Search results for "Western"

Editorial: Positive Technology: Designing E-experiences for Positive Change

2019

While there is little doubt that our lives are becoming increasingly digital, whether this change is for the better or for the worse is far from being settled. Rather, over the past years concerns about the personal and social impacts of technologies have been growing, fueled by dystopian Orwellian scenarios that almost on daily basis are generously dispensed by major Western media outlets. According to a recent poll involving some 1,150 experts, 47% of respondents predict that individuals’ well-being will bemore helped than harmed by digital life in the next decade, while 32% say people’s well-being will bemore harmed than helped. Only 21% of those surveyed indicated that the impact of tec…

Federaliści i rozłam między klasycznością a modernością

2014

The article shows how the classical political thinking, based on civic virtues, and modernist thinking, based on individualism and self-interest, formed the basis of the U.S. Constitution. The Founding Fathers did not realize the full extent of the rift between classicism and modernity. When, as a result of intellectual discussions and practice of social life, this divide began to become more and more obvious, there has been a transition from the classical to the modernist paradigm in American politics. However, the dispute between classicism and modernity still continues and takes on new forms. On the one hand, contemporary political thinking is seen as a triumph of modernism, in which the…

Rac1-Regulated Endothelial Radiation Response Stimulates Extravasation and Metastasis That Can Be Blocked by HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors

2011

Radiotherapy (RT) plays a key role in cancer treatment. Although the benefit of ionizing radiation (IR) is well established, some findings raise the possibility that irradiation of the primary tumor not only triggers a killing response but also increases the metastatic potential of surviving tumor cells. Here we addressed the question of whether irradiation of normal cells outside of the primary tumor augments metastasis by stimulating the extravasation of circulating tumor cells. We show that IR exposure of human endothelial cells (EC), tumor cells (TC) or both increases TC-EC adhesion in vitro. IR-stimulated TC-EC adhesion was blocked by the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin. Glycyrr…

Rho GTPases in human breast tumours: expression and mutation analyses and correlation with clinical parameters

2002

In the present study, we addressed the question of a putative relevance of Rho proteins in tumour progression by analysing their expression on protein and mRNA level in breast tumours. We show that the level of RhoA, RhoB, Rac1 and Cdc42 protein is largely enhanced in all tumour samples analysed (n=15) as compared to normal tissues originating from the same individual. The same is true for 32P-ADP-ribosylation of Rho proteins which is catalysed by Clostridium botulinum exoenzyme C3. Also the amount of Rho-GDI and ERK2 as well as the level of overall 32P-GTP binding acvitity was tumour-specific elevated, yet to a lower extent than Rho proteins. Although the amount of Rho proteins was enhance…

Mapping of Biomass Residues for Potential Energy Generation from the Wine-Growing Sector in the Provinces of Palermo and Trapani

2019

This paper is based on results obtained during the project Vienergy (Interreg Italia-Malta programme 2007-2013) and contains data on the potential energy generation of biomass residues following pruning from vineyards located within the provinces of Trapani and Palermo. Analysis of the energy potential, following microgasification tests and heat production related to the biomass, included a preliminary mapping of vineyards in the area and an assessment of the total biomass available. Vineyard mapping was carried out using remote-sensing technologies: images were acquired and analysed using Landsat satellite; spectroradiometric calibration then took place using various targets obtained from …

Activation of astroglial phospholipase D activity by phorbol ester involves ARF and Rho proteins.

2000

Primary cultures of rat cortical astrocytes express phospholipase D (PLD) isoforms 1 and 2 as determined by RT-PCR and Western blot. Basal PLD activity was strongly (10-fold) increased by 4beta-phorbol-12beta,13alpha-dibutyrate (PDB) (EC(50): 56 nM), an effect which was inhibited by Ro 31-8220 (0.1-1 microM), an inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC), and by brefeldin A (10-100 microg/ml), an inhibitor of ADP-ribosylating factor (ARF) activation. Pretreatment of the cultures with Clostridium difficile toxin B-10463 (0.1-1 ng/ml), which inactivates small G proteins of the Rho family, led to a breakdown of the astroglial cytoskeleton; concomitantly, PLD activation by PDB was reduced by up to 50%…

Inhibition of Rho modulates cytokine-induced prostaglandin E2 formation in renal mesangial cells.

2003

Stimulation of rat mesangial cells for 24 h with interleukin-1β(IL-1β) plus forskolin (Fk) leads to a marked increase in prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) synthesis. This effect is further enhanced by the small G-protein Rho inhibitor toxin A. A similar increase in PGE 2 formation is obtained with Y27632, a Rho-dependent kinase inhibitor, and with lovastatin, a hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A inhibitor which depletes cells from geranylgeranyl moieties and thus blocks Rho activation. In parallel to the increased PGE 2 synthesis, a potentiation of IL-1β-induced secretory group IIA phospholipases A 2 (sPLA 2 -IIA) protein expression also occurs by Rho inhibition. However, only toxin A triggers an in…

MECCANISMI DI DEFORMAZIONE IN ROCCE CARBONATICHE STRATIFICATE: IMPLICAZIONI PER LA CIRCOLAZIONE DEI GEOFLUIDI

2014

Nel presente lavoro è stata condotta un’analisi quali/quantitativa degli elementi strutturali che caratterizzano alcuni affioramenti carbonatici presenti nella zona di catena esterna della Sicilia occidentale (Monte Maranfusa e Montangna Grande), e nella zona di avampaese in Sicilia sud-orientale (Monti Iblei). Le proprietà petrofisiche delle rocce carbonatiche (porosità, permeabilità), sono strettamente legate all’evoluzione diagenetica di quest’ultime e cambiano in funzione della natura, dell’organizzazione e della forma degli elementi che le costituiscono (grani, pori, cemento, minerali, ecc.). Tali proprietà sono inoltre fortemente condizionate dalla natura delle discontinuità tettonich…

Rural architecture in Western Sicily tradition. Identity, sustainable recovery

2010

Further development of integrated threat theory and intergroup contact: a reply to Aberson (2015)

2016

ABSTRACTThis essay furthers a dialogue about the theoretical and statistical merits of Croucher's [(2013). Integrated threat theory and acceptance of immigrant assimilation: An analysis of Muslim immigration in Western Europe. Communication Monographs, 80, 46–62] study exploring the relationships between threat from an immigrant group, belief that an immigrant wants to assimilate, and intergroup contact. Key points of divergence include assertions that (a) the relationships in the original piece are counter to previous literature/relationships, (b) the correlations presented are implausible, (c) the magnitude of the relationships is too strong, and (d) the manuscript has “odd” multiple regr…