bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
β1 Integrin Adhesion Enhances IL-6–Mediated STAT3 Signaling in Myeloma Cells: Implications for Microenvironment Influence on Tumor Survival and Proliferation
Authors: Shain Kenneth H. , Yarde Danielle N. , Meads Mark B. , Huang Mei , Jove Richard , Hazlehurst Lori A. , Dalton William S. 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
The bone marrow microenvironmental components interleukin (IL)-6 and fibronectin (FN) individually influence the proliferation and survival of multiple myeloma (MM) cells; however, in vivo, these effectors most likely work together. We examined signaling events, cell cycle progression, and levels of drug response in MM cells either adhered to FN via β1 integrins, stimulated with IL-6, or treated with the two combined. Although G1-S cell cycle arrest associated with FN adhesion was overcome when IL-6 was added, the cell adhesion–mediated drug resistance (CAM-DR) was maintained in the presence of IL-6. Concomitant exposure of MM cells to IL-6 and FN adhesion revealed a dramatic increase in signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation, nuclear translocation, and DNA binding, compared with either IL-6 or FN adhesion alone in four MM cell lines. Importantly, this increase in STAT3 activation correlated with a novel association between STAT3 and gp130 in cells adhered to FN before stimulation with IL-6, relative to nonadherent cells. Taken together, these results suggest a mechanism by which collaborative signaling by β1 integrin and gp130 confers an increased survival advantage to MM cells. [Cancer Res 2009;69(3):1009–15]
Longitudinal Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Radiation-Induced White Matter Damage in a Rat Model
Authors: Wang Silun , Wu Ed X. , Qiu Deqiang , Leung Lucullus H.T. , Lau Ho-Fai , Khong Pek-Lan 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
Radiation-induced white matter (WM) damage is a major side effect of whole brain irradiation among childhood cancer survivors. We evaluate longitudinally the diffusion characteristics of the late radiation-induced WM damage in a rat model after 25 and 30 Gy irradiation to the hemibrain at 8 time points from 2 to 48 weeks postradiation. We hypothesize that diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) indices including fractional anisotropy (FA), trace, axial diffusivity (λ//), and radial diffusivity (λ⊥) can accurately detect and monitor the histopathologic changes of radiation-induced WM damage, measured at the EC, and that these changes are dose and time dependent. Results showed a progressive reduction of FA, which was driven by reduction in λ// from 4 to 40 weeks postradiation, and an increase in λ⊥ with return to baseline in λ// at 48 weeks postradiation. Histologic evaluation of irradiated WM showed reactive astrogliosis from 4 weeks postradiation with reversal at 36 weeks, and demyelination, axonal degeneration, and necrosis at 48 weeks postradiation. Moreover, changes in λ// correlated with reactive astrogliosis (P &lt; 0.01) and λ⊥ correlated with demyelination (P &lt; 0.01). Higher radiation dose (30 Gy) induced earlier and more severe histologic changes than lower radiation dose (25 Gy), and these differences were reflected by the magnitude of changes in λ// and λ⊥. DTI indices reflected the histopathologic changes of WM damage and our results support the use of DTI as a biomarker to noninvasively monitor radiation-induced WM damage. [Cancer Res 2009;69(3):1190–8]
Senescent Stromal-Derived Osteopontin Promotes Preneoplastic Cell Growth
Authors: Pazolli Ermira , Luo Xianmin , Brehm Sarah , Carbery Kelly , Chung Jun-Jae , Prior Julie L. , Doherty Jason , Demehri Shadmehr , Salavaggione Lorena , Piwnica-Worms David , Stewart Sheila A. 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
Alterations in the tissue microenvironment collaborate with cell autonomous genetic changes to contribute to neoplastic progression. The importance of the microenvironment in neoplastic progression is underscored by studies showing that fibroblasts isolated from a tumor stimulate the growth of preneoplastic and neoplastic cells in xenograft models. Similarly, senescent fibroblasts promote preneoplastic cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Because senescent cells accumulate with age, their presence is hypothesized to facilitate preneoplastic cell growth and tumor formation in older individuals. To identify senescent stromal factors directly responsible for stimulating preneoplastic cell growth, we carried out whole-genome transcriptional profiling and compared senescent fibroblasts with their younger counterparts. We identified osteopontin (OPN) as one of the most highly elevated transcripts in senescent fibroblasts. Importantly, reduction of OPN protein levels by RNA interference did not affect senescence induction in fibroblasts; however, it dramatically reduced the growth-promoting activities of senescent fibroblasts in vitro and in vivo, showing that OPN is necessary for paracrine stimulation of preneoplastic cell growth. In addition, we found that recombinant OPN was sufficient to stimulate preneoplastic cell growth. Finally, we show that OPN is expressed in senescent stroma within preneoplastic lesions that arise following 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene/12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate treatment of mice, suggesting that stromal-derived OPN-mediated signaling events affect neoplastic progression. [Cancer Res 2009;69(3):1230–9]
Loss of Rad51c Leads to Embryonic Lethality and Modulation of Trp53-Dependent Tumorigenesis in Mice
Authors: Kuznetsov Sergey G. , Haines Diana C. , Martin Betty K. , Sharan Shyam K. 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
RecA/Rad51 protein family members (Rad51, Rad51b, Rad51c, Rad51d, Xrcc2, and Xrcc3) are essential for DNA repair by homologous recombination, and their role in cancers has been anticipated. Here we provide the first direct evidence for a tumor suppressor function for a member of the Rad51 family. We show that Rad51c deficiency leads to early embryonic lethality, which can be delayed on a Trp53-null background. To uncover the role of Rad51c in tumorigenesis, we have exploited the fact that Rad51c and Trp53 are both closely located on the mouse chromosome 11. We have generated double heterozygous (DH) mice carrying mutant alleles of both genes either on different (DH-trans) or on the same chromosome (DH-cis), the latter allowing for a deletion of wild-type alleles of both genes by loss of heterozygosity. DH-trans mice, in contrast to DH-cis, developed tumors with latency and spectrum similar to Trp53 heterozygous mice. Strikingly, Rad51c mutation in DH-cis mice promoted the development of tumors of specialized sebaceous glands and suppressed tumors characteristic of Trp53 mutation. In addition, DH-cis females developed tumors significantly earlier than any other group. [Cancer Res 2009;69(3):863–72]
Limits to Thymidylate Synthase andTP53Genes as Predictive Determinants for Fluoropyrimidine Sensitivity and Further Evidence for RNA-Based Toxicity as a Major Influence
Authors: Brody Jonathan R. , Hucl Tomas , Costantino Christina L. , Eshleman James R. , Gallmeier Eike , Zhu Heng , van der Heijden Michiel S. , Winter Jordan M. , Wikiewicz Agnieszka K. , Yeo Charles J. , Kern Scott E. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe major determinants of 5-flurouracil (5-FU) response would seem, based on accumulated literature, to be thymidylate synthase (TYMS, TS) expression levels, TS gene modifications, and TP53 status. We tested 5-FU sensitivity in yeast and human cancer cell models in which TS or TP53 alleles and expression were varied. Polymorphic TS tandem repeat status, TS expression levels reported, TS intragenic mutations, and TP53 status in outbred and experimental cancer cell lines did not predict 5-FU sensitivity or resistance. Novel observations included a dose-resistant persistence of unbound TS protein in many cancers and, upon 5-FU treatment of the colon cancer cell line, HCT116, evidence of allelic switching favoring transcripts of the mutant TS allele. The reported alleles having an intragenic mutation could not be causally associated with major degrees of 5-FU sensitivity. In yeast, TS protein was altered upon treatment with FdUMP, but 5-FU toxicity seemed to be largely RNA-based, being rescued by uridine rather than by thymidine. Cancer cell lines were also rescued from 5-FU toxicity with uridine rather than thymidine. Additionally, a TS (CDC21) knockout yeast strain, obviating any potential role for TS protein as a target, was hypersensitive to 5-FU. When denatured proteins from cancer cells treated with radiolabeled 5-FU were labeled, species with alternative molecular weights other than TS were visualized, providing further evidence for alternative 5-FU protein targets. These data emphasize that TS and TP53 status do not consistently explain the variance in responses of fluoropyrimidine-treated cancer cells, in part due to RNA-based toxicity. [Cancer Res 2009;69(3):984–91]
A γ-Tocopherol–Rich Mixture of Tocopherols Inhibits Colon Inflammation and Carcinogenesis in Azoxymethane and Dextran Sulfate Sodium–Treated Mice
Authors: Ju Jihyeung , Hao Xingpei , Lee Mao-Jung , Lambert Joshua D. , Lu Gang , Xiao Hang , Newmark Harold L. , Yang Chung S. 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
We investigated the effects of a γ-tocopherol–rich mixture of tocopherols (γ-TmT, containing 57% γ-T, 24% δ-T, and 13% α-T) on colon carcinogenesis in azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)–treated mice. In experiment 1, 6-week-old male CF-1 mice were given a dose of AOM (10 mg/kg body weight, i.p.), and 1 week later, 1.5% DSS in drinking water for 1 week. The mice were maintained on either a γ-TmT (0.3%)–enriched or a standard AIN93M diet, starting 1 week before the AOM injection, until the termination of experiment. In the AOM/DSS–treated mice, dietary γ-TmT treatment resulted in a significantly lower colon inflammation index (52% of the control) on day 7 and number of colon adenomas (9% of the control) on week 7. γ-TmT treatment also resulted in higher apoptotic index in adenomas, lower prostaglandin E2, leukotriene B4, and nitrotyrosine levels in the colon, and lower prostaglandin E2, leukotriene B4, and 8-isoprostane levels in the plasma on week 7. Some of the decreases were observed even on day 7. In experiment 2 with AOM/DSS– treated mice sacrificed on week 21, dietary 0.17% or 0.3% γ-TmT treatment, starting 1 week before the AOM injection, significantly inhibited adenocarcinoma and adenoma formation in the colon (to 17-33% of the control). Dietary 0.3% γ-TmT that was initiated after DSS treatment also exhibited a similar inhibitory activity. The present study showed that γ-TmT effectively inhibited colon carcinogenesis in AOM/DSS–treated mice, and the inhibition may be due to the apoptosis-inducing, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and reactive nitrogen species–trapping activities of tocopherols.
Violating the Rights of the Child through Inadequate Sexual Health Education
Authors: Kennedy Charlene , Covell Katherine 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe focus of this research was to examine the impact of traditional sexual health education, an approach that infringes upon children's rights to information, on 15 year-olds' knowledge of birth control, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, attitudes toward gays and lesbians. One hundred and twenty grade ten students completed a survey comprising measures of sex education received, sexual activity, sexual health knowledge, attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and the teaching of homosexuality, and school-based experiences with homophobia. Our findings reinforce the inadequacy of traditional sexual health education to meet rights consistent standards. Although many of the respondents were sexually active, their knowledge of sexual health issues, and especially of homosexuality, was poor. Homophobic expression was reported to be very common in schools, and teacher interventions were few. Prejudicial attitudes toward gays and lesbians were related to experience with homophobia and to a lack of knowledge about homosexuality. In essence current practices are violating the rights of all children but particularly those of sexual minority status. Consistency with children's rights requires shifts in sex education practices and teacher attitudes and behaviors.
For/Against Hybridity: Religious Entrepreneurships in a Roman Catholic Pilgrimage Shrine in Malaysia
Authors: Yeoh Seng Guan 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBased on ethnographic data gathered in the late 1990s in a popular Roman Catholic pilgrimage shrine in Peninsular Malaysia, this essay discusses popular practices and discourses surrounding elements of everyday religious hybridisation in evidence at the shrine. What are the trajectories amenable to these kinds of translations, exchanges and mixing? How are they contested in turn and why? What do they index about inter-faith relations, and contemporary religious sensibilities in Malaysia?
Negotiating Traditions: Popular Christianity in India
Authors: Robinson Rowena 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper will look at converted Christian communities on the Indian subcontinent and the emergent rich bricolage of religious traditions. A narrative of Indian Christianity takes us almost imperceptibly into the realm of cultural convergence and communication. While the concepts of 'syncretism' or 'composite culture' have framed many discussions regarding this interaction, newer perspectives have begun to emerge. Syncretism sometimes implies the harmonious interaction of different religious traditions, while ethnographies bring up a far more complicated picture of contestation and struggle. We also need to look closely at patterns of religious interaction and engagement. Christianity may take from Hinduism, but this is not always the case. Sometimes both Christianity and Hinduism simultaneously engage with a different religious and cultural environment. Processes are more complex than they at first sight appear and, as this paper will attempt to show, some amount of historicisation is essential when understanding the ways in which they work.
'Mixing and Matching': The Shape of Everyday Hindu Religiosity in Singapore
Authors: Sinha Vineeta 
Published: January 2009

AbstractReligious pluralism is the norm rather than the exception in contemporary societies but this is by no means a recent phenomenon. This is also an empirical field that students of religion have long engaged theoretically. Such scholarly attention has generated a plethora of conceptual tools to make sense of religious encounters in multi-religious settings. As such, a number of phrases — 'religious pluralism,' 'religious diversity' and 'multi-religiosity' — abound in the relevant literature and the notions of pluralism, multiplicity and diversity inform these discussions. Such expressions as 'religious syncretism' and 'religious hybridisation' have also been proposed to address the various interactions witnessed across a variety of religious traditions. I argue that this terminology and the conceptual frames it advances need to be queried in order to assess their value and relevance for theorising interactions amongst religious traditions. This paper focuses on everyday forms of Hindu religiosity in urban Singapore and the kinds of engagement and participation that occur across religious traditions in this multi-religious context. Through my ethnography, I problematise the above-mentioned noted categories, as well as the sense-making strategies they have led to, while proposing alternative modes of approaching the realm of everyday religiosity at the level of practice.
Chinese Religion and the Challenge of Modernity in Malaysia and Singapore: Syncretism, Hybridisation and Transfiguration
Authors: Goh Daniel 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe past fifty years have seen continuing anthropological interest in the changes in religious beliefs and practices among the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore under conditions of rapid modernisation. Anthropologists have used the syncretic model to explain these changes, arguing that practitioners of Chinese "folk" religion have adapted to urbanisation, capitalist growth, nation-state formation, and literacy to preserve their spiritualist worldview, but the religion has also experienced "rationalisation" in response to the challenge of modernity. This article proposes an alternative approach that questions the dichotomous imagination of spiritualist Chinese religion and rationalist modernity assumed by the syncretic model. Using ethnographic, archival and secondary materials, I discuss two processes of change — the transfiguration of forms brought about by mediation in new cultural flows, and the hybridisation of meanings brought about by contact between different cultural systems — in the cases of the Confucianist reform movement, spirit mediumship, Dejiao associations, state-sponsored Chingay parades, reform Taoism, and Charismatic Christianity. These represent both changes internal to Chinese religion and those that extend beyond to reanimate modernity in Malaysia and Singapore. I argue that existential anxiety connects both processes as the consequence of hybridisation and the driving force for transfiguration.
Wudang Mountain and Mount Zion in Taiwan: Syncretic Processes in Space, Ritual Performance, and Imagination
Authors: DeBernardi Jean 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIn this paper, I develop a detailed consideration of ways in which Chinese religious practitioners, including Daoists, Christians, and spirit mediums, deploy syncretism in complex fields of practice. Rather than focusing on doctrinal blending, this study emphasises the ways in which these practitioners combine elements from diverse religious traditions through the media of ritual performance, visual representation, story, and landscape. After considering the diverse ways in which syncretic processes may be deployed in a field of practice, the paper investigates three ethnographic cases, exploring ritual co-celebration at Wudang Mountain in South-central China, charismatic Christian practices in Singapore, and the recent development of Holy Mount Zion as a Christian pilgrimage site in Taiwan.
What's the Use of 'Well-Being' in Contexts of Child Poverty? Approaches to Research, Monitoring and Children's Participation
Authors: Streuli Natalia , Woodhead Martin , Camfield Laura 
Published: January 2009

AbstractMonitoring, protecting and promoting 'well-being' are central to realisation of children's rights. Yet definitions of the concept are both variable and can appear conceptually confused. Competing research paradigms engage with the concept and its measurement, while applications of well-being in policy are equally contested. This paper outlines some of the major debates, as a starting point for reviewing three contrasting approaches to well-being: indicator-based, participatory, and longitudinal research. In particular, it focuses on applications of the concept in contexts of child poverty worldwide. We suggest there are some promising signs of integration amongst these approaches, and argue that well-being does have potential as a bridging concept, at the same time highlighting inequalities, acknowledging diversity, and respecting children's agency. Drawing on the experience of Young Lives, a 15 year, four-country longitudinal study of child poverty, we suggest that methods for studying child well-being in global contexts should be dynamic and sensitive to culture and time, as well as to the trade-offs that children are required to make between themselves and others. We argue that dynamic approaches are especially important in research with children as they address how people change in time. Well-being is understood by Young Lives to be about real people and the social contexts they inhabit. It can act as a lens - similar to culture - which recognises that outcomes of deprivation are influenced by children and their responses to and interpretation of events. Accessing children's views in the context of their communities is important and can increase the accuracy and credibility of research data. Crucially, well-being research also foregrounds subjective meanings and experiences, and provides the background for interpreting 'best interests'. While shared visions for well-being can set parameters of acceptability and underpin basic entitlements, detailed specification must be negotiable, especially taking account of the views of the principal stakeholders, namely children, their caregivers and others centrally concerned with their lives.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the CRC: Is There a Legal Obligation to Cooperate Internationally for Development?
Authors: Vandenhole Wouter 
Published: January 2009

AbstractSeveral provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain references to international cooperation, sometimes in combination with a reference to the needs of developing countries. This article explores whether these references, in light of the interpretation given by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and of other human rights treaties which contain similar wording (in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Disability Convention), amount to a legal obligation to cooperate internationally for development in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. While it is not possible to establish the existence of a legal obligation to provide development assistance in general – which would amount to an extraterritorial obligation to fulfil – legal obligations to respect and protect economic, social and cultural rights of children in third countries do apply. Moreover, the CRC Committee has clarified some specific obligations of fulfilment for donor countries, such as, amongst others, the allocation of 0,7 per cent of GDP to development assistance, and the adoption of a rights-based approach to development cooperation, in which children's rights are mainstreamed.
Child Protection vs. Crime Prevention: The Regulation of Young Offenders' Private Information in Canada
Authors: Piñero Verónica Beatriz 
Published: January 2009

AbstractHaving examined 151 years of enacted legislation in the Canadian youth criminal justice system (1857–2007), the author analyzes how the Parliament of Canada has regulated the publication of information that identifies young people as being or having been dealt with by the justice system. Piñero identifies four different time periods in the legislation: 1857–1891; 1892–1907; 1908–1981; and 1982–2007. The regulation enacted during 1857–1891 was not concerned with the publication of information that may identify young offenders. This position started to change during the period 1892–1907, reaching its highest point during the period 1908–1981. The 1908–1981 period was highly concerned with the protection of young offenders' private information, since such a measure was perceived as an important factor for granting young offenders rehabilitation. However, since 1982 this direction started to change: the enacted regulation during the period 1982–2007 drew a distinction between two groups of young offenders according to the seriousness of the committed offences, thereby protecting the private information of one of the groups but not the private information of the other. Piñero argues that the theoretical implications underlying the regulation of young offenders' privacy rights in the period 1908–1981 constituted an evolution (innovation) with regard to the periods 1857–1891 and 1892–1907, while the theoretical implications underlying the period 1982–2007 constituted (and constitute) a regression as to the third period.