Consequences Of On-Track Competition In Railways By Use Of Simulations

Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

HIV Risk Behavior Self-Report Reliability at Different Recall Periods

Few studies have investigated the optimal length of recall period for self-report of sex and drug-use behaviors. This meta-analysis of 28 studies examined the test-retest reliability of three commonly used recall periods: 1, 3, and 6 months. All three recall periods demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability, with the exception of recall of needle sharing behaviors and 6-months recall of some sex behaviors. For most sex behaviors, a recall period of 3 months was found to produce the most reliable data; however, 6 months was best for recalling number of sex partners. Overall, shorter periods were found to be more reliable for recall of drug-use behaviors, though the most reliable length of recall period varied for different types of drugs. Implications of the findings and future directions for research are discussed

Oncogenic Stress Induced by Acute Hyper-Activation of Bcr-Abl Leads to Cell Death upon Induction of Excessive Aerobic Glycolysis

In response to deregulated oncogene activation, mammalian cells activate disposal programs such as programmed cell death. To investigate the mechanisms behind this oncogenic stress response we used Bcr-Abl over-expressing cells cultivated in presence of imatinib. Imatinib deprivation led to rapid induction of Bcr-Abl activity and over-stimulation of PI3K/Akt-, Ras/MAPK-, and JAK/STAT pathways. This resulted in a delayed necrosis-like cell death starting not before 48 hours after imatinib withdrawal. Cell death was preceded by enhanced glycolysis, glutaminolysis, and amino acid metabolism leading to elevated ATP and protein levels. This enhanced metabolism could be linked to induction of cell death as inhibition of glycolysis or glutaminolysis was sufficient to sustain cell viability. Therefore, these data provide first evidence that metabolic changes induced by Bcr-Abl hyper-activation are important mediators of oncogenic stress-induced cell death

Interaction for Immersive Analytics

International audienceIn this chapter, we briefly review the development of natural user interfaces and discuss their role in providing human-computer interaction that is immersive in various ways. Then we examine some opportunities for how these technologies might be used to better support data analysis tasks. Specifically, we review and suggest some interaction design guidelines for immersive analytics. We also review some hardware setups for data visualization that are already archetypal. Finally, we look at some emerging system designs that suggest future directions

Non-affirmative Theory of Education as a Foundation for Curriculum Studies, Didaktik and Educational Leadership

This chapter presents non-affirmative theory of education as the foundation for a new research program in education, allowing us to bridge educational leadership, curriculum studies and Didaktik. We demonstrate the strengths of this framework by analyzing literature from educational leadership and curriculum theory/didaktik. In contrast to both socialization-oriented explanations locating curriculum and leadership within existing society, and transformation-oriented models viewing education as revolutionary or super-ordinate to society, non-affirmative theory explains the relation between education and politics, economy and culture, respectively, as non-hierarchical. Here critical deliberation and discursive practices mediate between politics, culture, economy and education, driven by individual agency in historically developed cultural and societal institutions. While transformative and socialization models typically result in instrumental notions of leadership and teaching, non-affirmative education theory, previously developed within German and Nordic education, instead views leadership and teaching as relational and hermeneutic, drawing on ontological core concepts of modern education: recognition; summoning to self-activity and Bildsamkeit. Understanding educational leadership, school development and teaching then requires a comparative multi-level approach informed by discursive institutionalism and organization theory, in addition to theorizing leadership and teaching as cultural-historical and critical-hermeneutic activity. Globalisation and contemporary challenges to deliberative democracy also call for rethinking modern nation-state based theorizing of education in a cosmopolitan light. Non-affirmative education theory allows us to understand and promote recognition based democratic citizenship (political, economical and cultural) that respects cultural, ethical and epistemological variations in a globopolitan era. We hope an American-European-Asian comparative dialogue is enhanced by theorizing education with a non-affirmative approach

Dominant negative effects of TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) receptor 4 on TRAIL receptor 1 signaling by formation of heteromeric complexes.

The cytokine tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and its cell membrane receptors constitute an elaborate signaling system fulfilling important functions in immune regulation and tumor surveillance. Activation of the death receptors TRAILR1 and TRAILR2 can lead to apoptosis, whereas TRAILR3 and TRAILR4 are generally referred to as decoy receptors, which have been shown to inhibit TRAIL-induced apoptosis. The underlying molecular mechanisms, however, remain unclear. Alike other members of the TNF receptor superfamily, TRAIL receptors contain a pre-ligand binding assembly domain (PLAD) mediating receptor oligomerization. Still, the stoichiometry of TRAIL receptor oligomers as well as the issue whether the PLAD mediates only homotypic or also heterotypic interactions, remained inconclusive until now. Performing acceptor-photobleaching FRET studies with TRAIL receptors 1, 2 and 4 we demonstrate interactions in all possible combinations. Formation of dimers is shown by chemical crosslinking experiments for homophilic and heterophilic interactions of these receptors. Implications of the demonstrated receptor-receptor interactions on signaling were investigated next. Both, apoptosis induction and activation of the transcription factor NFκB were significantly reduced in presence of TRAILR4. Our experimental data, highly consistent with results from a mathematical model, show that the inhibitory capacity of TRAILR4 is attributable to signaling-independent mechanisms, strongly suggesting a reduction of signaling-competent death receptors through formation of heteromeric receptor complexes. In summary, we propose a model of TRAIL receptor interference driven by PLAD-mediated formation of receptor heterodimers on the cell membrane