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This article explores connections and continuities between the Second World War and the early Cold War in three territories under European colonial rule in South China. It argues that the dismantling of French power in Guangzhouwan and the maintenance of British and Portuguese rule in Hong Kong and Macau owed as much to the specific wartime experience of these territories as to the convergence of competing post-war interests in China and Southeast Asia. Drawing on multilingual sources, this comparative study sheds new light on the challenges and opportunities posed by remnants of colonialism in South China for the Kuomintang, the CCP, and other actors in a context of Chinese Civil War, early Cold War and decolonisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Alfred Marshall's claim that political economy should be a science of activities rather than a science of wants, the paper proposes to ground political economy on the centrality of work. Work is central in three different senses: (i) factual — work plays a central role in human lives and societies; (ii) epistemic — giving work center stage has constitutive theoretical effects; (iii) political — work is a primary tool of and for the transformation of society. Grounding political economy on work entails prioritizing economic agents as workers/producers over economic agents as consumers and acknowledging that changes in the world of work are major drivers of history. This contrasts with mainstream economics, which has always overlooked the activity of work, giving priority to consumer sovereignty and treating work as if it were a commodity. We propose a concept of work, based on Dejours' approach, that highlights the key role of work organization in making work a source of fulfillment versus suffering. The arguments and concepts proposed lead to advocating the participation of workers in firm governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the ability of human periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) with high (HP-PDLSCs) and low (LP-PDLSCs) osteogenic potential, in addition to mixed cells, to repair bone tissue. Methods: Cell phenotype, proliferation and differentiation were evaluated. Undifferentiated PDLSCs were injected into rat calvarial defects and the new bone was evaluated by μCT, histology and real-time PCR. Results: PDLSCs exhibited a typical mesenchymal stem cell phenotype and HP-PDLSCs showed lower proliferative and higher osteogenic potential than LP-PDLSCs. PDLSCs induced similar bone formation and histological analysis suggests a remodeling process, confirmed by osteogenic and osteoclastogenic markers, especially in tissues derived from defects treated with HP-PDLSCs. Conclusion: PDLSCs induced similar bone formation irrespective of their in vitro osteogenic potential. Bone is one of the most transplanted tissues worldwide and cell-based therapies has been investigated as an alternative for the treatment of bone defects. Dental tissues have been investigated as sources of stem cells and the periodontal ligament has been shown to be a viable source of these cells. Stem cells from periodontal ligament induce significant bone formation in rat calvaria defects and are safe for cell-based therapies, as the cells remain at the bone defect site for up to 4 weeks and do not migrate to vital organs, such as brain, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, and liver in the same period. In addition, immune responses were not detected. Considering that, stem cells from periodontal ligament can be useful in cell therapy strategies to induce bone regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging with the growing scholarship on China's War with Japan (1937–1945) as part of a global World War Two, this article queries how the internationalization of China's War of Resistance has been (re)constructed in popular fiction films since the 2000s. It analyses representations of Sino-foreign interactions in China's mainstream onscreen memorialization of the war and how these productions have sought global recognition. It argues that, despite not always appreciated by foreign audiences and critics, depictions of China's war effort have been imbued with a considerable degree of ambiguity, comprising praise for forms of transnational solidarity and a growing assertion of China's role in a conflict of global significance. The article also explores the role of war cinema in projecting Chinese nationalism to domestic and international audiences and reflects on recent films whose exhibition problems signal changing constraints on what can be shown as heroic representations of China at war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of local injection of osteoblasts differentiated from bone marrow (BM-OB) or adipose tissue (AT-OB) mesenchymal stromal cells on bone tissue formation. Materials & methods: Defects were created in rat calvaria and injected with BM-OB or AT-OB and phosphate-buffered saline without cells were injected as control. Bone formation was evaluated 4 weeks postinjection. Results: Injection of BM-OB or AT-OB resulted in higher bone formation than that obtained with control. The bone tissue induced by cell injections exhibited similar mechanical properties as those of pristine calvarial bone, and its molecular cues suggested the occurrence of a remodeling process. Conclusion: Results of this study demonstrated that cell therapy with osteoblasts induced significant bone formation that exhibited the same quality as that of pre-existent bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the history of the wartime Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross (1943-46), this article aims to shed light on interactions between Macau and the occupied British colony of Hong Kong during the Second World War. It argues that the Macau Red Cross branch was a concrete example of Portuguese collaborative neutrality with the Allies, most particularly the British. In coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, this local branch played an important role in humanitarian assistance to many victims of the war, particularly refugees and POW dependants, in Hong Kong and Shanghai when British authorities were unable to negotiate an exchange with Japan or provide direct assistance in those occupied cities. The wartime Red Cross in Macau was a small-scale and temporary endeavour but, nevertheless, a multi-dimensional one: it was a local creation, a delegation integrated in a national and colonial context, an inter-imperial institution and part of a transnational organisation with global reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to show that even when integrating the findings of behavioral economics, agency theory’s conception of interactions at work does not actually account for cooperative behavior. The paper draws on the distinction between the concepts ofindividualandpersonto critically examine this conception and show that, while work is mostly organized on the assumption that workers are self-interestedindividuals, management rhetoric addresses workers aspersonsin an attempt to prompt their cooperation and personal commitment. This managerial paradox may partly be due to the prevalent influence of agency theory’s prescriptions and has been contributing to a severe deterioration of the quality of working life. But it also indicates that agency theory has to confront serious theoretical and prescriptive dilemmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poly(vinylidene-trifluoroethylene)/barium titanate (PVDF) membrane enhancesin vitroosteoblast differentiation andin vivobone repair. Here, we hypothesized that this higher bone repair could be also due to bone resorption inhibition mediated by a microRNA (miR)/RANKL circuit. To test our hypothesis, the large-scale miR expression of bone tissue grown on PVDF and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes was evaluated to identify potential RANKL-targeted miRs modulated by PVDF. The animal model used was rat calvarial defects implanted with either PVDF or PTFE. At 4 and 8 weeks, the bone tissue grown on membranes was submitted to a large-scale analysis of miRs by microarray. The expression of miR-34a and some of its targets, including RANKL, were evaluated by real-time polimerase chain reaction and osteoclast activity was detected by tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining. Among more than 250 miRs, twelve, including miR-34a, were simultaneously higher expressed (≥2 fold) at 4 and 8 weeks on PVDF. The higher expression of miR-34a was concomitant with a reduced expression of all its evaluated targets, including RANKL. Additionally, more TRAP-positive cells were observed in bone tissue grown on PTFE compared with PVDF in both time points. In conclusion, our results suggest that the higher bone formation induced by PVDF could be, at least in part, triggered by a miR-34a increase and RANKL decrease, which may inhibit osteoclast differentiation and activity, and bone resorption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies of proteins involved in microRNA (miRNA) processing, maturation, and silencing have indicated the importance of miRNAs in skeletogenesis, but the specific miRNAs involved in this process are incompletely defined. Here, we identified miRNA 665 (miR-665) as a potential repressor of odontoblast maturation. Studies with cultured cell lines and primary embryonic cells showed that miR-665 represses the expression of early and late odontoblast marker genes and stage-specific proteases involved in dentin maturation. Notably, miR-665 directly targeted Dlx3 mRNA and decreased Dlx3 expression. Furthermore, RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) immunoprecipitation and biotin-labeled miR-665 pulldown studies identified Kat6a as another potential target of miR-665. KAT6A interacted physically and functionally with RUNX2, activating tissue-specific promoter activity and prompting odontoblast differentiation. Overexpression of miR-665 reduced the recruitment of KAT6A to Dspp and Dmp1 promoters and prevented KAT6A-induced chromatin remodeling, repressing gene transcription. Taken together, our results provide novel molecular evidence that miR-665 functions in an miRNA-epigenetic regulatory network to control dentinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We tested the hypothesis that the association of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and osteoblasts (OBs) optimize bone repair. Materials & Methods: MSCs were cultured in growth or osteogenic medium and seeded into gelatin sponge prior to implantation. Defects were created into rat calvariae and implanted with gelatin sponge without cells, with MSCs, with OBs and with association of MSCs and OBs. Histological analysis and micro-CT-based histomorphometry were carried out after 4 weeks. Results: Increased bone formation was observed in defects treated with cells and bone volume was greater in defects treated with either OBs or MSCs/OBs. Conclusion: Association of MSCs and OBs did not increase the process of bone repair compared with cell-based therapy using either MSCs or OBs alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity has been recently introduced as a “legitimate” subject matter in economics. Whereas the social nature of identity is consensually acknowledged, its relational and moral dimensions are overlooked. We begin by clarifying the role of interpersonal relations in identity formation. Following Honneth (1995) we argue that the development of a positive identity, defined as a person's relation-to-self, depends on the processes of mutual recognition in which a person takes part throughout her/his life. We then frame Honneth's recognition processes in terms of the access to relational and moral goods. An empirical study is presented that illustrates the association between relational and moral goods and “relation-to-self.” Based on European Social Survey (ESS) data, we show that high levels of relational goods (e.g. experiencing intense and positive social relations) and moral goods (e.g. perceiving to be treated with justice and respect) are associated with a positive relation-to-self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an analysis of training methodologies for adults with low educational qualifications. Indeed, a large part of the Portuguese active population has less than six years' schooling and thus demands specific training methodologies in order not to be excluded from the so-called knowledge-based economy. After proceeding to a critical evaluation of the cognitive training methods, we present, synthetically, some alternative methodologies based upon more promissory presuppositions. For that purpose, a broad review of the specialised French literature has been made from which the vocational didactics and ergonomy/training methodologies stand out as particularly interesting. In the research leading to this article, the team studied some innovative training cases, which adopted methodologies based on a strong link between training and work situations. The literature critical appraisal and the results of the case studies allowed us to formulate some methodological recommendations, that are liable to improve the quality and adaptation of the training actions directed towards lowly skilled adults to respect and support themselves in the graduating student experience; to proceed, systematically, with them to an analysis of their work activity; to dedicate the due attention to the role of ‘mediator’ in the training process; to certificate the training courses that are based on non-traditional pedagogic logics, among others [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]