Publications by authors named "Harkins L"

In two pre-registered experiments, we assessed how people cognitively represent meat and plant-based foods, to examine processes underlying dietary polarization in society. Food descriptions from U.K.

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For decades, transplantation has been a life-saving treatment for those fortunate enough to gain access. Nevertheless, many patients die waiting for an organ and countless more never make it onto the waitlist because of a shortage of donor organs. Concurrently, thousands of donated organs are declined for transplant each year because of concerns about poor outcomes post-transplant.

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Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) play a central role in the pathophysiology of many diseases. The use of targeted nanoparticles (NPs) to deliver therapeutics to ECs could dramatically improve efficacy by providing elevated and sustained intracellular drug levels. However, achieving sufficient levels of NP targeting in human settings remains elusive.

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Article Synopsis
  • Implanted materials in the body trigger a reaction called the foreign body reaction (FBR), which involves different immune cells that help heal and surround the materials.
  • Special immune cells called macrophages are very important in the early stages of this reaction and can form larger cells known as foreign body giant cells.
  • Some research shows that other immune cells, like T and B cells, might also play a role in the FBR, but scientists are still figuring out how important they are and how they communicate with each other during this process.
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Purpose Of Review: This review examines the literature on technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV). The prevalence, perpetrators, harms, and victims of a selection of types of TFSV are covered. Particularly, the topics of image-based sexual abuse, video voyeurism, sending of unsolicited sexual images, and the use of technology to facilitate in-person sexual violence are discussed.

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A damaging belief exists that to become a victim of sexual violence, victims must be deemed sexually desirable. As a result, sexual violations where the victims are individuals whom society may deem as less attractive-such as overweight women-may elicit less empathy for the victim or minimize the likelihood they are believed. Yet, there is some evidence that overweight women actually report higher rates of sexual violence than women of other weight categories.

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Meat bars are dried snacks containing a mixture of meat, berries, and nuts. To explore consumer awareness of meat bars, we conducted two online, nationally representative surveys and established that 70.8% (743 of 1,050) of U.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hydrophobins are small fungal proteins with surfactant properties, but producing them in large quantities has been challenging due to low yields.
  • The study tested increasing the number of hydrophobin gene copies and overexpressing specific chaperone proteins to boost production in the yeast Pichia pastoris.
  • Results showed that while just increasing the gene copies didn't help much, combining it with chaperone overexpression significantly increased production, especially with the 3-copy strain seeing the highest boost in secretion.
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Background And Objectives: Bilateral eye-movements (EMs) and visual mental imagery both require working memory resources. When performed together, they compete for these resources, which can cause various forms of mental imagery to become impaired (e.g.

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Many researchers have studied the prevalence and content of men's aggressive sexual fantasies, including their link with rape-supportive cognition. However, little to no research has examined the link between imaginal ability and the use of such fantasies. Based on existing research and theory, we propose that men who hold hostile beliefs toward women will use aggressive sexual fantasies more often if they possess a greater ability to engage in a "rich fantasy life.

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There is little empirical research examining the reasons behind multiple perpetrator sexual offending. A limited number of studies provide reasons for offending offered by perpetrators of this type of sexual violence, but only one published study exists where these perpetrators were interviewed regarding their offense. The Multi-Factorial Model of Multiple Perpetrator Sexual Offending (MPSO) proposed that various factors (individual, sociocultural, and situational) play a role in this type of sexual assault, noting in particular the importance of group dynamics and processes.

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The present study investigated whether a latency-based Go/No-Go Association Task (GNAT) could be used as an indirect measure of sexual interest in children. A sample of 29 individuals with a history of exclusive extrafamilial offenses against a child and 15 individuals with either a history of exclusive intrafamilial or mixed offenses (i.e.

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Introduction: CD3+ γδ+ T cells comprise 2% to 5% of circulating T cells with Vγ9Vδ2+ cells the dominant circulating subtype. Vγ9Vδ2+ cells recognize non-peptide phosphoantigens and stress-associated NKG2D ligands expressed on malignant cells. Strategies that incorporate the tumoricidal properties of γδ T cells represent a promising immunotherapeutic strategy for treatment of solid malignancies including neuroblastoma (NB).

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and lethal adult brain tumor. Resistance to standard radiation and chemotherapy is thought to involve survival of GBM cancer stem cells (CSCs). To date, no single marker for identifying GBM CSCs has been able to capture the diversity of CSC populations, justifying the needs for additional CSC markers for better characterization.

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Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is an exquisitely rare sarcoma of unknown histogenesis, with a predilection for adolescents and young adults, characterized by slow progressive clinical course and high frequency of metastases. They are traditionally chemoresistant with very limited treatment options in the metastatic setting. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a DNA β-herpes virus and it is characterized by persistent lifelong and latent infection.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive human brain tumor. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) immediate-early (IE) proteins that are endogenously expressed in GBM cells are strong viral transactivators with oncogenic properties. Here, we show how HCMV IEs are preferentially expressed in glioma stem-like cells (GSC), where they colocalize with the other GBM stemness markers, CD133, Nestin, and Sox2.

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Human γδ T cells are potent effectors against glioma cell lines in vitro and in human/mouse xenograft models of glioblastoma, however, this effect has not been investigated in an immunocompetent mouse model. In this report, we established GL261 intracranial gliomas in syngeneic WT C57BL/6 mice and measured circulating γδ T cell count, phenotype, Vγ/Vδ repertoire, tumor histopathology, NKG2D ligands expression, and T cell invasion at day 10-12 post-injection and at end stage. Circulating γδ T cells transiently increased and upregulated Annexin V expression at post-tumor day 10-12 followed by a dramatic decline in γδ T cell count at end stage.

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There is ample evidence that the ubiquitin-proteasome system is an important regulator of transcription and its activity is necessary for maintaining pluripotency and promoting cellular reprogramming. Moreover, proteasome activity contributes to maintaining the open chromatin structure found in pluripotent stem cells, acting as a transcriptional inhibitor at specific gene loci generally associated with differentiation. The current study was designed to understand further the role of proteasome inhibition in reprogramming and its ability to modulate endogenous expression of pluripotency-related genes and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) colony formation.

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The standard treatment of high-grade glioma presents a combination of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. Immunotherapy is proposed as a potential adjunct to standard cytotoxic regimens to target remaining microscopic disease following resection. We have shown ex vivo expanded/activated γδ T cells to be a promising innate lymphocyte therapy based on their recognition of stress antigens expressed on gliomas.

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The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between denial, static risk, and sexual recidivism for offenders with different types of current sexual offense. Denial was defined as failure to accept responsibility for the current offense and was assessed using the Offender Assessment System. Static risk level (measured using a revised version of the Risk Matrix 2000) was examined as a moderator in the relationship between denial and sexual and violent recidivism.

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Our laboratory first demonstrated that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is associated with the most deadly form of primary brain tumor, glioblastoma (GBM). We showed that HCMV glycoprotein B (gB) mediates viral cellular entry via the receptor tyrosine kinase PDGFR-alpha (PDGFRα), resulting in activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway, a critical signaling axis gliomagenesis. Here, we investigated the effects of gB overexpression on glioma progression.

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An increased awareness of the potential oncomodulatory properties of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has evolved over the last decade. We first reported the presence of HCMV in human glioblastomas, and subsequently these findings have been corroborated by other groups. However, some controversy has been associated with the immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques used, since standard immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques have been insufficient to detect low level HCMV antigens and nucleic acids in some tumor tissues.

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This review provides an overview of current knowledge and understanding of the process of sexual grooming and exploitation of children via the Internet. Specifically, the prevalence of online sexual grooming and exploitation is explored as well as associated challenges relating to the identification of its occurrence. This is complemented by a detailed outline and discussion of the process, both online and in the physical world, and legal responses to this phenomenon.

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Histone deacetylases (HDACs) catalyze deacetylation of histones that results in altered transcriptional activity. Inhibitors of HDACs have been shown to induce transcriptional changes that contribute positively to reprogramming somatic cells either by nuclear transfer or inducing a pluripotent state. However, the exact molecular mechanisms whereby HDAC inhibitors function and the specificity of the HDAC isoforms in cell reprogramming are not yet fully understood.

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The effect of number of perpetrators involved in multiple perpetrator rapes on offense characteristics is underresearched despite beliefs that duos/dyads differ in their interactions and dynamics to groups of 3+ members. We analyzed a national sample of 336 allegations of completed and attempted rape of female victims from the United Kingdom. Rapes committed by multiple (duos and groups of 3+ perpetrators) and lone offenders were compared on offense characteristics (incorporating the approach, maintenance, and closure phases of each rape) and victim and offender sociodemographic characteristics.

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