PI3K pathway and Bcl-2 family. Clinicopathological features in prostate cancer

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR pathways and Bcl-2 family play a central role in prostate cancer (PC). The aim was to determine influence in the biochemical progression in PC. To evaluate the association between clinic pathological and immunohistochemical variables, Spearman’s test was performed. Log-rank test and Kaplan–Meier curves were used for survival comparisons. To explore the correlation of the studied immunohistochemical parameters and the established prognostic variables with biochemical progression, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional Hazard regression analyses were performed. Spearman analysis showed correlation between stroma expression and tumor expression of PI3K with biochemical progression (p?=?.009, p?=?.004), respectively, and tumor immunohistochemical score with biochemical progression (p?=?.051). In the multivariate Cox regression model, only PI3K was retained as independent predictors of biochemical progression. In stroma expression, PI3K is (HR 0.172, 95% CI 0.065–0.452, p?=?.000); tumor expression, PI3K is (HR 0.087, 95% CI 0.026–0.293, p?=?.000), and tumor immunohistochemical score (HR 0.382, 95% CI 0.209–0.697 p?=?.002). Our results suggest a role for prostatic expression of PI3K was prognostic markers for PC. PI3K/AKT/mTOR and Bcl-2 family are becoming an important therapeutic target and predictive biomarkers of onset and progression of PC.     

Gender and the Residential Mobility and Neighborhood Attainment of Black-White Couples

Including black-white couples in the study of residential stratification accentuates gendered power disparities within couples that favor men over women, which allows for the analysis of whether the race of male partners in black-white couples is associated with the racial and ethnic composition of their neighborhoods. I investigate this by combining longitudinal data between 1985 and 2015 from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics linked to neighborhood- and metropolitan-level data compiled from four censuses. Using these data, I assess the mobility of black male–white female and white male–black female couples out of and into neighborhoods defined respectively by their levels of whites, blacks, and ethnoracial diversity. My results show that the race of the male partner in black-white couples tends to align with the racial and ethnic composition of the neighborhoods where these couples reside. This finding highlights that the racial hierarchy within the United States affects the residential mobility and attainment of black-white couples, but its influence is conditioned by the race and gender composition of these couples.     

Peer Exploitation: Findings from a Romanian National Representative Sample of Children Living in Long‐Term Residential Centres

This study emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions, including a couple of abusive behaviours that have not been previously identified in long‐term residential centres.

‘Emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions’

A national representative sample of 1391 children (743 boys and 648 girls) seven to 20 years of age living in 44 long‐term residential centres was analysed to identify the prevalence of awareness and experience of peer exploitation. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of peer exploitation experience. In total, 40.1 per cent of children reported that they were aware of peer exploitation, and 28.5 per cent that they were victims of such exploitation. Additionally, it was shown that (a) children who reported past abuse by a staff member were more likely to be victims of exploitation than those who did not; and (b) an increased number of children in a dorm room predicted a decrease in the odds of peer exploitation experience. This study provides a picture of the developmental environment for children in Romanian orphanages in the late 1990s, prior to subsequent child protection reforms, and underlines the prevalence of exploitation and the risk factors for peer exploitation in closed institutional systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key Practitioner Messages

• Four in ten (40%) institutionalised children reported that they were aware of at least one form of peer exploitation, and nearly three in ten (28.5%) reported experiencing at least some of these types of exploitation practices by their older peers.
• This study highlights the importance of understanding the complex milieu that comprised the daily lives of institutionalised children in Romania, including an environment that consisted of physical abuse by institution staff and awareness and experiences of exploitation.

     

Copyright,digital sharing,and the liberal order: sociolegal constructions of intellectual property in the era of mass digitization

Intellectual property (IP) rights policy has long been driven by rights-holder interests, leading to IP regimes focused on protecting private property at the expense of broadening public access to cultural works. The rise of instant, low-cost digital sharing practices, however, forces the sociolegal construction of IP as ‘property’ into crisis by contradicting the conception of creative works as commodities that can be exclusively ‘owned’ and exchanged. This cuts into a classic social science debate over how best to balance individual rights against collective interests, which has played out in liberal society through tensions between contradictory principles seeking to uphold the sanctity of private property (the principle of ‘Individual Freedom’) while also correcting social inequality (the ‘Equal Means’ principle). While IP policy has historically developed largely in accordance with Individual Freedom, digital sharing of creative works is premised instead on Equal Means. As these forces collide, the question at stake is whether crisis in the status quo conception of property rights disrupts existing power relations, with implications for the logic of policy development in the digital age. To address this question, I test for continuity of the predominant trend in IP policy-making using recent legislative changes to the Canadian copyright regime. I find that, contrary to expectations, policy changes do not manifestly favor rights-holders. Rather, legislative outcomes are split between modest protections for rights-holders and clear gains for rights of open access. I take this as evidence of the increasing complexification of IP policy in response to mass digitization.     

Moral decisionism and its discontents

Decisionists use decision/choice concepts to understand and represent X: bees, Deep Blue, and Ron Carter make decisions. Explicit decisionists argue that X should be understood and represented using decision/choice concepts: it's correct to speak of bees', computers', and jazz improvisers' decision‐making. Explicit anti‐decisionists disagree: bees, computers, jazz improvisers, algorithms, and drug addicts aren't correctly understood and represented as decision‐makers. Sociologists look at decisionism and explicit decisionism as social phenomena, which show up in discourses, practices, technologies, and organizations. I make a contribution to the sociology of decisionism and the sociology of morality by examining three kinds of explicit moral anti‐decisionism: Murdochian, sociological/structural, and Confucian/Daoist. I show why these discontents are discontent, what theories and evidence they draw on, what assumptions they make, and how they conceive of morality without decision/choice concepts. Then, I consider how moral anti‐decisionism might matter, how the sociology of decisionism might matter, and where to go from here (if anywhere).     

Cessation of breastfeeding in association with oxytocin administration and type of birth. A prospective cohort study

Background

Some studies have suggested an association between synthetic oxytocin administration and type of birth with the initiation and consolidation of breastfeeding.

Can Belief in a Just World Buffer Mood and Career Prospects of People in Need of Risk Protection? First Experimental Evidence

Research indicates that individuals high in belief in a just world (BJW) are confident that they will not fall victim to unforeseeable disasters. The current study tested the hypothesis that BJW acts as buffer that serves to sustain mood and career prospects of those in need of risk protection. Threat was manipulated by confronting participants with risks regarding their career outlook, and individual differences in threat perception were measured by degree of uncertainty tolerance. As hypothesized, BJW helped protect the mood of participants threatened by serious career‐related risks who were unable to tolerate uncertainty. The finding supported the buffer hypothesis regarding mood, but not career prospects, possibly due to a more conscious mindset or variability in self‐efficacy. However, BJW was overall positively associated with career prospects. Moreover, it was suggested that BJW can also serve as a personal resource, not only protecting from risk, but also enhancing mood among those with high uncertainty tolerance.     

Utility function of fuzzy preferences on a countable set under max-*-transitivity

We determine, by means of max-*-transitivity, necessary and sufficient conditions for a fuzzy binary relation R defined on a countable (finite or denumerable) set A to be representable by a utility function. We display one example of its application. The first author thanks AUF (Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie). This paper was revised when he was Visiting Researcher at CREM-University of Caen under the Research grant “Bourse Post-doctorale de la Francophonie 2005–2006”.