A decision support system for fund raising management based on the Choquet integral methodology

The employment of a decision support system for optimizing fund raising strategies is crucial to the management of non-profit organizations. Commonly considered methodologies utilize the organization’s donor database in order to gather and analyse information. However, many organizations, especially small- and medium-sized ones, do not own or efficiently manage a database, and consequently, the usual methods are inapplicable. In this paper, a decision support system is developed that is able to identify the most promising fund raising strategies on the basis of the organization’s profile. The profile factors of a non-profit organization are analysed and hierarchically organized in a decision tree in order to effectively employ the Choquet integral methodology, which is recommended in these kinds of multi-criteria decision problems. The results obtained in the real operational context show the effectiveness of the proposed system

Salinomycin inhibits prostate cancer growth and migration via induction of oxidative stress

BACKGROUND: We have shown that a sodium ionophore monensin inhibits prostate cancer cell growth. A structurally related compound to monensin, salinomycin, was recently identified as a putative cancer stem cell inhibitor. METHODS: The growth inhibitory potential of salinomycin was studied in a panel of prostate cells. To get insights into the mechanism of action, a variety of assays such as gene expression and steroid profiling were performed in salinomycin-exposed prostate cancer cells. RESULTS: Salinomycin inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells, but did not affect non-malignant prostate epithelial cells. Salinomycin impacted on prostate cancer stem cell functions as evidenced by reduced aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and the fraction of CD44(+) cells. Moreover, salinomycin reduced the expression of MYC, AR and ERG, induced oxidative stress as well as inhibited nuclear factor-κB activity and cell migration. Furthermore, profiling steroid metabolites revealed increased levels of oxidative stress-inducing steroids 7-ketocholesterol and aldosterone and decreased levels of antioxidative steroids progesterone and pregnenolone in salinomycin-exposed prostate cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that salinomycin inhibits prostate cancer cell growth and migration by reducing the expression of key prostate cancer oncogenes, inducing oxidative stress, decreasing the antioxidative capacity and cancer stem cell fraction