bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cardiac differentiation is modulated by anti-apoptotic signals in murine embryonic stem cells
Authors: Yehya Amani , Azar Joseph , Al-Fares Mohamad , Boeuf Helene , Abou-Kheir Wassim , Zeineddine Dana , Hadadeh Ola 
Published: May 2024

BACKGROUND
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) serve as a crucial ex vivo model, representing epiblast cells derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos. ESCs exhibit a unique combination of self-renewal potency, unlimited proliferation, and pluripotency. The latter is evident by the ability of the isolated cells to differentiate spontaneously into multiple cell lineages, representing the three primary embryonic germ layers. Multiple regulatory networks guide ESCs, directing their self-renewal and lineage-specific differentiation. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, emerges as a key event involved in sculpting and forming various organs and structures ensuring proper embryonic development. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the dynamic interplay between differentiation and apoptosis remain poorly understood.
AIM
To investigate the regulatory impact of apoptosis on the early differentiation of ESCs into cardiac cells, using mouse ESC (mESC) models - mESC-B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2), mESC-PIM-2, and mESC-metallothionein-1 (MET-1) - which overexpress the anti-apoptotic genes Bcl-2 , Pim-2 , and Met-1 , respectively.
METHODS
mESC-T2 (wild-type), mESC-BCL-2, mESC-PIM-2, and mESC-MET-1 have been used to assess the effect of potentiated apoptotic signals on cardiac differentiation. The hanging drop method was adopted to generate embryoid bodies (EBs) and induce terminal differentiation of mESCs. The size of the generated EBs was measured in each condition compared to the wild type. At the functional level, the percentage of cardiac differentiation was measured by calculating the number of beating cardiomyocytes in the manipulated mESCs compared to the control. At the molecular level, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to assess the mRNA expression of three cardiac markers: Troponin T, GATA4, and NKX2.5. Additionally, troponin T protein expression was evaluated through immunofluorescence and western blot assays.
RESULTS
Our findings showed that the upregulation of Bcl-2 , Pim-2 , and Met-1 genes led to a reduction in the size of the EBs derived from the manipulated mESCs, in comparison with their wild-type counterpart. Additionally, a decrease in the count of beating cardiomyocytes among differentiated cells was observed. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of three cardiac markers - troponin T, GATA4, and NKX2.5 - was diminished in mESCs overexpressing the three anti-apoptotic genes compared to the control cell line. Moreover, the overexpression of the anti-apoptotic genes resulted in a reduction in troponin T protein expression.
CONCLUSION
Our findings revealed that the upregulation of Bcl-2 , Pim-2 , and Met-1 genes altered cardiac differentiation, providing insight into the intricate interplay between apoptosis and ESC fate determination.
Exploring minimal indirect digital economy taxation as a post-COVID-19 economic recovery strategy for African revenue mobilisation
Authors: Aren Marie-Louise Fehun 
Published: May 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath continue to devastate most areas of society and continue to reveal inherent structural vulnerabilities in the economies, social, and health systems in countries. In addition, the Russia-Ukraine conflict of 2022 and the geopolitics of its resolution continue to create shocks across the globe- evidenced by rising inflation, increased sovereign debt level, recession, and reduced public expenditure among others. While many sectors of the economy were crippled by the back-to-back global economic shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict through reduced economic activities resulting in a global recession and reduced tax revenues for public expenditure, the digital economy has surprisingly boomed and continues to grow in this period of uncertainty. This has been directly attributed to the 'lure of the alternative', caused by the social and economic lockdowns imposed by countries, which pushed many persons and companies to explore the next available option- online platforms to conduct business. Although the rise in the use of digital platforms for business activities is commendable, this development has some implications for traditional business frameworks which in turn affects revenue mobilisation for funding public infrastructure projects and services. This is because, in Africa, the digital economy is not as well-regulated as the traditional economy. This creates an avenue for tax evasion and avoidance, arising from the dynamic and complex nature of digital transactions. This challenge requires that urgent solutions be found for the effective taxation of the digital economy. There will be a need to review/reform economic and fiscal policies and laws to ensure a faster recovery from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. There would also be a need to create digital tax policies that are equitable for source and market jurisdictions and, lastly, there will be a need for cooperation in tax law and policies across Africa that capture the reality of the growth and ubiquitous presence of digital multinationals in Africa.
Assessment of post-myocardial infarction lipid levels and management: Results from a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan
Authors: Rauf Rubina , Soomro Muhammad Ismail , Khan Muhamman Nauman , Kumar Mukesh , Soomro Najia Aslam , Kazmi Khawar Abbas 
Published: May 2024

BACKGROUND
Lipid treatment practices and levels in post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, which are crucial for secondary prevention.
AIM
To evaluate the lipid treatment practices and lipid levels in post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.
METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed patients who had experienced their first AMI event in the past 3 years. We assessed fasting and non-fasting lipid profiles, reviewed statin therapy prescriptions, and examined patient compliance. The recommended dose was defined as rosuvastatin ≥ 20 mg or atorvastatin ≥ 40 mg, with target total cholesterol levels set at < 160 mg/dL and target low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) at < 55 mg/dL.
RESULTS
Among 195 patients, 71.3% were male, and the mean age was 57.1 ± 10.2 years. The median duration since AMI was 36 (interquartile range: 10-48) months and 60% were diagnosed with ST-segment elevation MI. Only 13.8% of patients were advised to undergo lipid profile testing after AMI, 88.7% of patients were on the recommended statin therapy, and 91.8% of patients were compliant with statin therapy. Only 11.5% had LDL-C within the target range and 71.7% had total cholesterol within the target range. Hospital admission in the past 12 months was reported by 14.4%, and the re-admission rate was significantly higher among non-compliant patients (37.5% vs 5.6%). Subsequent AMI event rate was also significantly higher among non-compliant patients (43.8% vs 11.7%).
CONCLUSION
Our study highlights that while most post-AMI patients received the recommended minimum statin therapy dose, the inadequate practice of lipid assessment may compromise therapy optimization and raise the risk of subsequent events.
MORPHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT AND ABUNDANCE OF MANGROVE CLAM (Geloina expansa) AND ITS SEDIMENT GRAIN SIZE PREFERENCES AT PULAU SUTUNG AND PULAU BUSUNG, SETIU WETLANDS, TERENGGANU
Authors: SAGARAN NAVEIN , AZHARI MUHAMMAD AMIN DANISH , MOHD JAMEL MUHAMMAD ALIF , SAHARI MOHAMAD SAIFUL IMRAN , MUHAMMAD NOR SITI MARIAM , ALIAS AMIRAH , ABDULLAH SAMSURI , WAN OMAR WAN BAYANI 
Published: May 2024

Geloina expansa is an infaunal filter-feeding clam species found in mangrove forest. They are important for humans and aquatic ecosystem. Not much information about morphological measurement, abundance and sediment grain size at Pulau Sutung and Pulau Busung. This study aims to determine the shell size measurements, the abundance and the composition of sediment grain size in these sites. Line transects were used for samples and sediment collection in a plot at Pulau Sutung and Pulau Busung. Twenty samples from each site were measured. The grain size and total carbon percentage were obtained using sieve shaker and ignition method. Independent t-test was conducted using SPSS for abundance density and measurements between two sites. 155 specimens (Pulau Sutung = 90; Pulau Busung = 65) were collected. However, abundance density between the two sites were insignificant. The most dominant grain size in Pulau Sutung is C500 whereas VC1000 is dominant in Pulau Busung. Mean shell length (= 55.35mm ± 6.39) and height (= 52.51mm ± 6.14) in Pulau Busung were greater than in Pulau Sutung (= 53.21mm ± 6.39; = 51.10mm ± 6.49), respectively. But mean shell width in Pulau Sutung, (= 31.30 mm ± 3.20) is greater than in Pulau Busung (= 31.19mm ± 4.05) but measurements were insignificantly different between the sites. This result will be useful to establish a baseline of data and also for the management and sustainability of the species. Future studies must be done by considering water parameter and collecting more samples from more site in Setiu Wetlands.
Явище спадкового авторитаризму в сучасних політичних системах: історико-політичний аспект
Authors: Цапко О.М. 
Published: May 2024

Стаття присвячена розкриттю сутності, змісту та варіантам практичної реалізації явища спадкового авторитаризму в політичній практиці сучасних країн з авторитарною формою правління. Актуальність зазначеної теми пояснюється нинішніми кардинальними геополітичними змінами, які пов’язані з посиленням впливу країн з недемократичною формою державного управління на сучасну світову політику. Автор статті зокрема зазначає, що за своєю сутністю спадковий авторитаризм виходить з самої природи авторитарних політичних режимів і є результатом їхньої трансформації. В даному випадку в розумінні спадкового авторитаризму, ключовою виступає категорія передавання у спадок персоніфікованої політичної влади від авторитарного правителя своєму наступнику.
У статті також доводиться, що спадковий авторитаризм, не є еволюційною формою розвитку держави, оскільки він не забезпечує якісну спадкоємність влади. Однак, при цьому, спадковий авторитаризм ми не можемо й вважати спонтанним етапом розвитку держави, оскільки він є логічним наслідком суспільно-політичних процесів, які відбуваються в країні, коли політична система потребує змін, однак ці зміни відбуваються під впливом політичної еліти, а не суспільства.
В умовах сучасних політичних систем, спадковий авторитаризм був реалізований в Сирії, Азербайджані, Туркменістані. Так виникнення спадкового авторитаризму у Сирії пояснюється необхідністю збереження в цій країні складної владної конструкції, що поєднувала в собі міжобщинні, кланові та сімейні відносин на основі міжособистісних взаємних зобов’язаннях. В умовах Азербайджану спадковий авторитаризм існує, у формі у «спадкової республіки», основу якій заклав перший президент країни Г. Алієв. Щодо спадкового авторитаризму в Туркменістані, то його особливістю є та, що в країні була сформована двовладна система державного управління.
Окрім вищезазначених країн, тенденція спадкового авторитаризму також прослідковується у політичній практиці цілої низки країн пострадянського простору, зокрема в Казахстані, Узбекистані, Таджикистані, Білорусі.
На завершення, автор статті, зважаючи на те, що спадковий авторитаризм є новим поняттям в сучасній науці, накреслив напрями його подальшого вивчення та осмислення.
Empirical Study on Procurement Planning Practices and Procurement Performance of Centenary Bank, Uganda
Authors: Namwanje Josephine , Yahaya Kisu , Nimusima Pereez , Rwambale Kahdiri 
Published: May 2024

Purpose: Commercial banks have over time had procurement performance challenges owing from the poor procurement planning as reported in different procurement management literature. This study was carried out to examine the relationship between procurement planning and procurement performance of Centenary Bank Mapeera (CBM).
Materials and Methods: Cross sectional survey research design was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from centenary bank team leaders, tender committee members, procurement officers, legal officers, procurement and disposal unit staff, credit officers, branch management officers and from prequalified suppliers and provider’s FY 2022/23. From a total population of 190 employees, a sample size of 129 was determined using Slovin’s (1965) formula. Specific random and none random sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview guide and was analyzed using correlation and thematic analysis techniques.
Findings: The findings displayed in the correlation analysis results for CBM (r = 0.653, p<.01) show a significant positive relationship between the predictor variable and the outcome variable. Specifically, budgeting and procurement performance at CBM were positive and significant (r =0.532, p<.01); needs assessment and procurement performance were significant and positive (r =0.484, p<.01); however, for contract administration and procurement performance the relationship was positive but none significant (r =0.613, p>.05). The likely explanation here could have been the fact that entities are geared towards cost reduction at the cost of quality improvement which would be possible through procurement planning.
Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: From this study it is envisaged that commercial banks which institute systematic procurement planning systems would realize improvement in procurement performance.
Keywords: Procurement, Performance, Central Bank, Uganda, Planning
JEL Classification Codes: H32; H57; J18; L91; M21;
Before Busing
Authors: Miletsky Zebulon Vance 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
In many histories of Boston, African Americans have remained almost invisible. Partly as a result, when the 1972 crisis over school desegregation and busing erupted, many observers professed shock at the overt racism on display in the "cradle of liberty." Yet the city has long been divided over matters of race, and it was also home to a far older Black organizing tradition than many realize. A community of Black activists had fought segregated education since the origins of public schooling and racial inequality since the end of northern slavery. Before Busing tells the story of the men and women who struggled and demonstrated to make school desegregation a reality in Boston. It reveals the legal efforts and battles over tactics that played out locally and influenced the national Black freedom struggle. And the book gives credit to the Black organizers, parents, and children who fought long and hard battles for justice that have been left out of the standard narratives of the civil rights movement. What emerges is a clear picture of the long and hard-fought campaigns to break the back of Jim Crow education in the North and make Boston into a better, more democratic city—a fight that continues to this day.
Introduction
Authors: Miletsky Zebulon Vance 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
The Introduction of the book explains the rationale for looking at the early history leading up to the Boston school desegregation crisis. It offers a new way of contextualizing this moment in which the violence that accompanied busing was seen as coming “out of the blue.” Before Busing offers a new history of Boston, one that undermines the myth of Boston as a city devoid of racial tensions by revealing the ways in which Black self-assertion and white supremacy have long coexisted as major drivers of economic, social, and political life throughout the city’s history. Central to the mission of Before Busing is an effort to respond to J. Anthony Lukas’s influential, but flawed, Common Ground, by shifting the focus away from white reaction back toward African American agency and activism, which was largely overlooked. From this launching point, the Introduction outlines the intellectual architecture of the book and situates it within the broader historiography, underscoring the major scholarly interventions the text makes.
Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud, 1967–1970
Authors: Miletsky Zebulon Vance 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter examines race relations and growing racial polarization in Boston during the tumultuous Black Power era, interrogating the idea of “Boston Exceptionalism,” the claim that Boston did not suffer from the same racial problems as other northern cities during the late-1960s. A critically acclaimed documentary, “The Night James Brown Saved Boston,” offered a good example of this rosy narrative. The film juxtaposes images of widespread urban rebellion in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, with the riot-that-wasn’t in Boston. On April 5th the night after King’s death, James Brown was scheduled to perform at the old Boston Garden, a show that the local authorities considered cancelling out of concern that the large African American crowd might riot. Instead, city officials decided to televise the concert, with the goal of keeping African Americans in their homes, giving the mayor a public platform to present a message of peace and unity. In fact, the previous year, three days of rioting, violence and property destruction followed a sit-in demonstration by the Mothers for Adequate Welfare (MAW). In many ways, these simmering tensions set the stage for the racial crisis to come over busing during the early-1970s.
Building
Authors: McNamara Sarah 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Chapter 1, “Building,” situates the state of Florida, and the city of Tampa, as an international borderland where people and ideas competed for authority over this space as well as their independent sovereignty since the sixteenth century. It likewise follows the movement of the Cuban cigar industry from the island to Florida during the 1860s and examines the establishment and early history of Ybor City through the turn of the twentieth century.
Give Us Liberty, or We Will Tear the Place Apart!
Authors: Shull Kristina 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter further establishes the book’s central argument that immigration detention operates as a form of counterinsurgency by analyzing a series of case studies of acts of resistance led by detained Haitian and Central American asylum-seekers and Central American peace and Sanctuary movement activists, and forms of US government retaliation. It recounts a series of hunger strikes, acts of coordinated unrest, and mobilization of Haitian testimonies through inside-outside organizing at the Krome detention center in Miami and at Fort Allen, Puerto Rico. It also details the origins, growth, and activities of the transnational 1980s Sanctuary movement which effectively shielded Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum-seekers from detention and deportation, including internal tensions over organizing tactics and the movement’s use of media and public relations to denounce US Central American foreign policy. The second half of the chapter details how the Reagan administration responded to resistance inside and outside of detention with retaliation that amounted to a “total war” against immigrants in detention and allies on the outside. Forms of retaliation included physical abuse, solitary confinement, transfers, and deportation of people in detention, and use of covert tactics to surveil, intimidate, harass, and prosecute Sanctuary movement activists.
Somos los Abandonados
Authors: Shull Kristina 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
The book’s final chapter follows the indefinite detention of Mariel Cubans throughout the 1980s and argues that the US government’s handling of this refugee group helped to cement new immigration detention and “crimmigration” policies in place by decade’s end. As the Reagan administration sought new sites to build a more permanent kind of detention center in fulfillment of the Mass Immigration Emergency Plan and in collaboration with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Bureau of Prisons, it confronted community-level resistance. However, it found solutions in the neoliberal economics of privatization, the adoption of private prison contracting, and in prison boosterism embraced by economically depressed communities in US sunbelt regions such as Oakdale, Louisiana. The chapter concludes by recounting a 15-day dual prison uprising and takeover led by Mariel Cubans detained at Oakdale and the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, the longest such uprising in US history. Negotiations between Mariel Cubans and the US government and media coverage of events revealed how Cubans appealed to US audiences for due process and freedom, and how the INS subsequently retaliated against the uprising by denying due process and dispersing Mariel Cubans to prisons across the country.
The Other Side of Silence
Authors: Afkhami Mahnaz 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
When Mahnaz Afkhami picked up the phone in a New York hotel room early one morning in November 1978, she learned she could never go home again: she had been declared an apostate and enemy of the Iranian Revolution and was now on its death list. Afkhami, Iran's first minister for women's affairs, began to rebuild her life in the United States, becoming an architect of the women’s movement in the Global South. Along the way, she encountered familial, cultural, political, and organizational hurdles that threatened to derail her quest to empower women and change the very structure of human relations. A skilled storyteller who has spent her life in two worlds, Mahnaz Afkhami shares her unexpected and meteoric rise from unassuming English professor to a champion of women's rights in Iran; the clash between Western feminists and those from the Global South; and the challenges of international women's rights work during the so-called war on terror. Her journey through exile shows what it takes to launch and sustain a worldwide grassroots movement: funding, an ever-expanding network, conferences, education, and decades of hard work requiring individuals and organizations to persevere despite ongoing wars, humanitarian disasters, and climate change. Told with humor, honesty, and compassion, Afkhami's remarkable story illuminates the possibility of bringing opportunity and choice to women across the world.
SIGI Comes Into Its Own
Authors: Afkhami Mahnaz 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
As SIGI leader, the author travelled to Beijing in 1995 for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women. In many SIGI meetings and conferences, before and after the Beijing conference, the idea of a human rights education project for women in Muslim societies was identified as a priority. With a colleague, she wrote Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women’s Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies, a manual that brought together human values embedded in the religious texts as well as the international documents of rights and provided a learning method that empowered women to believe in their own capability to understand and decipher ideas and relate them to their life decisions. Within two years it was translated into eleven languages and culturally adapted for use in workshops in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria, and Uzbekistan. This manual helped SIGI become a well-known international human rights organization and demonstrated how an NGO with modest financial support could bring together a shared vision that would help women effect change in their own countries.