Social innovation, social enterprise, and local public services: undertaking transformation?

This article discusses some of the challenges encountered in embedding effective and sustainable social enterprise and social innovation within established political institutional systems to deliver local welfare services. It draws upon evidence analyzing social innovation and social enterprise in Scotland to contribute to the debate over whether social innovations and social enterprises are able to meet expectations in addressing the significant challenges faced by welfare systems. The article clarifies the meaning of both these contested concepts and explains how social innovation and social enterprise relate to similar ideas in social and public policy. The evidence suggests that actually operating social enterprises and social innovations do not embrace the image of them promoted by enthusiasts as either “entrepreneurial” or “innovative”. Furthermore, they bring distinctive challenges in delivering local welfare services, including potential tensions or rivalry with existing public agencies. The article suggests that social enterprises and social innovations are not themselves instigators nor catalysts for systemic change, but that their impact is constrained by structural conditions and institutional factors beyond their control

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the Brassinazole-resistant (BZR) Gene Family and Its Expression in the Various Developmental Stage and Stress Conditions in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Brassinosteroids (BRs) play crucial roles in various biological processes, including plant developmental processes and response to diverse biotic and abiotic stresses. However, no information is currently available about this gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In the present investigation, we identified the BZR gene family in wheat to understand the evolution and their role in diverse developmental processes and under different stress conditions. In this study, we performed the genome-wide analysis of the BZR gene family in the bread wheat and identified 20 TaBZR genes through a homology search and further characterized them to understand their structure, function, and distribution across various tissues. Phylogenetic analyses lead to the classification of TaBZR genes into five different groups or subfamilies, providing evidence of evolutionary relationship with Arabidopsis thaliana, Zea mays, Glycine max, and Oryza sativa. A gene exon/intron structure analysis showed a distinct evolutionary path and predicted the possible gene duplication events. Further, the physical and biochemical properties, conserved motifs, chromosomal, subcellular localization, and cis-acting regulatory elements were also examined using various computational approaches. In addition, an analysis of public RNA-seq data also shows that TaBZR genes may be involved in diverse developmental processes and stress tolerance mechanisms. Moreover, qRT-PCR results also showed similar expression with slight variation. Collectively, these results suggest that TaBZR genes might play an important role in plant developmental processes and various stress conditions. Therefore, this work provides valuable information for further elucidate the precise role of BZR family members in wheat

Constraining Bosonic Supersymmetry from Higgs results and 8 TeV ATLAS multi-jets plus missing energy data

The collider phenomenology of models with Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) is surprisingly similar to that of supersymmetric (SUSY) scenarios. For each level-1 bosonic (fermionic) Kaluza-Klein (KK) state, there is a fermionic (bosonic) analog in SUSY and thus UED scenarios are often known as bosonic supersymmetry. The minimal version of UED (mUED) gives rise to a quasi-degenerate particle spectrum at each KK-level and thus, can not explain the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate hinted by the ATLAS collaboration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. However, in the non-minimal version of the UED (nmUED) model, the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate can be easily explained via the suitable choice of boundary localized kinetic (BLK) terms for higher dimensional fermions and gauge bosons. BLK terms remove the degeneracy in the KK mass spectrum and thus, pair production of level-1 quarks and gluons at the LHC gives rise to hard jets, leptons and large missing energy in the final state. These final states are studied in details by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations in the context of SUSY scenarios. We find that the absence of any significant deviation of the data from the Standard Model (SM) prediction puts a lower bound of about 2.1 TeV on equal mass excited quarks and gluons.Comment: 19 page

Structure Based Design and Synthesis of Peptide Inhibitor of Human LOX-12: In Vitro and In Vivo Analysis of a Novel Therapeutic Agent for Breast Cancer

Human breast cancer cell proliferation involves a complex interaction between growth factors, steroid hormones and peptide hormones. The interaction of growth factors, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), with their receptors on breast cancer cells can lead to the hydrolysis of phospholipids and release of fatty acid such as arachidonic acid, which can be further metabolized by cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) pathways to produce prostaglandins. The high concentration of prostaglandins has been associated with chronic inflammatory diseases and several types of human cancers. This is due to the over expression COX, LOX and other inflammatory enzymes. Ten peptides were designed and synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis and analyzed in vitro for enzyme inhibition. Out of these peptides, YWCS had shown significant inhibitory effects. The dissociation constant (KD) was determined by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis and was found to be 3.39×10−8 M and 8.6×10−8 M for YWCS and baicalein (positive control), respectively. The kinetic constant Ki was 72.45×10−7 M as determined by kinetic assay. The peptide significantly reduced the cell viability of estrogen positive MCF-7 and estrogen negative MDA-MB-231 cell line with the half maximal concentration (IC50) of 75 µM and 400 µM, respectively. The peptide also induced 49.8% and 20.8% apoptosis in breast cancer cells MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, respectively. The YWCS was also found to be least hemolytic at a concentration of 358 µM. In vivo studies had shown that the peptide significantly inhibits tumor growth in mice (p<0.017). This peptide can be used as a lead compound and complement for ongoing efforts to develop differentiation therapies for breast cancer

Proteins of Leishmania (Viannia) shawi confer protection associated with Th1 immune response and memory generation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Leishmania (Viannia) shawi </it>parasite was first characterized in 1989. Recently the protective effects of soluble leishmanial antigen (SLA) from <it>L. (V.) shawi </it>promastigotes were demonstrated using BALB/c mice, the susceptibility model for this parasite. In order to identify protective fractions, SLA was fractionated by reverse phase HPLC and five antigenic fractions were obtained.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>F1 fraction was purified from L. (V.) shawi parasite extract by reverse phase HPLC. BALB/c mice were immunized once a week for two consecutive weeks by subcutaneous routes in the rump, using 25 μg of F1. After 1 and 16 weeks of last immunization, groups were challenged in the footpad with L. (V.) shawi promastigotes. After 2 months, those same mice were sacrificed and parasite burden, cellular and humoral immune responses were evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The F1 fraction induced a high degree of protection associated with an increase in IFN-γ, a decrease in IL-4, increased cell proliferation and activation of CD8⁺T lymphocytes. Long-term protection was acquired in F1-immunized mice, associated with increased CD4⁺central memory T lymphocytes and activation of both CD4⁺and CD8⁺T cells. In addition, F1-immunized groups showed an increase in IgG2a levels.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The inductor capability of antigens to generate memory lymphocytes that can proliferate and secrete beneficial cytokines upon infection could be an important factor in the development of vaccine candidates against American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis.</p

An Intergenic Region Shared by At4g35985 and At4g35987 in Arabidopsis Thaliana is a Tissue Specific and Stress Inducible Bidirectional Promoter Analyzed in Transgenic Arabidopsis and Tobacco Plants

On chromosome 4 in the Arabidopsis genome, two neighboring genes (calmodulin methyl transferase At4g35987 and senescence associated gene At4g35985) are located in a head-to-head divergent orientation sharing a putative bidirectional promoter. This 1258 bp intergenic region contains a number of environmental stress responsive and tissue specific cis-regulatory elements. Transcript analysis of At4g35985 and At4g35987 genes by quantitative real time PCR showed tissue specific and stress inducible expression profiles. We tested the bidirectional promoter-function of the intergenic region shared by the divergent genes At4g35985 and At4g35987 using two reporter genes (GFP and GUS) in both orientations in transient tobacco protoplast and Agro-infiltration assays, as well as in stably transformed transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plants. In transient assays with GFP and GUS reporter genes the At4g35985 promoter (P85) showed stronger expression (about 3.5 fold) compared to the At4g35987 promoter (P87). The tissue specific as well as stress responsive functional nature of the bidirectional promoter was evaluated in independent transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco lines. Expression of P85 activity was detected in the midrib of leaves, leaf trichomes, apical meristemic regions, throughout the root, lateral roots and flowers. The expression of P87 was observed in leaf-tip, hydathodes, apical meristem, root tips, emerging lateral root tips, root stele region and in floral tissues. The bidirectional promoter in both orientations shows differential up-regulation (2.5 to 3 fold) under salt stress. Use of such regulatory elements of bidirectional promoters showing spatial and stress inducible promoter-functions in heterologous system might be an important tool for plant biotechnology and gene stacking applications

Cytostatic Factor Proteins Are Present in Male Meiotic Cells and β-Nerve Growth Factor Increases Mos Levels in Rat Late Spermatocytes

Background: In co-cultures of pachytene spermatocytes with Sertoli cells, beta-NGF regulates the second meiotic division by blocking secondary spermatocytes in metaphase (metaphase II), and thereby lowers round spermatid formation. In vertebrates, mature oocytes are arrested at metaphase II until fertilization, because of the presence of cytostatic factor (CSF) in their cytoplasm. By analogy, we hypothesized the presence of CSF in male germ cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: We show here, that Mos, Emi2, cyclin E and Cdk2, the four proteins of CSF, and their respective mRNAs, are present in male rat meiotic cells; this was assessed by using Western blotting, immunocytochemistry and reverse transcriptase PCR. We measured the relative cellular levels of Mos, Emi2, Cyclin E and Cdk2 in the meiotic cells by flow cytometry and found that the four proteins increased throughout the first meiotic prophase, reaching their highest levels in middle to late pachytene spermatocytes, then decreased following the meiotic divisions. In co-cultures of pachytene spermatocytes with Sertoli cells, beta-NGF increased the number of metaphases II, while enhancing Mos and Emi2 levels in middle to late pachytene spermatocytes, pachytene spermatocytes in division and secondary spermatocytes. Conclusion/Significance: Our results suggest that CSF is not restricted to the oocyte. In addition, they reinforce the view that NGF, by enhancing Mos in late spermatocytes, is one of the intra-testicular factors which adjusts the number of round spermatids that can be supported by Sertoli cells

Body composition and morphological assessment of nutritional status in adults : a review of anthropometric variables

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: A. M. Madden, and S. Smith, ‘Body composition and morphological assessment of nutritional status in adults: a review of anthropometric variables’, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, vol. 29 (1): 7-25, February 2016, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.12278 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Evaluation of body composition is an important part of assessing nutritional status and provides prognostically useful data and opportunity to monitor the effects of nutrition-related disease progression and nutritional intervention. The aim of this narrative review is to critically evaluate body composition methodology in adults, focusing on anthropometric variables. The variables considered include height, weight, body mass index and alternative indices, trunk measurements (waist and hip circumferences and sagittal abdominal diameter) and limb measurements (mid-upper arm and calf circumferences) and skinfold thickness. The importance of adhering to a defined measurement protocol, checking measurement error and the need to interpret measurements using appropriate population-specific cut-off values to identify health risks were identified. Selecting the optimum method of assessing body composition using anthropometry depends on the purpose, i.e. evaluating obesity or undernutrition, and requires practitioners to have a good understanding of both practical and theoretical limitations and to wisely interpret the results.Peer reviewe