Multifunctional Role of Bcl-2 in Malignant Transformation and Tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-Transformed Lung Cells

B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) is an antiapoptotic protein known to be important in the regulation of apoptosis in various cell types. However, its role in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis of human lung cells is not well understood. We previously reported that chronic exposure of human lung epithelial cells to the carcinogenic hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) caused malignant transformation and Bcl-2 upregulation; however, the role of Bcl-2 in the transformation is unclear. Using a gene silencing approach, we showed that Bcl-2 plays an important role in the malignant properties of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Downregulation of Bcl-2 inhibited the invasive and proliferative properties of the cells as well as their colony forming and angiogenic activities, which are upregulated in the transformed cells as compared to control cells. Furthermore, animal studies showed the inhibitory effect of Bcl-2 knockdown on the tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. The role of Bcl-2 in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis was confirmed by gene silencing experiments using human lung carcinoma NCI-H460 cells. These cells exhibited aggressive malignant phenotypes similar to those of Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Knockdown of Bcl-2 in the H460 cells inhibited malignant and tumorigenic properties of the cells, indicating the general role of Bcl-2 in human lung tumorigenesis. Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) revealed potential effectors of Bcl-2 in tumorigenesis regulation. Additionally, using IPA together with ectopic expression of p53, we show p53 as an upstream regulator of Bcl-2 in Cr(VI)-transformed cells. Together, our results indicate the novel and multifunctional role of Bcl-2 in malignant transformation and tumorigenesis of human lung epithelial cells chronically exposed to Cr(VI)

Ranking species in mutualistic networks

Understanding the architectural subtleties of ecological networks, believed to confer them enhanced stability and robustness, is a subject of outmost relevance. Mutualistic interactions have been profusely studied and their corresponding bipartite networks, such as plant-pollinator networks, have been reported to exhibit a characteristic “nested” structure. Assessing the importance of any given species in mutualistic networks is a key task when evaluating extinction risks and possible cascade effects. Inspired in a recently introduced algorithm –similar in spirit to Google's PageRank but with a built-in non-linearity– here we propose a method which –by exploiting their nested architecture– allows us to derive a sound ranking of species importance in mutualistic networks. This method clearly outperforms other existing ranking schemes and can become very useful for ecosystem management and biodiversity preservation, where decisions on what aspects of ecosystems to explicitly protect need to be made

Prosodic tools for language learning

In this paper we will be concerned with the role played by prosody in language learning and by the speech technology already available as commercial product or as prototype, capable to cope with the task of helping language learner in improving their knowledge of a second language from the prosodic point of view. The paper has been divided into two separate sections: Section One, dealing with Rhythm and all related topics; Section Two dealing with Intonation. In the Introduction we will argue that the use of ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) as Teaching Aid should be under-utilized and should be targeted to narrowly focussed spoken exercises, disallowing open-ended dialogues, in order to ensure consistency of evaluation. Eventually, we will support the conjoined use of ASR technology and prosodic tools to produce GOP useable for linguistically consistent and adequate feedback to the student. This will be illustrated by presenting State of the Art for both sections, with systems well documented in the scientific literature of the respective field. In order to discuss the scientific foundations of prosodic analysis we will present data related to English and Italian and make comparisons to clarify the issues at hand. In this context, we will also present the Prosodic Module of a courseware for computer-assisted foreign language learning called SLIM—an acronym for Multimedia Interactive Linguistic Software, developed at the University of Venice (Delmonte et al. in Convegno GFS-AIA, pp. 47–58, 1996a; Ed-Media 96, AACE, pp. 326–333, 1996b). The Prosodic Module has been created in order to deal with the problem of improving a student’s performance both in the perception and production of prosodic aspects of spoken language activities. It is composed of two different sets of Learning Activities, the first one dealing with phonetic and prosodic problems at word level and at syllable level; the second one dealing with prosodic aspects at phonological phrase and utterance suprasegmental level. The main goal of Prosodic Activities is to ensure consistent and pedagogically sound feedback to the student intending to improve his/her pronunciation in a foreign language

Automatic summarization of voicemail messages using lexical and prosodic features

This article presents trainable methods for extracting principal content words from voicemail messages. The short text summaries generated are suitable for mobile messaging applications. The system uses a set of classifiers to identify the summary words with each word described by a vector of lexical and prosodic features. We use an ROC-based algorithm, Parcel, to select input features (and classifiers). We have performed a series of objective and subjective evaluations using unseen data from two different speech recognition systems as well as human transcriptions of voicemail speech

Prenatal Hyperandrogenization Induces Metabolic and Endocrine Alterations Which Depend on the Levels of Testosterone Exposure

Prenatal hyperandrogenism is able to induce polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in rats. The aim of the present study was to establish if the levels of prenatal testosterone may determine the extent of metabolic and endocrine alterations during the adult life. Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were prenatally injected with either 2 or 5 mg free testosterone (groups T2 and T5 respectively) from day 16 to day 19 day of gestation. Female offspring from T2 and T5 displayed different phenotype of PCOS during adult life. Offspring from T2 showed hyperandrogenism, ovarian cysts and ovulatory cycles whereas those from T5 displayed hyperandrogenism, ovarian cysts and anovulatory cycles. Both group showed increased circulating glucose levels after the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT; an evaluation of insulin resistance). IPGTT was higher in T5 rats and directly correlated with body weight at prepubertal age. However, the decrease in the body weight at prepubertal age was compensated during adult life. Although both groups showed enhanced ovarian steroidogenesis, it appears that the molecular mechanisms involved were different. The higher dose of testosterone enhanced the expression of both the protein that regulates cholesterol availability (the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR)) and the protein expression of the transcriptional factor: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR gamma). Prenatal hyperandrogenization induced an anti-oxidant response that prevented a possible pro-oxidant status. The higher dose of testosterone induced a pro-inflammatory state in ovarian tissue mediated by increased levels of prostaglandin E (PG) and the protein expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2, the limiting enzyme of PGs synthesis). In summary, our data show that the levels of testosterone prenatally injected modulate the uterine environment and that this, in turn, would be responsible for the endocrine and metabolic abnormalities and the phenotype of PCOS during the adult life

EVALUASI PELAKSANAAN PROGRAM KELUARGA HARAPAN DI DESA TUNMAT KECAMATAN IO KUFEU KABUPATEN MALAKA EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FAMILY HOPE PROGRAM IN TUMAT VILLAGE, IO KOFEU DISTRIC MALACCA REGENCY

Kemiskinan adalah masalah serius yang masih di hadapai oleh Negara-negara yang berkembang didunia. Salah satu Negara yang masih menghadapi kemiskinan yaitu di indonesia. Dalam rangka penanggulangan kemiskinan berbasis rumah tangga, pemerintah meluncurkan program khusus yang diberi nama Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH). Dimana yang telah sudah di atur dalam peraturan Menteri Sosial Republik Indonesia No.1 tahun 2018 tentang Program Keluarga Harapan. Peraturan Menteri Sosial RI Tahun 2018 tentang PKH Pasal 1 ayat (1) menyatakan Program Keluarga Harapan adalah program pemberian batuan sosial bersyarat kepada keluarga atau seseorang miskin dan rentan yang terdaftar dalam data terpadu program penanganan fakir miskin. Dalam proses pelaksanaan Program keluarga harapan  (PKH) masih terdapat permasalahan serta kendala seperti  belum optimalnya pembagian PKH terhadap masyarakat yang lain, Kurangnya koordinsi dari berbagai pihak yang terkait dengan program keluarga harapan (PKH), ketidak tepatan sasaran bantuan program Keluarga Harapan. tujuan dari  penelitian ini yaitu Untuk mengetahui evaluasi pelaksana program keluarga harapan di Desa Tunmat, Kecamatan Io Kufeu, Kabupaten Malaka. Hasil anlisis menunjukan bahwa Pelaksana Program Keluarga Harapan Desa Tunmat Kecamatan Kecamatan Io Kufeu tidak dilibatkan dalam proses seleksi dan penetapan lokasi yang akan dijadikan penerimaan bantuan program, Masyarakat penerima PKH sangat puas dengan pelayanan pemerintah dalam hal ini pemerintah Desa Tunabes