Developing an Actuarial Risk Assessment to Inform the Decisions Made by Adult Protective Service Workers

In 2008, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services (BEAS) and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), with funding provided by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), collaborated to construct an actuarial risk assessment to classify BEAS clients by their likelihood of elder maltreatment and/or self-neglect in the future. Studies in adult and juvenile corrections and child welfare have demonstrated that active service intervention with high risk clients can reduce criminal recidivism and the recurrence of child maltreatment (Wagner, Hull, & Luttrell, 1995; Eisenberg & Markley, 1987; Baird, Heinz, & Bemus, 1981). The purpose of this research was to examine a large set of individual and referral characteristics, determine their relationship to subsequent elder self-neglect and/or maltreatment, and develop an actuarial risk assessment for BEAS workers to complete at the end of an investigation to inform their case decisions.BEAS and NCCD pursued development of an actuarial risk assessment with the goal of reducing subsequent maltreatment of elderly and vulnerable adults who have been involved in an incident of self-neglect or maltreatment by another person (i.e., abuse, exploitation, or neglect). The actuarial risk assessment described in this report provides BEAS workers with a method to more accurately identify high risk clients and therefore more effectively target service interventions in an effort to protect their most vulnerable clients

Nucleosomes indicate the in vitro radiosensitivity of irradiated bronchoepithelial and lung cancer cells

Nucleosomes, which are typical cell death products, are elevated in the serum of cancer patients and are known to rapidly increase during radiotherapy. As both normal and malignant cells are damaged by irradiation, we investigated to which extent both cell types contribute to the release of nucleosomes. We cultured monolayers of normal bronchoepithelial lung cells (BEAS-2B, n = 18) and epithelial lung cancer cells (EPLC, n = 18), exposed them to various radiation doses (0, 10 and 30 Gy) and observed them for 5 days. Culture medium was changed every 24 h. Subsequently, nucleosomes were determined in the supernatant by the Cell Death Detection-ELISA(plus) ( Roche Diagnostics). Additionally, the cell number was estimated after harvesting the cells in a second preparation. After 5 days, the cell number of BEAS-2B cultures in the irradiated groups (10 Gy: median 0.03 x 10(6) cells/culture, range 0.02-0.08 x 10(6) cells/culture; 30 Gy: median 0.08 x 10(6) cells/culture, range 0.02-0.14 x 10(6) cells/culture) decreased significantly (10 Gy: p = 0.005; 30 Gy p = 0.005; Wilcoxon test) compared to the non-irradiated control group (median 4.81 x 10(6) cells/culture, range 1.50-9.54 x 10(6) cells/culture). Consistently, nucleosomes remained low in the supernatant of nonirradiated BEAS-2B. However, at 10 Gy, BEAS-2B showed a considerably increasing release of nucleosomes, with a maximum at 72 h ( before irradiation: 0.24 x 10(3) arbitrary units, AU, range 0.13-4.09 x 10(3) AU, and after 72 h: 1.94 x 10(3) AU, range 0.11-5.70 x 10(3) AU). At 30 Gy, the release was even stronger, reaching the maximum earlier (at 48 h, 11.09 x 10(3) AU, range 6.89-18.28 x 10(3) AU). In non-irradiated EPLC, nucleosomes constantly increased slightly. At 10 Gy, we observed a considerably higher release of nucleosomes in EPLC, with a maximum at 72 h (before irradiation: 2.79 x 10(3) AU, range 2.42-3.80 x 10(3) AU, and after 72 h: 7.16 x 10(3) AU, range 4.30-16.20 x 10(3) AU), which was more than 3.5 times higher than in BEAS-2B. At 30 Gy, the maximum (6.22 x 10(3) AU, range 5.13-9.71 x 10(3) AU) was observed already after 24 h. These results indicate that normal bronchoepithelial and malignant lung cancer cells contribute to the release of nucleosomes during irradiation in a dose-and time-dependent manner with cancer cells having a stronger impact at low doses. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

The gold rush for business excellence awards

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThere has been a proliferation of Business excellence awards (BEAs) in recent times, and the number of businesses entering and winning such awards is on the increase. Embedded in contemporary organising, business excellence awards have evolved to become a useful means to improving recognition in the marketplace, which in turn could facilitate the growth of a firm's customer base and drive it to achieve sustainable competitive advantage over their market rivals. In spite of its current relevance in contemporary organising, scholarly work examining this phenomenon remains scattered with the dominant narrative focusing on the intensive, even obsession with award entry preparation. This study examines how firms compete with each other for BEAs, and how they utilise them as symbolic tokens to achieve competitiveness. Drawing on the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens, the study explores how the material, meaning, and competence elements of BEAs, in context, interact and combine to give form and shape to BEAs as a practice in contemporary organizing. Adopting an explorative qualitative research design, the research contribution is developed in the context of a UK regional and national BEAs. Data for the inquiry comes from forty-five (45) semi-structured interviews with managers and owners of firms who won or were nominated for an award at one of the BEAs studied. This was supplemented with publicly available data on the BEAs, and the websites and social media pages of the firms studied. The study presents three main findings. First, emphasising the actions and situated practices that cohere to drive the competition for BEAs, the study identifies the internal and external influences that fuel firms desire to compete for these BEAs, suggesting that the significance of BEAs in achieving market competitiveness and other important organisational outcomes makes it an imperative ritual which firms cannot afford to ignore or boycott. Second, shedding light on why firms are keen on competing for BEAs, even if they cannot justify the value in terms of their balance sheets, the thesis unpacks the motivations and mentalities driving firms to compete for BEAs year in year out. Lastly, offering insight into why firms prioritise a particular BEA or award category, the thesis delineates the choices firms make when it comes to BEAs and identifies the potential value firms frequently capture from BEAs. The contribution of this study is also three-fold. First, the study in adopting the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens provides an alternative interpretation of how firms in their everyday organizing come to make sense of BEAs, and how the practice of BEAs in itself has evolved over time to shape the creation and capture of value for competitiveness. Second, it extends our understanding as to why many firms are keen to expend significant amount of their time and limited resources into preparing, entering, and competing for BEAs. Finally, in studying and theorising BEAs in the form of strategizing, the thesis extends our understanding of how firms could potentially turn their business excellence award fortunes into market competitiveness.Government of Ghana through the Ghana Scholarship Secretaria

Loss of Fructose-1,6-Bisphosphatase Induces Glycolysis and Promotes Apoptosis Resistance of Cancer Stem-Like Cells: An Important Role in Hexavalent Chromium-Induced Carcinogenesis

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) compounds are confirmed human carcinogens for lung cancer. Our previous studies has demonstrated that chronic exposure of human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells to low dose of Cr(VI) causes malignant cell transformation. The acquisition of cancer stem cell-like properties is involved in the initiation of cancers. The present study has observed that a small population of cancer stem-like cells (BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC) exists in the Cr(VI)-transformed cells (BEAS-2B-Cr). Those BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC exhibit extremely reduced capability of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis resistance. BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC are metabolic inactive as evidenced by reductions in oxygen consumption, glucose uptake, ATP production, and lactate production. Most importantly, BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC are more tumorigenic with high levels of cell self-renewal genes, Notch1 and p21. Further study has found that fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP1), an rate-limiting enzyme driving glyconeogenesis, was lost in BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC. Forced expression of FBP1 in BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC restored ROS generation, resulting in increased apoptosis, leading to inhibition of tumorigenesis. In summary, the present study suggests that loss of FBP1 is a critical event in tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-transformed cells

Beas Perelek: Pemberdayaan Masyarakat di Kabupaten Purwakarta

Beas perelek, merupakan tradisi lama yang terlupakan, kini dihidupkan kembali oleh Bupati Purwakarta. Tujuannya sebagai salah satu strategi dalam pemerataan pembangunan dan pemberdayaan masyarakat dalam satu upaya memenuhi kebutuhan dasar warga. Manfaatnya untuk meningkatkan kepedulian dan peran serta masyarakat dalam pembangunan khususnya dalam mengentaskan kemiskinan dan menyejahterakan masyarakat. Di samping itu manfaat lainnya memberi makna teladan, melatih jiwa berkorban dari hal yang paling kecil, melatih kebersamaan dan kepedulian antar sesama dan semangat gotong royong. Namun dalam perkembangannya, akan menghadapi tantangan dan mengalami Perubahan mengingat budaya lokal ini tidak lepas dari budaya global melalui inovasi ekonomi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan pranata sosial (ekonomi) dalam program beas perelek sebagai sebuah pemberdayaan bagi masyarakat di Kabupaten Purwakarta. Setelah dicermati, ternyata dalam program beas perelek memiliki nilai-nilai yang bersinergi dengan falsafah hidup manusia Sunda, yaitu silih asah, silih asah dan silih asuh. Beas perelek ini representasi dari nilai-nilai itu semua.Oleh karena itu perlu peran pemerintah daerah dalam melestarikan sikap hidup yang berazaskan kebersamaan. Beas perelek merupakan solusi atas persoalan kesenjangan sistem sosial karena kalangan masyarakat yang sudah mampu dapat berbagi pada masyarakat kurang mampu

Evaluation of toxicity and antioxidative effects of Tussilago farfara and Verbascum thapsus water extracts in zebrafish and in bronchial epithelial cells

Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) and Verbascum thapsus (mullein) have been used as folk remedies for treating respiratory disorders. The aim of this study was to test the toxicity of the water extracts of T. farfara and V. thapsus in vivo in zebrafish and in vitro in BEAS 2B epithelial bronchial cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the antioxidative properties of T. farfara and V. thapsus extracts in cell culture. Our results show that the T. farfara leaf extract does not produce toxic effects on zebrafish embryos or BEAS 2B cells, and that it has a protective effect in BEAS 2B after induction of oxidative stress. The water extract from V. thapsus displayed pronounced toxic effects on zebrafish embryos and BEAS 2B cells and did not exhibit a significant antioxidative effect on BEAS 2B cells exposed to oxidative stress. Our results suggest that the use of T. farfara water leaf extract is potentially safe and effective in treating respiratory disorders, whereas the use of V. thapsus needs further investigation

Chitin-Induced Airway Epithelial Cell Innate Immune Responses Are Inhibited by Carvacrol/Thymol.

Chitin is produced in large amounts by fungi, insects, and other organisms and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma. Airway epithelial cells are in direct contact with environmental particles and serve as the first line of defense against inhaled allergens and pathogens. The potential contributions of airway epithelial cells to chitin-induced asthma remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that chitin directly stimulates airway epithelial cells to release cytokines that promote type 2 immune responses and to induce expression of molecules which are important in innate immune responses. We found that chitin exposure rapidly induced the expression of three key type 2-promoting cytokines, IL-25, IL-33 and TSLP, in BEAS-2B transformed human bronchial epithelial cells and in A549 and H292 lung carcinoma cells. Chitin also induced the expression of the key pattern recognition receptors TLR2 and TLR4. Chitin induced the expression of miR-155, miR-146a and miR-21, each of which is known to up-regulate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Also the expression of SOCS1 and SHIP1 which are known targets of miR-155 was repressed by chitin treatment. The monoterpene phenol carvacrol (Car) and its isomer thymol (Thy) are found in herbal essential oils and have been shown to inhibit allergic inflammation in asthma models. We found that Car/Thy inhibited the effects of chitin on type 2-promoting cytokine release and on the expression of TLRs, SOCS1, SHIP1, and miRNAs. Car/Thy could also efficiently reduce the protein levels of TLR4, inhibit the increase in TLR2 protein levels in chitin plus Car/Thy-treated cells and increase the protein levels of SHIP1 and SOCS1, which are negative regulators of TLR-mediated inflammatory responses. We conclude that direct effects of chitin on airway epithelial cells are likely to contribute to allergic airway diseases like asthma, and that Car/Thy directly inhibits epithelial cell pro-inflammatory responses to chitin