Inducible cytochrome P450 activities in renal glomerular mesangial cells: biochemical basis for antagonistic interactions among nephrocarcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

BACKGROUND: Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), anthracene (ANTH) and chrysene (CHRY) are polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) implicated in renal toxicity and carcinogenesis. These PAHs elicit cell type-specific effects that help predict toxicity outcomes in vitro and in vivo. While BaP and ANTH selectively injure glomerular mesangial cells, and CHRY targets cortico-tubular epithelial cells, binary or ternary mixtures of these hydrocarbons markedly reduce the overall cytotoxic potential of individual hydrocarbons. METHODS: To study the biochemical basis of these antagonistic interactions, renal glomerular mesangial cells were challenged with BaP alone (0.03 – 30 μM) or in the presence of ANTH (3 μM) or CHRY (3 μM) for 24 hr. Total RNA and protein will be harvested for Northern analysis and measurements of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) and ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity, respectively, to evaluate cytochrome P450 mRNA and protein inducibility. Cellular hydrocarbon uptake and metabolic profiles of PAHs were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). RESULTS: Combined hydrocarbon treatments did not influence the cellular uptake of individual hydrocarbons. ANTH or CHRY strongly repressed BaP-inducible cytochrome P450 mRNA and protein expression, and markedly inhibited oxidative BaP metabolism. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that antagonistic interactions among nephrocarcinogenic PAHs involve altered expression of cytochrome P450s that modulate bioactivation profiles and nephrotoxic/ nephrocarcinogenic potential

Cultural intelligence and conflict management styles

Purpose –Negotiating effectively in multicultural contexts or others is not only a very important skill for all organizational elements, but it is also crucial to interorganizational relations (e.g., Adler, 2008). If defined as a process that occurs when one party feels adversely affected by another (e.g., De Dreu, 1997) conflict management styles can be analysed as a function of personality variables. In this respect cultural intelligence and self-monitoring appear to be relevant variables, as they are characterised by the demonstration of flexibility and interest in elements that are present in conflict management styles. In this study the intention was to evaluate the extent to which variables such as cultural intelligence and self-monitoring can positively influence the ability to solve interpersonal conflicts more effectively. Design/methodology/approach – This study, with a sample of 399 individuals, aimed to test a model that explores how cultural intelligence and self-monitoring are related as predictor variables in the styles of conflict resolution. Findings – It was observed that cultural intelligence presents itself as a reasonable predictor of conflict management styles while self-monitoring appeared as a dispositional and controversial measure in relation to those styles. Self-monitoring exhibited itself as an important predictor of conflict management, but on the other hand it had an influence on the choice of the dominating style in conflict situations. Practical implications – To understand the predictors of conflict management style and in particular to realize the extent to which cultural intelligence promotes a more effective conflict management style can help in the development of selection processes and skill training programs. The development of these multicultural skills will contribute to individual, social and organizational well-being. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature of individual differences and conflict management, demonstrating that some individual differences that predict the styles of conflict management can lead to a certain ambiguity in understanding the behaviour that an individual may adopt in situations of conflict

Intellectual disability, coarse face, relative macrocephaly, and cerebellar hypotrophy in two sisters

We report on two Portuguese sisters with a very similar phenotype characterized by severe intellectual disability, absent speech, relative macrocephaly, coarse face, cerebellar hypotrophy, and severe ataxia. Additional common features include increased thickness of the cranial vault, delayed dental eruption, talipes equino-varus, clinodactyly, and camptodactyly of the fifth finger. The older sister has retinal dystrophy and the younger sister has short stature. Their parents are consanguineous. We suggest this condition constitutes a previously unreported autosomal recessive entity

Conformal higher-order viscoelastic fluid mechanics

We present a generally covariant formulation of conformal higher-order viscoelastic fluid mechanics with strain allowed to take arbitrarily large values. We give a general prescription to determine the dynamics of a relativistic viscoelastic fluid in a way consistent with the hypothesis of local thermodynamic equilibrium and the second law of thermodynamics. We then elaborately study the transient time scales at which the strain almost relaxes and becomes proportional to the gradients of velocity. We particularly show that a conformal second-order fluid with all possible parameters in the constitutive equations can be obtained without breaking the hypothesis of local thermodynamic equilibrium, if the conformal fluid is defined as the long time limit of a conformal second-order viscoelastic system. We also discuss how local thermodynamic equilibrium could be understood in the context of the fluid/gravity correspondence.Comment: 26 pages; v2: minor corrections; v3: minor corrections, to appear in JHE

Heavy quark flavour dependence of multiparticle production in QCD jets

After inserting the heavy quark mass dependence into QCD partonic evolution equations, we determine the mean charged hadron multiplicity and second multiplicity correlators of jets produced in high energy collisions. We thereby extend the so-called dead cone effect to the phenomenology of multiparticle production in QCD jets and find that the average multiplicity of heavy-quark initiated jets decreases significantly as compared to the massless case, even taking into account the weak decay products of the leading primary quark. We emphasize the relevance of our study as a complementary check of $b$-tagging techniques at hadron colliders like the Tevatron and the LHC.Comment: Version revised, accepted for publication in JHEP, 21 pages and 7 figure

Do mutual funds have consistency in their performance?

Using a comprehensive data set of 714 Chinese mutual funds from 2004 to 2015, the study investigates these funds’ performance persistence by using the Capital Asset Pricing model, the Fama-French three-factor model and the Carhart Four-factor model. For persistence analysis, we categorize mutual funds into eight octiles based on their one year lagged performance and then observe their performance for the subsequent 12 months. We also apply Cross-Product Ratio technique to assess the performance persistence in these Chinese funds. The study finds no significant evidence of persis- tence in the performance of the mutual funds. Winner (loser) funds do not continue to be winner (loser) funds in the subsequent time period. These findings suggest that future performance of funds cannot be predicted based on their past performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of intra- and interspecific divergence of satellite DNA sequences by nucleotide frequency calculation and pairwise sequence comparison

Satellite DNA sequences are known to be highly variable and to have been subjected to concerted evolution that homogenizes member sequences within species. We have analyzed the mode of evolution of satellite DNA sequences in four fishes from the genus Diplodus by calculating the nucleotide frequency of the sequence array and the phylogenetic distances between member sequences. Calculation of nucleotide frequency and pairwise sequence comparison enabled us to characterize the divergence among member sequences in this satellite DNA family. The results suggest that the evolutionary rate of satellite DNA in D. bellottii is about two-fold greater than the average of the other three fishes, and that the sequence homogenization event occurred in D. puntazzo more recently than in the others. The procedures described here are effective to characterize mode of evolution of satellite DNA