the model. Based on the model’s dynamics, the AQI time series and the daily number of respiratory infection cases under various government intervention measures and human protection strategies were forecasted. The AQI data in the last 15 months verified that government interventions on vehicles are effective in controlling air pollution, thus providing numerical support for policy formulation to address the haze crisis

ASEAN after the financial crisis

Using data gathered directly from Japanese, European and U.S. firms with investments throughout ASEAN, this article shows that multinational firms uniformly anticipated Asian crisis-induced reforms that would beneficially affect overall investment environments. It also demonstrates significant correlations between reform expectations and anticipated improvements in the ASEAN investment environment. Differences between Japanese and European/ U.S. firms are highlighted, and the article concludes that reforms should be progressed as fully and swiftly as possible to safeguard FDI flows and thereby help to ensure that recovery is sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of ASEAN Economic Bulletin is the property of Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.

The relative contribution of CHK1 and CHK2 to Adriamycin-induced checkpoint

Topoisomerase II poisons like Adriamycin (ADR, doxorubicin) are clinically important chemotherapeutic agents. Adriamycin-induced DNA damage checkpoint activates ATM and ATR, which could in turn inhibit the cell cycle engine through either CHK1 or CHK2. In this study, we characterized whether CHK1 or CHK2 is required for Adriamycin-induced checkpoint. We found that both CHK1 and CHK2 were phosphorylated after Adriamycin treatment. Several lines of evidence from dominant-negative mutants, short hairpin RNA (shRNA), and knockout cells indicated that CHK1, but not CHK2, is critical for Adriamycin-induced cell cycle arrest. Disruption of CHK1 function bypassed the checkpoint, as manifested by the increase in CDC25A, activation of CDC2, increase in histone H3 phosphorylation, and reduction in cell survival after Adriamycin treatment. In contrast, CHK2 is dispensable for Adriamycin-induced responses. Finally, we found that CHK1 was upregulated in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), albeit as an inactive form. The presence of a stockpile of dormant CHK1 in cancer cells may have important implications for treatments like topoisomerase II poisons. Collectively, the available data underscore the pivotal role of CHK1 in checkpoint responses to a variety of stresses. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

PARP1 is overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its inhibition enhances radiotherapy

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare but highly invasive cancer. As options of agents for effectivecombination chemoradiotherapy for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma are limited, novel therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. The ubiquitin ligase CHFR is known to target PARP1 for degradation and is epigenetically inactivated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We present evidence that PARP1 protein is indeed overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells in comparison with immortalized normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. Tissue microarray analysis also indicated thatPARP1protein is significantly elevated in primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues, with strong correlation with all stages of nasopharyngeal carcinoma development. We found that the PARP inhibitor AZD2281 (olaparib) increased DNA damage, cell-cycle arrest, and apoptosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells challenged with ionizing radiation or temozolomide. Isobologram analysis confirmed that the cytotoxicity triggered by AZD2281 and DNAdamaging agents was synergistic. Finally, AZD2281 also enhanced the tumor-inhibitory effects of ionizing radiation in animal xenograft models. These observations implicate that PARP1 overexpression is an early event in nasopharyngeal carcinoma development and provide a molecular basis of using PARP inhibitors to potentiate treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with radio- and chemotherapy. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(11); 2517-28. © 2013 AACR

Economics, Marketing and Performances of U.S. Classical Music: journeyin’ together to de promise land

Since the beginning of the latest financial and real crisis in 2008, USA symphony orchestras and opera houses have revealed adaptation to the turmoil of scarce resources and a very keen competition (Jeannotte, Duxbury, 2015; Turbide, Laurin, Lapierre, Morissette, 2008). Adaptation has had multiple implications: implementation of websites and social media as innovative tools for audience exploration and development (Pierotti, Risaliti, Cestari, 2014; Ravanas, 2008); revenue diversification and performance measurement (Hong, 2014; Besana, 2012;); community engagement together with testing of new segments like tourists (Kemp, Poole, 2016; Guachalla, 2012; Woosnam, McElroy, Van Winkle, 2009; Poon, Lai, 2008). Marketing, and especially social media marketing, has had a crucial new role and enhanced “interactive online world in which participants with different interests, resources and power co-create value” (Kornum, Mühlbacher, 2013). Marketing and fundraising have extracted both willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-donate from audiences, while audiences have been spending more time than ever using social media, and the U.S. classical music has been striving to use social media and to reach, engage, catch and hold the millions of consumers who use it daily, tourists included (Parsons, 2011). Marketing has called for e-commerce of audiences; fundraising has called for s-commerce of philanthropists. After analysing the new marketing scenario and pointing out social media marketing strategies of U.S. classical music, this paper investigates 100 symphony orchestras and 100 opera houses according to their revenues, expenses and gains (or losses) in 2015. Thanks to cluster analysis, three groups will emerge with different performances and prevailing fundraising