On implicit racial prejudice against infants

Because of the innocence and dependence of children, it would be reassuring to believe that implicit racial prejudice against out-group children is lower than implicit prejudice against out-group adults. Yet, prior research has not directly tested whether or not adults exhibit less spontaneous prejudice toward child targets than adult targets. Three studies addressed this issue, contrasting adults with very young child targets. Studies 1A and B revealed that participants belonging to an ethnic majority group (White Europeans) showed greater spontaneous favorability toward their ethnic in-group than toward an ethnic out-group (South Asians), and this prejudice emerged equally for infant and adult targets. Study 2 found that this pattern occurred even when race was not a salient dimension of categorization in the implicit measure. Thus, there was a robust preference for in-group children over out-group children, and there was no evidence that this prejudice is weaker than that exhibited toward adults

The roles of SRA1 gene in breast cancer

Deep insight on The roles of SRA1 gene in breast cancer

A proper generalized decomposition approach for high-order problems

En este artículo se desarrollan dos aproximaciones distintas para la resolución de problemas de alto orden mediante métodos de descomposición propia generalizada (PGD, del inglés Proper Generalized Decomposition ). La primera está basada en el uso de técnicas de colocación y polinomios de Chebyshev, mientras que la segunda se basa en el uso de polinomios de Hermite en el marco de una formulación de Galerkin. Ambas poseen ventajas e inconvenientes, que se analizan en detalle con la ayuda de distintos problemas clásicos de validación.In this paper two different approximations for the solution of high-order problems by proper generalized decompositions (PGD) are developed. The first one is based upon the use of collocation techniques, along with Chebyshev polynomials, while the second employs Hermite polynomials in a Galerkin framework. Both approaches having pros and cons, they are studied with the help of some classical benchmark tests.Peer Reviewe

Digital energy visualizations in the workplace: the e-Genie tool

Building management systems are designed for energy managers; there are few energy-feedback systems designed to engage staff. A tool, known as e-Genie, was created with the purpose of engaging workplace occupants with energy data and supporting them to take action to reduce energy use. Building on research insights within the field, e-Genie’s novel approach encourages users to make plans to meet energy-saving goals, supports discussion and considers social energy behaviours (e.g. discussing energy issues, taking part in campaigns) as well as individual actions. A field-based study of e-Genie indicated that visualizations of energy data were engaging and that the discussion ‘Pinboard’ was particularly popular. Pre- and post-survey (N = 77) evaluation of users indicated that people were significantly more concerned about energy issues and reported engaging more in social energy behaviour after about two weeks of e-Genie being installed. Concurrently, objective measures of electricity use decreased over the same period, and continued decreasing over subsequent weeks. Indications are that occupant-facing energy-feedback visualizations can be successful in reducing energy use in the workplace; furthermore, supporting social energy behaviour in the workplace is likely to be a useful direction for promoting action

Oestrogen receptor-α variant mRNA expression in primary human breast tumours and matched lymph node metastases

We have shown previously that the relative expression of a truncated oestrogen receptor-α variant mRNA (ER clone 4) is significantly increased in axillary node-positive primary breast tumours compared with node-negative tumours. In this study, we have examined the relative expression of clone 4-truncated, exon 5-deleted and exon 7-deleted oestrogen receptor-α variant mRNAs in 15 primary breast tumour samples and in synchronous axillary lymph node metastases. Overall, there were no significant differences between the primary tumours and the matched metastases in the relative expression of these three specific variant mRNAs. Furthermore, the pattern of all deleted oestrogen receptor-α variant mRNAs appeared conserved between any primary and its matched secondary tumour. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Relationship of coregulator and oestrogen receptor isoform expression to de novo tamoxifen resistance in human breast cancer

This study addresses the hypothesis that altered expression of oestrogen receptor-beta and/or altered relative expression of coactivators and corepressors of oestrogen receptors are associated with and may be mechanisms of de novo tamoxifen resistance in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer. All cases were oestrogen receptor +, node negative, primary breast tumours from patients who later had no disease progression (tamoxifen sensitive) or whose disease progressed while on tamoxifen (tamoxifen resistant). Using an antibody to oestrogen receptor-beta that detects multiple forms of this protein (total) but not an antibody that detects only full-length oestrogen receptor-beta 1, it was found that high total oestrogen receptor beta protein expressors were more frequently observed in tamoxifen sensitive tumours than resistant tumours (Fisher's exact test, P=0.046). However, no significant differences in the relative expression of oestrogen receptor β2, oestrogen receptor β5 and full-length oestrogen receptor β1 RNA in the tamoxifen sensitive and resistant groups were found. Also, when the relative expression of two known coactivators, steroid receptor RNA activator and amplified in breast cancer 1 RNA to the known corepressor, repressor of oestrogen receptor activity RNA, was examined, no significant differences between the tamoxifen sensitive and resistant groups were found. Altogether, there is little evidence for altered coregulators expression in breast tumours that are de novo tamoxifen resistant. However, our data provide preliminary evidence that the expression of oestrogen receptor β protein isoforms may differ in primary tumours of breast cancer patients who prove to have differential sensitivity to tamoxifen therapy

Increasing the relative expression of endogenous non-coding Steroid Receptor RNA Activator (SRA) in human breast cancer cells using modified oligonucleotides

Products of the Steroid Receptor RNA Activator gene (SRA1) have the unusual property to modulate the activity of steroid receptors and other transcription factors both at the RNA (SRA) and the protein (SRAP) level. Balance between these two genetically linked entities is controlled by alternative splicing of intron-1, whose retention alters SRAP reading frame. We have previously found that both fully-spliced SRAP-coding and intron-1-containing non-coding SRA RNAs co-exist in breast cancer cell lines. Herein, we report a significant (Student's t-test, P < 0.003) higher SRA–intron-1 relative expression in breast tumors with higher progesterone receptor contents. Using an antisense oligoribonucleotide, we have successfully reprogrammed endogenous SRA splicing and increased SRA RNA–intron-1 relative level in T5 breast cancer cells. This increase is paralleled by significant changes in the expression of genes such as plasminogen urokinase activator and estrogen receptor beta. Estrogen regulation of other genes, including the anti-metastatic NME1 gene, is also altered. Overall, our results suggest that the balance coding/non-coding SRA transcripts not only characterizes particular tumor phenotypes but might also, through regulating the expression of specific genes, be involved in breast tumorigenesis and tumor progression