Together forever? Explaining exclusivity in party-firm relations

Parties and firms are the key actors of representative democracy and capitalism respectively and the dynamic of attachment between them is a central feature of any political economy. This is the first article to systematically analyse the exclusivity of party-firm relations. We consider exclusivity at a point in time and exclusivity over time. Does a firm have a relationship with only one party at a given point in time, or is it close to more than one party? Does a firm maintain a relationship with only one party over time, or does it switch between parties? Most important, how do patterns of exclusivity impact on a firm’s ability to lobby successfully? We propose a general theory, which explains patterns of party-firm relations by reference to the division of institutions and the type of party competition in a political system. A preliminary test of our theory with Polish survey data confirms our predictions, establishing a promising hypothesis for future research

FACTOR VII DEFICIENCY IN POLISH HOUND – ACCIDENTAL EVENT OR NEW PERMANENT RISK?

The Polish Hound (ogar polski) is a small, old breed of hunting dogs.The breed was recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) in 1966.A three–year–old Polish Hound male, was admitted to the Clinic of Internal Diseases of Companion Animals of Life Science University in Lublin because of signs of haemorhagic diathesis. There was no preceding history of trauma. General clinical examination was unremarkable. On initial diagnostic testing prothrombin time (PT)of the patient was prolonged nearly by three times. To characterize the dog’s coagulopathy further, samples were collected for coagulation screening tests, mixing studies and factor analyses. Investigations revealed factor VII activity below 2%.Unfortunately we had been unable to determine whether the disorder is inherited or is the result of a spontaneous mutation. It is very likely that the nature of described deficit is inherited. Canine hereditary FVII deficiency was first described in 1962 as an incidental finding in Beagles. Later, the defect was identified in another breeds, such as: English Bulldogs, Alaskan Malamutes, Miniature Schnauzers, Boxers, Scottish Deerhounds, Alaskan Klee Kai Dog and mixed–breed dogs. In 2005 a molecular characterization of FVII deficiency in Beagles was described. Unfortunately we had been unable to determine whether the disorder is inherited or is the result of a spontaneous mutation. To our knowledge this case is the first to report of isolated factor VII deficiency in Polish Hound

Data-Driven Visual Tracking in Retinal Microsurgery

In the context of retinal microsurgery, visual tracking of instruments is a key component of robotics assistance. The difficulty of the task and major reason why most existing strategies fail on {\it in-vivo} image sequences lies in the fact that complex and severe changes in instrument appearance are challenging to model. This paper introduces a novel approach, that is both data-driven and complementary to existing tracking techniques. In particular, we show how to learn and integrate an accurate detector with a simple gradient-based tracker within a robust pipeline which runs at framerate. In addition, we present a fully annotated dataset of retinal instruments in {\it in-vivo} surgeries, which we use to quantitatively validate our approach. We also demonstrate an application of our method in a laparoscopy image sequence

Abstract P4-04-06: Histone H2A Inhibits Breast Cancer Stem Cell Growth

Abstract Introduction: Recent studies have identified epigenetic abnormalities as the underlying cause of many breast cancers. In particular, the aberrant acetylation of core histones may be a pivotal source of dysregulated expression of both oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. Histone deacetylase inhibitors are known to restore histone acetylation and to induce cellular differentiation and growth arrest in breast cancer cells and are the object of extensive research for novel anticancer treatments. We hypothesize that acetylated proteins, in particular histone H2A, could also serve as an alternative substrate for histone deacetylase, thereby promoting cellular histone acetylation and arrest of cancer cell growth. Indeed, our previous results indicate that exogenous calf thymus histone H2A penetrates cells and their nuclei, and induces differentiation and senescence in human breast cancer cells. In contrast, human recombinant histone H2A and H2AX, which lack post-translational modifications, fail to yield these results in spite of the fact that human and bovine histone H2A are virtually identical in their amino acid sequences. However, these recombinant molecules were obtained from bacteria, which lack the intracellular machinery that is necessary to generate post-translational modifications. Thus, post-translational histone modifications are pivotal to the inhibition of breast cancer cell proliferation. Objective: We have extended our study to establish if exogenous calf thymus histone H2A could also induce growth arrest of breast cancer stem cells, and subsequently to determine which portion (s) of the histone H2A molecule is responsible for this action, using overlapping synthetic peptides. Materials and Methods: Breast cancer stem cells were incubated with exogenous calf thymus histone H2A and seven synthetic peptides corresponding to overlapping portions of the entire protein and include all of its post-translational modifications. Cellular morphology was observed and viable cells were counted using trypan blue exclusion. Control experiments were performed with normal breast cells, cells from fibrocystic breast tissues, and breast cancer cells that were not significantly enriched in cancer stem cells. Results and Discussion: Histone H2A inhibits breast cancer stem cell growth and increases their adhesion. Stem cells have recently been identified in many malignant tumours, including breast cancer. Since cancer stem cells are thought to be an important source of therapeutic resistance, they provide a novel research focus for alternative treatment strategies. Our results are very encouraging and may lead to the development of new pharmacological molecules targeting epigenetic abnormalities in breast cancer stem cells. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-04-06.</jats:p

Structure and function correlation in histone H2A peptide-mediated gene transfer

Histone H2A has been found to be efficient in DNA delivery into a number of cell lines. We have reasoned that this DNA-delivery activity is mediated by two mechanisms: (i) electrostatically driven DNA binding and condensation by histone and (ii) nuclear import of these histone H2A⋅DNA polyplexes via nuclear localization signals in the protein. We have identified a 37-aa N-terminal peptide of histone H2A that is active in in vitro gene transfer. This peptide can function as a nuclear localization signal and can bind DNA. Amino acid substitutions that replace positively charged residues and/or DNA-binding residues of this peptide obliterate transfection activity. The introduction of a proline in the first turn of an α-helix of this 37-mer obliterates transfection activity, suggesting that the integrity of the α-helical structure of the N-terminal region of histone H2A is related to its transfection activity