bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP)
Authors: Ashton Stephen
Published: April 2022

My presentation divides into two parts. The first explains what BDEEP is in terms of how the project originated, how it is administered and financed and what it is (and what it is not) intended to achieve. The second looks more closely at the place of Africa within the project by explaining at greater length the contents of some of the volumes and by introducing a number of documents which will be included.

First then the background to the project. BDEEP has its origins in two earlier collections of published documents concerning the end of British rule in South and South-East Asia. The first is Constitutional Relations between Britain and India: The Transfer of Power, 1942-1947, which was edited by Professor Nicholas Mansergh and published in twelve volumes between 1970 and 1983 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).
The Usages of the past: African historiographies since independence
Authors: Odhiambo E.S. Atieno
Published: April 2022

“I did history at school, but that wasevents, not the realthingsin Mantsoba's prophesies”.

[David Coplan 2002]

During the recent past poststructuralist and postmodernist era it has become fashionable to think of continents, communities, identities, belonging, tradition, heritage and home as imagined, invented or created entities. The idea of Africa has been tantalising to the West ever since Aristotle in hisHistoria Animaliumreported to the effect that ‘a certain proverb[paroimia]is current that Libya always produces something new -aei Libye pherei ti kaino.’
A Brief history of the Uganda Society
Authors: Usher Beverley
Published: April 2022

The Uganda Society was founded in 1923 as the Uganda Literary and
Scientific Society and gained its current name in 1933. In its early days,
the Society was made up of some seventy members, almost entirely confined to
Entebbe. During the first five years of its existence, the Society presented
over forty lectures of scientific, historical, economic, or religious
interest. Unfortunately, the organizers dispersed or became busy with other
activities, and the Society had almost collapsed by 1928. One of the
original founders, E.J. Wayland, managed to arrange an odd lecture from a
distinguished visitor and to conserve the Society's assets, allowing the
Society to be revived in the future.
A Visit to Harare and Bulawayo
Authors: Buxton Andrew
Published: April 2022

I was invited by ZIMISIS, the Zimbabwe CDS/ISIS User Group, to conduct a
3-day advanced workshop at Harare Polytechnic.

The workshop was partly funded by UNESCO Harare Office, and partly
funded by course fees. UNESCO Paris Office had been approached for support
but were unable to help. After I had made arrangements I was also able to
teach a 2-day beginners’ course at the National University of Science and
Technology, Bulawayo (NUST).

There were over 20 participants on both courses with a PC each, but no
PC provided for the instructor. This meant I was teaching ‘blind’, trying to
remember what appeared on the screen or else having to overlook one of the
participants On both courses the computers had been set up somewhat
differently, which meant that things which worked on some didn't always work
on others.
Electronic Journals and Africa Studies: An Overview and Some Trends
Authors: Damen Jos
Published: April 2022

Many commercial and non-commercial initiatives regarding electronic journals have started in the last decade. They are, however/so widespread and ad hoc that a complete overview of all online journals is not possible. This paper offers a brief description of the current state of affairs concerning electronic journals from and about Africa and highlights some of the trends.

Paper journals have existed since 1665 when the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society appeared in London and Le Journal des Scavans in Paris. A hundred years later more than ten scientific journals were available, mostly published by learned societies in Europe. And by 1850, there were well over a thousand journals with articles specialising in all different scientific fields from ethnology to medicine and geology to philosophy. By 1980 there were well over 180,000 different scientific journals.
African Scholarship and African Studies: Challenges for our Time
Authors: Bundy Colin
Published: April 2022

It is an honour to have been invited to address a SCOLMA conference on such an auspicious anniversary. Birthday greetings are clearly in order - but I did wonder about the inscription in my card. Dryden seemed a bit frivolous: “I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty”. And Shakespeare's sonnet is too gloomy:

“When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field“

I considered Benjamin Franklin's opinion: “At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgement.” But I have opted instead for the refrain of a music hall classic, My Old Dutch:

“We've been together now for forty years

An’ it don't seem a day too much!“
The Changing Face of African Studies in Britain, 1962-2002
Authors: Kirk-Greene Anthony
Published: April 2022

Leaving to one side the sui generis Royal African Society, which in 2000 marked its centenary with a special history (Rimmer and Kirk-Greene, 2000), the formalised study of Africa in British academia may be said to be approaching its 80th year. For it was in 1926 that the International African Institute, originally the Institute of African Languages and Cultures, was founded in London, followed two years later by the maiden issue of its journal for practising Africanists, Africa, still among the flagship journals in the African field. Indeed, the 1920s were alive with new institutions promoting an interest in African affairs, whether it be the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1924); the Phelps-Stokes Commission reports on education in British Africa (1920-24), culminating in the Colonial Office Memorandum on Education Policy (1925); the major contribution to public awareness made by the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, however politically incorrect some of its idiom seems today; or the attention generated by the League of Nations’ Mandates Commission, the bulk of whose remit was focused on Africa and whose British representative was no less than Lord Lugard, the biggest “Africanist” of his day.
Film as Evidence, Film as History and Film in History: Some African Perspectives
Authors: Vivian Bickford-Smith
Published: April 2022

During my undergraduate years, a long time ago now, I cannot remember a single instance when any form of film was used for any purpose whatsoever in a history course at Cambridge University. Yet clearly film has become more acceptable to the historical academy as a whole in recent years. My own experience of engaging with film has been in three ways: with film as a form of historical evidence; through exploring the role film has played ‘in’ history, possibly by influencing opinions and policies; and, most controversially for historians at large, with analysing film as attempted history, as a form of history itself.
Compiling a gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War
Authors: Jones Huw M.
Published: April 2022

The idea of compiling a gazetteer for the second Anglo-Boer War presented itself quite simply because of the numerous mistakes and misspellings of place names that we have come across in the literature of the war. In his Author's Note to his splendid illustrated bibliography, R.G. Hackett comments that ‘The variance in spelling of place names follows a decision to adopt the form used in source material’. And in his recent book, M.M. Evans notes the ‘passionately-held and wildly differing views on the spelling of place names’.

Southern Africa is a land of many languages, some of which were in a state of rapid transition at the end of the 19th century as the war started. It was then overwhelmingly rural and the names of topographical features as well as farms and villages largely reflected the landscape in which they were located.
New light on the Pan-African Association: Part I
Authors: Colenso Gwilym , Saunders Christopher
Published: April 2022

The Pan-African conference held in London in 1900 was a key moment in the early history of Pan-Africanism. Though the Pan-African Association (PAA) that emerged from it was short lived, the conference was the precursor of subsequent Pan-African conferences or congresses in 1919, 1921, 1923, 1927 and 1945, the last of which laid the groundwork for the advent of the African independence movements of the second half of the twentieth century. W. E. B. Du Bois, who dominated organisational Pan-Africanism later in the century, tended to minimise the significance of the 1900 conference, but he conceded that it “put the word ‘Pan-African’ in the dictionaries for the first time”. The 1900 conference established the idea, basic to Pan-Africanism, of African people and people of African descent uniting globally and leading the movement for their own liberation.
Looking at the Walter Rodney Papers: Atlanta, Georgetown and London
Authors: Boukari-Yabara Amzat
Published: April 2022

Walter Rodney was born in Georgetown, Guyana on March 23,1942. Raised in a middle class family, he won a scholarship to enter the most prestigious local school, Queen's College in Georgetown. In 1960, he went to the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica. After his undergraduate degree, he attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London where, at the age of 24, he received his PhD with honours in African History. Rodney's thesis, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545-1800, was published by Oxford University Press in 1970.

During his studies at SOAS, he travelled to Spain, Italy and Portugal in order to access archives about Guinea coast. In these countries, he made contact with anticolonialist movements, especially the Portuguese one headed by Amilcar Cabral.
African Publishing from the Outside
Authors: Smith Kelvin
Published: April 2022

In his acceptance speech for the 1st ZIBF Award for Life-Long Contribution to the African Book Industry in Harare on 2nd August 2004, Henry Chakava made these comments, succinctly encapsulating a confident and optimistic view of a future direction for African publishing.

African publishing has come of age, and the challenge facing us now is to democratize the book so as to make it available, accessible and affordable to all our people. These are the challenges I must now place before our new generation of publishers. You must build on the foundations we have established, take advantage of the liberalized marketplace, and harness the emerging technologies to put African publishing squarely on the world map. (Chakava 2004)
London Jewish Chronicle: South African abstracts 1859-1910
Authors: Musiker Naomi
Published: April 2022

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, research documents into the historical development of the Jewish community in South Africa were largely the work of individuals. The most notable of these were those of Rabbi Dr J H Hertz, of the Witwatersrand Hebrew Congregation who presented an address on the Jews of South Africa to the first South African Zionist Congress (1905), various papers by the amateur historians S J Judelowitz and S A Rochlin, Louis Hermann's History of the Jews in South Africa, covering the period to 1890 and S A Rochlin and Muriel Alexander's researches into newspaper files, the former covering Transvaal papers from 1892 to 1924 and the latter, Cape papers until the end of 1918.
What is in a name? Ghanaian Personal Names as Information Sources
Authors: Adjah Olive Akpebu
Published: April 2022

Naming is a universal cultural practice and in every society, names are given to children at birth. According to Wegryn (2008), a name is of distinction, chosen, conferred and announced. However, the way names are given, reasons for choice of particular names and the rituals involved in naming, vary from society to society. Birth is regarded among most African societies as the beginning of the rites of passage, which comprise birth, puberty, marriage and death, and all these are celebrated to show their significance. Among most Ghanaian communities, the newborn baby is kept away from public view for seven days and brought out on the eighth day during what is called the “outdooring ceremony”.
The Colenso papers: documenting “an extensive chain of influence” from Zululand to Britain
Authors: Colenso Gwilym
Published: April 2022

For several decades, members of the Colenso family conducted a vigorous humanitarian campaign across two continents, keeping in touch and exchanging information with one another between England and Natal. Prolific writers, continuously immersed in the often frenetic day to day activity of their campaigning work, they had little time to consider preserving for the future the vast amount of correspondence and documentation they produced. The result is that much of their prodigious output survives today only by chance, dispersed between different collections in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

The Colenso papers are authored not by an individual but severally by the members of a family, the family of John William Colenso, the first Bishop of Natal, his brother in law, his wife, their five children and two daughters in law.
Electronic libraries in partnership: BEEP for Africa
Authors: Rossi Pier Luigi
Published: April 2022

Between September 2008 and September 2009, IRD (Research Institute for Development) established a programme of scanning workshops within the SIST project (System for Scientific and Technical Information) of MAEE (French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs). This initiative involved documentation centers and libraries of public institutions (Universities, Research Institutes) in several French-speaking African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia).

The programme enabled the purchase of scanning equipment (fast A4 scanners, PCs, dedicated software) and training teams to digitise documents (theses, articles, books) produced by the staff (researchers, engineers, students) of participating institutions. The Greenstone software was chosen to provide access, over the Internet, to the collections of digital materials. All teams were trained in the installation, administration and use of this tool.

The collections made by the project participants consist of documents in pdf format. Metadata is made available either by incorporating existing bibliographic databases (usually in the CDS/ISIS format) or by direct input into the metadata fields of digital files. In the latter case, the metadata entries include document title, authors, publication date and subject.
‘Tin Trunk Literati’ and Beyond: hidden sources for Africa's History
Authors: Killingray David
Published: April 2022

Serendipity and surprise occasionally contribute to the work of the historian. A chance discovery of crucial documents, a word from an informant, or a brief text helping to resolve a puzzle from the past, can set the adrenalin pulsing. Despite the apparent dull, desk-bound procedures of historical research it can at times be a rather exciting venture with eureka moments. There is another dimension that never ceases to thrill me: bringing to life an insignificant voice from the past, recovering the words of those supposedly ‘without history’, giving flesh and being to a forgotten ‘common person’, and contributing a further piece of evidence to history ‘from below’.

Here is aeurekamoment, John L. Comaroff, the South African social anthropologist describing finding the diary of Sol T. Plaatje written about the siege of Mafeking in 1899: “The document was discovered by accident rather than by design.
The records of the East African Community
Authors: Mnjama Nathan
Published: April 2022

Perhaps one of the least publicised and greatly under-utilised primary source materials in East Africa are the records of the defunct East African Community held at the Arusha International Conference Centre, Tanzania. These records document virtually every aspect of human life in Eastern Africa. By 1977, when the East African Community collapsed as a regional grouping of three partner states, namely Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, it had created vast quantities of records equivalent to that held in some of the national repositories in Africa. For over twenty years, these records have been in the custody of the Tanzania National Archives, which has made commendable efforts to ensure that this vital resource is not lost. In August 1998, the author led a team of specialists from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania mainland, Zanzibar and Lesotho to appraise, arrange, describe, box, and shelve these records. This article is based on information gathered during the workshop.
Unhiding African collections at the British Library for Development Studies
Authors: Playforth Rachel
Published: April 2022

The British Library for Development Studies serves as the library of the Institute of Development Studies, but it also has a wider remit in supporting development research globally, funded by the UK Department for International Development. The collection has been built up over fifty years and consists of over two hundred thousand titles and over one million physical items, making it the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe. Over half of these items originate from developing countries, including development plans, budgets, national accounts, statistical yearbooks, and census reports for nearly all African and Asian nations. Much of the stock is believed to be unique - 42% of the catalogued holdings at BLDS do not appear elsewhere in WorldCat's global holdings.
Do We Need Museums in the Cameroon Grassfields?
Authors: Fubah Mathias Alubafi
Published: April 2022

This article was provoked by the recent creation of two major state of the art modern museums in the western Grassfields of Cameroon. The two museums in question are the Mankon museum, located at the fon's palace, and the Babungo museum, also located at the Babungo fon's palace. The museums were part of an initiative by an Italian NGO - Centro Orientamento Educativo (COE) - to establish five museums in some regions of Cameroon. The objectives of the initiative were:

- The protection and enhancement of the cultural and artistic heritage in its original setting through the creation of five museums (with the publication of catalogues for the collections) in five different areas, stating with the Cameroon Grassfields, which is the western part of the country where artistic heritage is the richest and where the danger of the disappearance and loss of artistic objects is greatest.
Dynamic Library Leadership for Sub-Saharan Africa: investing in what works
Authors: Adeogun Margaret
Published: April 2022

The continuous evolution of communication systems and the availability and accessibility to a wealth of instant information is promoting new ideas, issues, individualised learning and evoking curiosity. Today, being knowledgeable is not enough; rather, the ability to create knowledge is cherished. This diffused information environment is enabling people to gain expertise in many areas and is making people more assertive than ever. Countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius are experiencing economic vitality because their people are adapting knowledge, information and technology to create enterprise clusters (World Bank, 2008). Knowledge, information, and the ability for self-education are setting people free of the age-long dependence on the library. They are claiming responsibility for their own lives.
Ghanaian funeral brochures: an unexplored rich source of biographical information
Authors: Adjah Olive Akpebu
Published: April 2022

Death in the Ghanaian society is regarded as one of the rites of passage that mark the transition from the present world to the other. It is believed to extend family relationship into infinity and therefore great effort is put into organising befitting funerals. In planning the funeral, a document, which the paper calls the funeral brochure, is prepared. These funeral brochures have become a valuable source of historical, social and biographical information. This article examines 107 Ghanaian funeral brochures belonging to all classes of people in the society, printed between 1993 and 2006. It provides insight into the various pieces of information contained in these brochures that qualify them as a rich source of biographical information. The paper concludes by calling on librarians to begin acquiring funeral brochures as part of their collections.
Digital vs Print resources at African University Institutions: A Discussion Document
Authors: Zell Hans M.
Published: April 2022

Digital resources and the speed and ease with which researchers anywhere can now access vast amounts of information have transformed the nature of the research process. The advent of electronic resources and digital libraries and repositories has also dramatically changed the function of academic libraries in terms of organization, service delivery, and collection development, with much information and many resources now accessed online. Nowadays, librarians and information professionals are expected to provide services to library users who increasingly demand instant access to information on multiple digital platforms.

The attraction of electronic resources and the archiving of these resources, is easy to understand: they are eco-friendly, time and cost saving, offer multi-access, round the clock availability, and provide a facility to access resources without requiring a physical presence in the library.
Reflections on Libraries and Archives I
Authors: Ellis Stephen
Published: April 2022

I am very pleased to be asked to say a few words to this meeting of archivists and librarians. I am myself a historian, and therefore I love archives. I actually find it a sensual experience to see and feel old documents. Terry Barringer, who invited me to talk to you this morning, encouraged me to say something about my personal experiences of archival research, so allow me to begin with some personal remarks and anecdotes.

I started my PhD, on the history of nineteenth-century Madagascar, in 1976. Before then, I don't believe I had ever been in an archive. In the course of doing research for my PhD, I made quite extensive use of government, missionary and private archives in the United Kingdom, France and Madagascar. An exciting moment was locating the archives of the first French Resident of Madagascar after its conquest by French troops in 1895, Hippolyte Laroche.
Mindful parenting intervention for parents of children with skin conditions: a single group experimental cases series
Authors: Heapy Connor , Norman Paul , Emerson Lisa-Marie , Murphy Ruth , Bögels Susan , Thompson Andrew R.
Published: April 2022

Background:

Parents of children with eczema or psoriasis experience high levels of parenting stress, which can negatively impact their child’s mental and physical health.

Aims:

We aimed to investigate the effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of a mindful parenting intervention for parents of children with eczema or psoriasis.

Method:

Seven parents of children (4–12 years old) with eczema or psoriasis took part in an 8-week mindful parenting group intervention. A single-case experimental design was adopted, whereby parents completed daily idiographic measures of parenting stress related to their child’s skin condition. Parents also completed standardised questionnaires measuring their parenting stress, depression, anxiety and quality of life, and children completed a quality of life measure, at four time points: baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention and 6-week follow-up. Parents provided qualitative feedback after the intervention.

Results:

All parents completed the intervention and showed improvements in idiographic measures of parenting stress from baseline to follow-up. Improvements in parenting stress were larger at follow-up than post-intervention, suggesting the benefits of intervention continue beyond the intervention. Six of seven parent–child dyads showed improvement in at least one of the wellbeing measures, from pre-intervention to post-intervention or follow-up. Feasibility was demonstrated through good participant retention, adherence to home practice, and treatment fidelity. Acceptability was demonstrated through positive parent evaluations of the intervention.

Conclusions:

Mindful parenting can be an effective, feasible and acceptable intervention for parents of children with eczema or psoriasis. Future studies should attempt to replicate the findings through randomised controlled trials.
“Sex Education’s Many Sides”: Eugenics and Sex Education in New York City’s Progressive Reform Organizations
Authors: Haager Julia B.
Published: April 2022

This article argues that reformers’ racial nativism, belief in the power of eugenics to improve society, and desire to restrict US citizenship to certain racial groups contributed to reproductive and eugenic curriculum used by early public-school sex education programs. It utilizes newspaper accounts and archival records from the headquarters of the American Social Hygiene Association, Committee of Fourteen, United Neighborhood Houses, and Child Study Association in New York City to answer several crucial questions: What dangers did each organization attribute to adolescent sexuality and reproduction? How did each envision its role in societal improvement and in the sex education movement? What did these reform organizations consider as the ideal relationship between the home, school, and society? While the existing scholarship explains how each of these organizations fit into the larger historical context of progressive reform, examining them separately downplays the degree to which ideas about race, reproduction, immigration, and US citizenship circulated among reformers, especially as leaders of these groups worked across organizational lines to promote sex education.
WHAT IS A RESTRICTIVE THEORY?
Authors: MEADOWS TOBY
Published: April 2022

In providing a good foundation for mathematics, set theorists often aim to develop the strongest theories possible and avoid those theories that place undue restrictions on the capacity to possess strength. For example, adding a measurable cardinal to
$ZFC$
is thought to give a stronger theory than adding
$V=L$
and the latter is thought to be more restrictive than the former. The two main proponents of this style of account are Penelope Maddy and John Steel. In this paper, I’ll offer a third account that is intended to provide a simple analysis of restrictiveness based on the algebraic concept of retraction in the category of theories. I will also deliver some results and arguments that suggest some plausible alternative approaches to analyzing restrictiveness do not live up to their intuitive motivation.
Potassium carbonate effects on spray mixture pressure changes and final pH
Authors: Mueller Thomas C. , Landry Randall L. , Beeler Joseph E. , Steckel Lawrence E.
Published: April 2022

This research examined a potential nuisance aspect of the use of the volatility-reducing agent (VRA) potassium carbonate when combined with glyphosate in spray-tank mixtures. A VRA is now required to be added to dicamba applications to reduce off-target movement from volatility. When no VRA potassium carbonate was added to the spray mixture, there was no pressure buildup. The addition of VRA potassium carbonate plus glyphosate (which lowers the pH) resulted in an observed pressure buildup. Although the gas produced was not identified, it would be expected to be carbon dioxide formed by the dissolution of the carbonate anion from the VRA. Source water pH range from 3.2 to 8.2 had no effect on pressure buildup. Pressure buildup was directly related to water temperature, with a linear response to temperature when the VRA was added last; in contrast, a less direct relationship of temperature to pressure buildup existed at temperatures >30 C when the VRA potassium carbonate was added first. There was no effect on the pressure increase from adding a defoamer or a drift control agent.
Building a Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure to Address Global Grand Challenges for Macrosystem Ecology
Authors: Loescher Henry W. , Vargas Rodrigo , Mirtl Michael , Morris Beryl , Pauw Johan , Yu Xiubo , Kutsch Werner , Mabee Paula , Tang Jianwu , Ruddell Benjamin L. , Pulsifer Peter , Bäck Jaana , Zacharias Steffen , Grant Mark , Feig Gregor , Zhang Leiming , Waldmann Christoph , Genazzio Melissa A.
Published: April 2022

The development of several large‐, “continental”‐scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site‐based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross‐continental ecological research. It will also enhance the research community capabilities to address current and anticipate future global scale ecological challenges. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross‐continental‐scale ERIs.
Advances in Deformable Plate Tectonic Models: 1. Reconstructing Deformable Continental Blocks and Crustal Thicknesses Back Through Time
Authors: King Michael T. , Welford J. Kim
Published: April 2022

Deformable plate tectonic models have been demonstrated to be a useful technique for quantifying temporal variations in strain rate and crustal thickness within recent plate kinematic studies. Using the GPlates software, deformable plate models offer an approach to visualize and assess the interplay of plate kinematics and deformation. However, several assumptions are imposed in previous studies that limit their ability to explain the crustal evolution of various tectonic regimes. Examples of these assumptions include, but are not limited to, the rigid nature of continental blocks and boundaries used to define deformable regions, and uniform crustal thickness assumptions at model start times. In this study, we address these assumptions with newly presented applications using the interplay of GPlates and its python programming library, pyGPlates. In particular, we demonstrate the ability to create deformable continental blocks, reconstruct present day crustal thickness estimates back through time, and how the landward extent of present day crustal thickness estimates can be used to define the limits of deformable plate models and rift domain boundaries a priori. To demonstrate their application and validity, these concepts are evaluated using a previously published deformable plate model of the southern North Atlantic that is tested using 4 modeling scenarios herein to assess the impact of variable model inputs. These models provide insight regarding the pre‐Jurassic (200 Ma) crustal thickness template of the southern North Atlantic, the evolution of continental blocks during rift‐related deformation, and the potential impact of ancient orogenic terranes during subsequent rifting within the North Atlantic.
Identification of BRAF V600E mutation in odontogenic tumors by high-performance MALDI-TOF analysis
Authors: Togni Lucrezia , Zizzi Antonio , Mazzucchelli Roberta , Santarelli Andrea , Rubini Corrado , Mascitti Marco
Published: April 2022

Odontogenic tumors are rare lesions with unknown etiopathogenesis. Most of them are benign, but local aggressiveness, infiltrative potential, and high recurrence rate characterize some entities. The MAP-kinase pathway activation can represent a primary critical event in odontogenic tumorigenesis. Especially, the BRAF V600E mutation has been involved in 80–90% of ameloblastic lesions, offering a biological rationale for developing new targeted therapies. The study aims to evaluate the BRAF V600E mutation in odontogenic lesions, comparing three different detection methods and focusing on the Sequenom MassARRAY System. 81 surgical samples of odontogenic lesions were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis, Sanger Sequencing, and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight mass spectrometry (Sequenom). The BRAF V600E mutation was revealed only in ameloblastoma samples. Moreover, the presence of BRAF V600E was significantly associated with the mandibular site (ρ = 0.627; P value <0.001) and the unicystic histotype (ρ = 0.299, P value <0.001). However, any significant difference of 10-years disease-free survival time was not revealed. Finally, Sequenom showed to be a 100% sensitive and 98.1% specific, suggesting its high-performance diagnostic accuracy. These results suggest the MAP-kinase pathway could contribute to ameloblastic tumorigenesis. Moreover, they could indicate the anatomical specificity of the driving mutations of mandibular ameloblastomas, providing a biological rational for developing new targeted therapies. Finally, the high diagnostic accuracy of Sequenom was confirmed.
Recent advances in modulation of cardiovascular diseases by the gut microbiota
Authors: Masenga Sepiso K. , Hamooya Benson , Hangoma Joy , Hayumbu Valerie , Ertuglu Lale A. , Ishimwe Jeanne , Rahman Sharla , Saleem Mohammad , Laffer Cheryl L. , Elijovich Fernando , Kirabo Annet
Published: April 2022

The gut microbiota has recently gained attention due to its association with cardiovascular health, cancers, gastrointestinal disorders, and non-communicable diseases. One critical question is how the composition of the microbiota contributes to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Insightful reviews on the gut microbiota, its metabolites and the mechanisms that underlie its contribution to CVD are limited. Hence, the aim of this review was to describe linkages between the composition of the microbiota and CVD, CVD risk factors such as hypertension, diet, ageing, and sex differences. We have also highlighted potential therapies for improving the composition of the gut microbiota, which may result in better cardiovascular health.
Modulation of innate immune response to viruses including SARS-CoV-2 by progesterone
Authors: Su Shan , Hua Duo , Li Jin-Peng , Zhang Xia-Nan , Bai Lei , Cao Li-Bo , Guo Yi , Zhang Ming , Dong Jia-Zhen , Liang Xiao-Wei , Lan Ke , Hu Ming-Ming , Shu Hong-Bing
Published: April 2022

Whether and how innate antiviral response is regulated by humoral metabolism remains enigmatic. We show that viral infection induces progesterone via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in mice. Progesterone induces downstream antiviral genes and promotes innate antiviral response in cells and mice, whereas knockout of the progesterone receptor PGR has opposite effects. Mechanistically, stimulation of PGR by progesterone activates the tyrosine kinase SRC, which phosphorylates the transcriptional factor IRF3 at Y107, leading to its activation and induction of antiviral genes. SARS-CoV-2-infected patients have increased progesterone levels, and which are co-related with decreased severity of COVID-19. Our findings reveal how progesterone modulates host innate antiviral response, and point to progesterone as a potential immunomodulatory reagent for infectious and inflammatory diseases.
Antiapoptotic Protein FAIM2 is targeted by miR-3202, and DUX4 via TRIM21, leading to cell death and defective myogenesis
Authors: Soliman Hossam A. N. , Toso Erik A. , Darwish Inas E. , Ali Samia M. , Kyba Michael
Published: April 2022

Inappropriate expression of DUX4, a transcription factor that induces cell death at high levels of expression and impairs myoblast differentiation at low levels of expression, leads to the development of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), however, the pathological mechanisms downstream of DUX4 responsible for muscle loss are poorly defined. We performed a screen of 1972 miR inhibitors for their ability to interfere with DUX4-induced cell death of human immortalized myoblasts. The most potent hit identified by the screen, miR-3202, is known to target the antiapoptotic protein FAIM2. Inhibition of miR-3202 led to the upregulation of FAIM2, and remarkably, expression of DUX4 led to reduced cellular levels of FAIM2. We show that the E3 ubiquitin ligase and DUX4 target gene, TRIM21, is responsible for FAIM2 degradation downstream of DUX4. Human myoblasts overexpressing FAIM2 showed increased resistance to DUX4-induced cell death, whereas in wild-type cells FAIM2 knockdown resulted in increased apoptosis and failure to differentiate into myotubes. The necessity of FAIM2 for myogenic differentiation of WT cells led us to test the effect of FAIM2 overexpression on the impairment of myogenesis by DUX4. Strikingly, FAIM2 overexpression rescued the myogenic differentiation defect caused by low-level expression of DUX4. These data implicate FAIM2 levels, modulated by DUX4 through TRIM21, as an important factor mediating the pathogenicity of DUX4, both in terms of cell viability and myogenic differentiation, and thereby open a new avenue of investigation towards drug targets in FSHD.
Ageing related thyroid deficiency increases brain-targeted transport of liver-derived ApoE4-laden exosomes leading to cognitive impairment
Authors: Zhang Manman , Gong Wenliang , Zhang Dianjun , Ji Ming , Chen Binjie , Chen Beina , Li Xinyu , Zhou Yuefei , Dong Chengyi , Wen Gehua , Zhan Xiaoni , Wu Xiafang , Cui Lulu , Feng Yuliang , Wang Siman , Yuan Huiya , Xu Enyu , Xia Maosheng , Verkhratsky Alexei , Li Baoman
Published: April 2022

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the prevalent cause of dementia in the ageing world population. Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) allele is the key genetic risk factor for AD, although the mechanisms linking ApoE4 with neurocognitive impairments and aberrant metabolism remains to be fully characterised. We discovered a significant increase in the ApoE4 content of serum exosomes in old healthy subjects and AD patients carrying ApoE4 allele as compared with healthy adults. Elevated exosomal ApoE4 demonstrated significant inverse correlation with serum level of thyroid hormones and cognitive function. We analysed effects of ApoE4-containing peripheral exosomes on neural cells and neurological outputs in aged or thyroidectomised young mice. Ageing-associated hypothyroidism as well as acute thyroidectomy augmented transport of liver-derived ApoE4 reach exosomes into the brain, where ApoE4 activated nucleotide-binding oligomerisation domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome by increasing cholesterol level in neural cells. This, in turn, affected cognition, locomotion and mood. Our study reveals pathological potential of exosomes-mediated relocation of ApoE4 from the periphery to the brain, this process can represent potential therapeutic target.
LINC00858 promotes colon cancer progression through activation of STAT3/5 signaling by recruiting transcription factor RAD21 to upregulate PCNP
Authors: Xu Ting , Wu Kun , Shi Jin , Ji Lindong , Song Xudong , Tao Guoquan , Zheng Shutao , Zhang Li , Jiang Baofei
Published: April 2022

The purpose of our investigation is to explore the putative molecular mechanisms underpinning LINC00858 involvement in colon cancer. The expression of LINC00858 in TCGA data was identified using the GEPIA website. Colon cancer cancerous tissues were clinically collected. The expression of LINC00858, RAD21, and PCNP in colon tissues or cells was determined using RT-qPCR. The interactions among LINC00858, RAD21, and PCNP promoter region were determined by means of RNA pull down, RIP, and ChIP assays. Cell proliferative, apoptotic, invasive, and migrated capabilities were evaluated. Western blot was conducted to determine RAD21, PCNP, phosphorylated (p)-STAT3, STAT3, p-STAT5 and STAT5 and apoptosis related proteins. A nude mouse model of colon cancer was constructed and tumorigenesis of colon cancer cells was observed. LINC00858 was upregulated in cancerous tissues and cells. LINC00858 recruited the transcription factor RAD21. Overexpression of LINC00858 promoted the binding of RAD21 and PCNP promoter region, which increased the expression of PCNP. Silencing of RAD21 or PCNP reversed the promoting effect of LINC00858 on the disease initiation and development. PCNP silencing inhibited proliferative ability and promoted apoptotic ability of cancerous cells via STAT3/5 inhibition, which was reversed by colivelin-activated STAT3. In vivo experiments further verified that LINC00858 enhanced the tumorigenicity of colon cancer cells in vivo by regulating the RAD21/PCNP/STAT3/5 axis. It indicated the promoting role of LINC00858 in colon cancer progression though activating PCNP-mediated STAT3/5 pathway by recruiting RAD21.
Transcription factors AP-2α and AP-2β regulate distinct segments of the distal nephron in the mammalian kidney
Authors: Lamontagne Joseph O. , Zhang Hui , Zeid Alia M. , Strittmatter Karin , Rocha Alicia D. , Williams Trevor , Zhang Sheryl , Marneros Alexander G.
Published: April 2022

Transcription factors AP-2α and AP-2β have been suggested to regulate the differentiation of nephron precursor populations towards distal nephron segments. Here, we show that in the adult mammalian kidney AP-2α is found in medullary collecting ducts, whereas AP-2β is found in distal nephron segments except for medullary collecting ducts. Inactivation of AP-2α in nephron progenitor cells does not affect mammalian nephrogenesis, whereas its inactivation in collecting ducts leads to defects in medullary collecting ducts in the adult. Heterozygosity for AP-2β in nephron progenitor cells leads to progressive distal convoluted tubule abnormalities and β-catenin/mTOR hyperactivation that is associated with renal fibrosis and cysts. Complete loss of AP-2β in nephron progenitor cells caused an absence of distal convoluted tubules, renal cysts, and fibrosis with β-catenin/mTOR hyperactivation, and early postnatal death. Thus, AP-2α and AP-2β have non-redundant distinct spatiotemporal functions in separate segments of the distal nephron in the mammalian kidney.
Shared and unique brain network features predict cognitive, personality, and mental health scores in the ABCD study
Authors: Chen Jianzhong , Tam Angela , Kebets Valeria , Orban Csaba , Ooi Leon Qi Rong , Asplund Christopher L. , Marek Scott , Dosenbach Nico U. F. , Eickhoff Simon B. , Bzdok Danilo , Holmes Avram J. , Yeo B. T. Thomas
Published: April 2022

How individual differences in brain network organization track behavioral variability is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. Recent work suggests that resting-state and task-state functional connectivity can predict specific traits at the individual level. However, most studies focus on single behavioral traits, thus not capturing broader relationships across behaviors. In a large sample of 1858 typically developing children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we show that predictive network features are distinct across the domains of cognitive performance, personality scores and mental health assessments. On the other hand, traits within each behavioral domain are predicted by similar network features. Predictive network features and models generalize to other behavioral measures within the same behavioral domain. Although tasks are known to modulate the functional connectome, predictive network features are similar between resting and task states. Overall, our findings reveal shared brain network features that account for individual variation within broad domains of behavior in childhood.
Hardware functional obfuscation with ferroelectric active interconnects
Authors: Yu Tongguang , Xu Yixin , Deng Shan , Zhao Zijian , Jao Nicolas , Kim You Sung , Duenkel Stefan , Beyer Sven , Ni Kai , George Sumitha , Narayanan Vijaykrishnan
Published: April 2022

Existing circuit camouflaging techniques to prevent reverse engineering increase circuit-complexity with significant area, energy, and delay penalty. In this paper, we propose an efficient hardware encryption technique with minimal complexity and overheads based on ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) active interconnects. By utilizing the threshold voltage programmability of the FeFETs, run-time reconfigurable inverter-buffer logic, utilizing two FeFETs and an inverter, is enabled. Judicious placement of the proposed logic makes it act as a hardware encryption key and enable encoding and decoding of the functional output without affecting the critical path timing delay. Additionally, a peripheral programming scheme for reconfigurable logic by reusing the existing scan chain logic is proposed, obviating the need for specialized programming logic and circuitry for keybit distribution. Our analysis shows an average encryption probability of 97.43% with an increase of 2.24%/ 3.67% delay for the most critical path/ sum of 100 critical paths delay for ISCAS85 benchmarks.
A dirigent family protein confers variation of Casparian strip thickness and salt tolerance in maize
Authors: Wang Yanyan , Cao Yibo , Liang Xiaoyan , Zhuang Junhong , Wang Xiangfeng , Qin Feng , Jiang Caifu
Published: April 2022

Plant salt-stress response involves complex physiological processes. Previous studies have shown that some factors promote salt tolerance only under high transpiring condition, thus mediating transpiration-dependent salt tolerance (TDST). However, the mechanism underlying crop TDST remains largely unknown. Here, we report thatZmSTL1(Salt-Tolerant Locus 1) confers natural variation of TDST in maize.ZmSTL1encodes a dirigent protein (termed ZmESBL) localized to the Casparian strip (CS) domain. Mutants lacking ZmESBL display impaired lignin deposition at endodermal CS domain which leads to a defective CS barrier. Under salt condition, mutation of ZmESBL increases the apoplastic transport of Na+across the endodermis, and then increases the root-to-shoot delivery of Na+via transpiration flow, thereby leading to a transpiration-dependent salt hypersensitivity. Moreover, we show that the ortholog of ZmESBL also mediates CS development and TDST in Arabidopsis. Our study suggests that modification of CS barrier may provide an approach for developing salt-tolerant crops.
Reduced chromatin accessibility correlates with resistance to Notch activation
Authors: van den Ameele Jelle , Krautz Robert , Cheetham Seth W. , Donovan Alex P. A. , Llorà-Batlle Oriol , Yakob Rebecca , Brand Andrea H.
Published: April 2022

The Notch signalling pathway is a master regulator of cell fate transitions in development and disease. In the brain, Notch promotes neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation, regulates neuronal migration and maturation and can act as an oncogene or tumour suppressor. How NOTCH and its transcription factor RBPJ activate distinct gene regulatory networks in closely related cell types in vivo remains to be determined. Here we use Targeted DamID (TaDa), requiring only thousands of cells, to identify NOTCH and RBPJ binding in NSCs and their progeny in the mouse embryonic cerebral cortex in vivo. We find that NOTCH and RBPJ associate with a broad network of NSC genes. Repression of NSC-specific Notch target genes in intermediate progenitors and neurons correlates with decreased chromatin accessibility, suggesting that chromatin compaction may contribute to restricting NOTCH-mediated transactivation.