Evaluating IMATU and SAMWU policy responses to Igoli 2002

Abstract The restructuring of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC) under the plan iGoli 2002 was part of the broader restructuring initiatives of the economy and social institutions in South Africa after the advent of democracy. Johannesburg is particularly important for any study that examines local government, not only due to its socioeconomic and cultural prominence but also because the plan represented a test case for the restructuring of the local government fraternity. The report examines the restructuring plan in the context of South Africa’s development trajectory since the country was ushered into a democracy. The report examines not only what the iGoli 2002 plan represents in development terms, but organised labour’s policy responses to the changes that were imminent in Johannesburg

Automatic Milking Systems in the Production of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese: Effects on the Milk Quality and on Cheese Characteristics

The adoption of innovative processes, such as the automatic milking system (AMS), in the production of typical PDO cheeses, such as Parmigiano Reggiano, needs to be evaluated and tested, to verify its influence on milk quality and the typicality of the product. The present research was aimed to study the effect of the introduction of the AMS on the cheesemaking characteristics of the milk and the ripening process and the sensory properties of the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese. Six cheesemaking trials were performed and, in each trial, two different separated pools of milk were submitted to the cheesemaking process in parallel, one from AMS and the other from a traditional milking parlor (TMP). AMS milk, in comparison with TMP one, showed higher content of lactose and calcium and lower contents of somatic cells, thermophilic lactic acid bacteria and chloride. Nevertheless, these changes were too small to influence the efficiency of the cheesemaking process and the cheese composition and its sensory profile. Moreover, cheeses made with AMS milk fully complied with the sensory characteristics of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese PDO, as defined by the PDO rules

Tribbles 3 Mediates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Induced Insulin Resistance in Skeletal Muscle

Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress has been linked to insulin resistance in multiple tissues but the role of ER stress in skeletal muscle has not been explored. ER stress has also been reported to increase tribbles 3 (TRB3) expression in multiple cell lines. Here, we report that high fat feeding in mice, and obesity and type 2 diabetes in humans significantly increases TRB3 and ER stress markers in skeletal muscle. Overexpression of TRB3 in C2C12 myotubes and mouse tibialis anterior muscles significantly impairs insulin signaling. Incubation of C2C12 cells and mouse skeletal muscle with ER stressors thapsigargin and tunicamycin increases TRB3 and impairs insulin signaling and glucose uptake, effects reversed in cells overexpressing RNAi for TRB3 and in muscles from TRB3 knockout mice. Furthermore, TRB3 knockout mice are protected from high fat diet-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. These data demonstrate that TRB3 mediates ER stress-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle

Developing fake news immunity: fallacies as misinformation triggers during the pandemic

Misinformation constitutes one of the main challenges to counter the infodemic: misleading news, even if not blatantly false, can cause harm especially in crisis scenarios such as the pandemic. Due to the fast proliferation of information across digital media, human fact-checkers struggle to keep up with fake news, while automatic factcheckers are not able to identify the grey area of misinformation. We, thus, propose to reverse engineer the manipulation of information offering citizens the means to become their own fact-checkers through digital literacy and critical thinking. Through a corpus analysis of fact-checked news about COVID-19, we identify 10 fallacies – arguments which seem valid but are not – that systematically trigger misinformation and offer a systematic procedure to identify them. Next to fallacies, we observe the types of sources associated to (mis-/dis-)information in our dataset as well as the type of claims making up the headlines. The observation of these three levels of analysis reveals a misinformation ecosystem where developing the audience’s digital literacy is necessary to guarantee fake news immunity

Combined acute hyperglycemic and hyperinsulinemic clamp induced profibrotic and proinflammatory responses in the kidney

Increase in matrix protein content in the kidney is a cardinal feature of diabetic kidney disease. While renal matrix protein content is increased by chronic hyperglycemia, whether it is regulated by acute elevation of glucose and insulin has not been addressed. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether short duration of combined hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, mimicking the metabolic environment of prediabetes and early type 2 diabetes, induces kidney injury. Normal rats were subjected to either saline infusion (control, n = 4) or 7 h of combined hyperglycemic- hyperinsulinemic clamp (HG+HI clamp; n = 6). During the clamp, plasma glucose and plasma insulin were maintained at about 350 mg/dl and 16 ng/ml, respectively. HG+HI clamp increased the expression of renal cortical transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and renal matrix proteins, laminin and fibronectin. This was associated with the activation of SMAD3, Akt, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complexes, and ERK signaling pathways and their downstream target events in the initiation and elongation phases of mRNA translation, an important step in protein synthesis. Additionally, HG+HI clamp provoked renal inflammation as shown by the activation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and infiltration of CD68-positive monocytes. Urinary F2t isoprostane excretion, an index of renal oxidant stress, was increased in the HG+HI clamp rats. We conclude that even a short duration of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia contributes to activation of pathways that regulate matrix protein synthesis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in the kidney. This finding could have implications for the control of short-term rises in blood glucose in diabetic individuals at risk of developing kidney disease. © 2014 the American Physiological Society

Prostate cancer radiogenomics—from imaging to molecular characterization

Radiomics and genomics represent two of the most promising fields of cancer research, designed to improve the risk stratification and disease management of patients with prostate cancer (PCa). Radiomics involves a conversion of imaging derivate quantitative features using manual or automated algorithms, enhancing existing data through mathematical analysis. This could increase the clinical value in PCa management. To extract features from imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the empiric nature of the analysis using machine learning and artificial intelligence could help make the best clinical decisions. Genomics information can be explained or decoded by radiomics. The development of methodologies can create more-efficient predictive models and can better characterize the molecular features of PCa. Additionally, the identification of new imaging biomarkers can overcome the known heterogeneity of PCa, by non-invasive radio-logical assessment of the whole specific organ. In the future, the validation of recent findings, in large, randomized cohorts of PCa patients, can establish the role of radiogenomics. Briefly, we aimed to review the current literature of highly quantitative and qualitative results from well-de-signed studies for the diagnoses, treatment, and follow-up of prostate cancer, based on radiomics, genomics and radiogenomics research

Elevated Toll-Like Receptor 4 Expression and Signaling in Muscle From Insulin-Resistant Subjects

OBJECTIVE— Tall-like receptor (TLR)4 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of free fatty acid (FFA)-induced insulin resistance by activating inflammatory pathways, including inhibitor of κB (IκB)/nuclear factor κB (NFκB). However, it is not known whether insulin-resistant subjects have abnormal TLR4 signaling. We examined whether insulin-resistant subjects have abnormal TLR4 expression and TLR4-driven (IκB/NFκB) signaling in skeletal muscle

Genetic disruption of sod1 gene causes glucose intolerance and impairs b-cell function

Oxidative stress has been associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. However, it is not clear whether oxidative damage is a cause or a consequence of the metabolic abnormalities present in diabetic subjects. The goal of this study was to determine whether inducing oxidative damage through genetic ablation of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) leads to abnormalities in glucose homeostasis. We studied SOD1-null mice and wild-type (WT) littermates. Glucose tolerance was evaluated with intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests. Peripheral and hepatic insulin sensitivity was quantitated with the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp. b-Cell function was determined with the hyperglycemic clamp and morphometric analysis of pancreatic islets. Genetic ablation of SOD1 caused glucose intolerance, which was associated with reduced in vivo b-cell insulin secretion and decreased b-cell volume. Peripheral and hepatic insulin sensitivity were not significantly altered in SOD1-null mice. High-fat diet caused glucose intolerance in WT mice but did not further worsen the glucose intolerance observed in standard chow-fed SOD1-null mice. Our findings suggest that oxidative stress per se does not play a major role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and demonstrate that oxidative stress caused by SOD1 ablation leads to glucose intolerance secondary to b-cell dysfunction. © 2013 by the American Diabetes Association

Prostate Health Index (Phi) and Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) Significantly Improve Prostate Cancer Detection at Initial Biopsy in a Total PSA Range of 2-10 ng/ml

Many efforts to reduce prostate specific antigen (PSA) overdiagnosis and overtreatment have been made. To this aim, Prostate Health Index (Phi) and Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) have been proposed as new more specific biomarkers. We evaluated the ability of phi and PCA3 to identify prostate cancer (PCa) at initial prostate biopsy in men with total PSA range of 2-10 ng/ml. The performance of phi and PCA3 were evaluated in 300 patients undergoing first prostate biopsy. ROC curve analyses tested the accuracy (AUC) of phi and PCA3 in predicting PCa. Decision curve analyses (DCA) were used to compare the clinical benefit of the two biomarkers. We found that the AUC value of phi (0.77) was comparable to those of %p2PSA (0.76) and PCA3 (0.73) with no significant differences in pairwise comparison (%p2PSA vs phi p = 0.673, %p2PSA vs. PCA3 p = 0.417 and phi vs. PCA3 p = 0.247). These three biomarkers significantly outperformed fPSA (AUC = 0.60), %fPSA (AUC = 0.62) and p2PSA (AUC = 0.63). At DCA, phi and PCA3 exhibited a very close net benefit profile until the threshold probability of 25%, then phi index showed higher net benefit than PCA3. Multivariable analysis showed that the addition of phi and PCA3 to the base multivariable model (age, PSA, %fPSA, DRE, prostate volume) increased predictive accuracy, whereas no model improved single biomarker performance. Finally we showed that subjects with active surveillance (AS) compatible cancer had significantly lower phi and PCA3 values (p < 0.001 and p = 0.01, respectively). In conclusion, both phi and PCA3 comparably increase the accuracy in predicting the presence of PCa in total PSA range 2-10 ng/ml at initial biopsy, outperforming currently used %fPSA