Search results for "primary"
showing 10 items of 2384 documents
The ‘Open Garden of Politics’: The impact of open primaries for candidate selection in the British Conservative Party
2016
International audience; Since 2003, hundreds of open primaries for the selection of parliamentary candidates have been held by the British Conservative Party as a means of democratising party organisation and enhancing representativeness. In the run-up to the 2015 general election, only 26 primaries could be identified. This article will apply the analytical framework provided by Hazan and Rahat to demonstrate that the relative failure of the experiment in terms of intra-party competition, participation, representation and responsiveness is counterbalanced by the benefits brought by this procedure, both as a tool of party branding at the national level and as a strategy for raising the prof…
The 2015 Spanish election: the times they are a’ changing
2016
ABSTRACTThe Spanish legislative election of 2015 speaks of change. This is the end of the traditional two-party system and the beginning of a new political era marked by institutional renewal. The Socialist Party and the Partido Popular have both lost significant parliamentary force, whereas two new parties (Podemos, and Ciudadanos) are now crucial to ensure stable government majorities. This new parliamentary scenario seems to better mirror the political pluralism of a changing society which has already demonstrated for change in striking events such as the 15-M Movement. However, political parties are far from showing conciliatory aspirations, possibly because a new election is suddenly a…
Comments on "Dental lessons from past to present: Ultrastructure and composition of teeth from plesiosaurs, dinosaurs, extinct and recent sharks" by …
2016
The paper mentioned in the title suggests that several groups of extinct vertebrates used fluoroapatite as a tooth mineral in dentine and enamel when alive; its authors posit that this tooth mineralization drastically changed in all these lineages at some point during their evolution, leading to the use of hydroxyapatite as an alternative primary tooth mineral, because of hitherto unconsidered environmental changes. These conclusions are based on their finding high fluoride levels (i.e. fluoroapatite) in the dentine of fossilised shark teeth as well as in both the dentine and enamel of plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and dinosaurs, which is in sharp contrast to recent teeth (which contain almost no…
Unity Makes Strength: A Review on Mutualistic Symbiosis in Representative Insect Clades
2019
Settled on the foundations laid by zoologists and embryologists more than a century ago, the study of symbiosis between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is an expanding field. In this review, we present several models of insect–bacteria symbioses that allow for the detangling of most known features of this distinctive way of living, using a combination of very diverse screening approaches, including molecular, microscopic, and genomic techniques. With the increasing the amount of endosymbiotic bacteria genomes available, it has been possible to develop evolutionary models explaining the changes undergone by these bacteria in their adaptation to the intracellular host environment. The establishmen…
Notch-1 decreased expression contributes to leptin receptor downregulation in nasal epithelium from allergic turbinates
2019
Abstract BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis is characterized by a remodeling of nasal epithelium. Since the Notch and TGF-β signaling pathways are known to be involved in cell differentiation and remodeling processes and leptin adipokine has already been identified as a marker for homeostasis in human bronchial and nasal epithelial cells of asthmatics, roles played by these pathways have been investigated for chronic allergic rhinitis. METHODS: The leptin/leptin receptor expression has been investigated in a study with 40 biopsies from allergic (AR, n = 18) and non-allergic (C, n = 22) inferior turbinates, using immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence staining and RT-PCR. In addition, extracts …
Intracortical facilitation within the migraine motor cortex depends on the stimulation intensity. A paired-pulse TMS study
2018
Abstract Introduction Connectivity within the primary motor cortex can be measured using the paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm. This evaluates the effect of a first conditioning stimulus on the motor evoked potential (MEP) elicited by a second test stimulus when different interstimulus intervals are used. Aim of the present study was to provide, in patients suffering from migraine without aura (MwoA), additional information on intracortical facilitation (ICF), short intracortical inhibition (SICI), and long intracortical inhibition (LICI), using different intensities of the test stimulus (TS). Methods We enrolled 24 patients with episodic MwoA and 24 age- and sex…
Electrical activity controls area-specific expression of neuronal apoptosis in the mouse developing cerebral cortex
2017
Programmed cell death widely but heterogeneously affects the developing brain, causing the loss of up to 50% of neurons in rodents. However, whether this heterogeneity originates from neuronal identity and/or network-dependent processes is unknown. Here, we report that the primary motor cortex (M1) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1), two adjacent but functionally distinct areas, display striking differences in density of apoptotic neurons during the early postnatal period. These differences in rate of apoptosis negatively correlate with region-dependent levels of activity. Disrupting this activity either pharmacologically or by electrical stimulation alters the spatial pattern of apoptos…
Effects of Study Population, Labeling and Training on Glaucoma Detection Using Deep Learning Algorithms
2020
Author(s): Christopher, Mark; Nakahara, Kenichi; Bowd, Christopher; Proudfoot, James A; Belghith, Akram; Goldbaum, Michael H; Rezapour, Jasmin; Weinreb, Robert N; Fazio, Massimo A; Girkin, Christopher A; Liebmann, Jeffrey M; De Moraes, Gustavo; Murata, Hiroshi; Tokumo, Kana; Shibata, Naoto; Fujino, Yuri; Matsuura, Masato; Kiuchi, Yoshiaki; Tanito, Masaki; Asaoka, Ryo; Zangwill, Linda M | Abstract: PurposeTo compare performance of independently developed deep learning algorithms for detecting glaucoma from fundus photographs and to evaluate strategies for incorporating new data into models.MethodsTwo fundus photograph datasets from the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study/African Descent…
Chemoprevention and therapeutic role of essential oils and phenolic compounds: Modeling tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma
2021
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary tumor of the central nervous system. Current treatments available for GBM entails surgical resection followed by temozolomide chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, which are associated with multidrug resistance and severe side effects. While this treatment could yield good results, in almost all cases, patients suffer from relapse, which leads to reduced survival rates. Thus, therapeutic approaches with improved efficiency and reduced off-target risks are needed to overcome these problems. Regarding this, natural products appear as a safe and attractive strategy as chemotherapeutic agents or adjuvants in the treatment of GBM. Besides the increasing …
The cytoprotective protein MANF promotes neuronal survival independently from its role as a GRP78 cofactor
2021
Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-regulated protein exhibiting cytoprotective properties through a poorly understood mechanism in various in vitro and in vivo models of neuronal and non-neuronal damage. Although initially characterized as a secreted neurotrophic factor for midbrain dopamine neurons, MANF has recently gained more interest for its intracellular role in regulating the ER homeostasis, including serving as a cofactor of the chaperone glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78). We aimed for a better understanding of the neuroprotective mechanisms of MANF. Here we show for the first time that MANF promotes the survival of …