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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (8 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
Postprints from the CTCRE (2003)

Background: Minnesota was the first state in the USA to implement a large state funded tobacco control programme ( in 1985). Despite evidence of effectiveness, it was dismantled in 1993. Objective: To describe and analyse how and why these events transpired and identify lessons for tobacco control advocates facing similar challenges in the 21st century. Design: Case study based on previously secret tobacco industry documents, news reports, research reports, official documents, and interviews with health advocates and state government officials. Results: Unable to defeat funding for this campaign in 1985, the tobacco industry organised groups which eliminated it later. Despite the programme's documented effectiveness, it was dismantled based on claims of fiscal crisis. These claims were not true; the real debate was what to do with the state's surplus. Health advocates failed to challenge the claim of fiscal crisis or mobilise public support for the programme. Conclusions: Simply quoting evidence that a tobacco control programme is effective does not ensure its continuing survival. Claims of fiscal crisis are an effective cover for tobacco industry efforts to dismantle successful programmes, particularly if health advocates accept these claims and fail to mobilise political pressure to defend the programme.

    Cover page: Development and destruction of the first state funded anti-smoking campaign in the USA
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2018)
    A tantalizing question in evolutionary biology is whether evolution can be predicted from past experiences. To address this question, we created a coherent compendium of more than 15,000 mutation events for the bacterium Escherichia coli under 178 distinct environmental settings. Compendium analysis provides a comprehensive view of the explored environments, mutation hotspots and mutation co-occurrence. While the mutations shared across all replicates decrease with the number of replicates, our results argue that the pairwise overlapping ratio remains the same, regardless of the number of replicates. An ensemble of predictors trained on the mutation compendium and tested in forward validation over 35 evolution replicates achieves a 49.2 ± 5.8% (mean ± std) precision and 34.5 ± 5.7% recall in predicting mutation targets. This work demonstrates how integrated datasets can be harnessed to create predictive models of evolution at a gene level and elucidate the effect of evolutionary processes in well-defined environments.
      Cover page: Predicting the evolution of Escherichia coli by a data-driven approach
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      Postprints from the CTCRE (2004)

      Objective: To investigate whether private foundations can be created in a way that will insulate them from attacks by the tobacco industry, using the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) as a case study. Design: Information was collected from internal tobacco industry documents, court documents, newspapers, and interviews with health advocates and elected officials. Results: The creation of MPAAT as an independent foundation did not insulate it from attacks by tobacco industry allies. During 2001 - 2002, MPAAT was repeatedly attacked by Attorney General Mike Hatch and major media, using standard tobacco industry rhetoric. This strategy of attack and demands for information were reminiscent of previous attacks on Minnesota's Plan for Nonsmoking and Health and the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study ( ASSIST). MPAAT was ultimately forced to restructure its programme to abandon effective community norm change interventions around smoke-free policies and replace them with less effective individual cessation interventions. Neither MPAAT nor other health advocates mounted an effective public response to these attacks, instead relying on the insider strategy of responding in court. Conclusion: It is not possible to avoid attacks by the tobacco industry or its political allies. Like programmes administered by government agencies, tobacco control foundations must be prepared for these attacks, including a proactive plan to educate the public about the principles of community based tobacco control. Public health advocates also need to be willing to take prompt action to defend these programmes and hold public officials who attack tobacco control programmes accountable for their actions.

        Cover page: Public health foundations and the tobacco industry: lessons from Minnesota
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2014)

        Background

        Neurovascular inflammation is associated with a number of neurological diseases including vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, which are increasingly important causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Lipotoxicity is a metabolic disorder that results from accumulation of lipids, particularly fatty acids, in non-adipose tissue leading to cellular dysfunction, lipid droplet formation, and cell death.

        Results

        Our studies indicate for the first time that the neurovascular circulation also can manifest lipotoxicity, which could have major effects on cognitive function. The penetration of integrative systems biology approaches is limited in this area of research, which reduces our capacity to gain an objective insight into the signal transduction and regulation dynamics at a systems level. To address this question, we treated human microvascular endothelial cells with triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRL) lipolysis products and then we used genome-wide transcriptional profiling to obtain transcript abundances over four conditions. We then identified regulatory genes and their targets that have been differentially expressed through analysis of the datasets with various statistical methods. We created a functional gene network by exploiting co-expression observations through a guilt-by-association assumption. Concomitantly, we used various network inference algorithms to identify putative regulatory interactions and we integrated all predictions to construct a consensus gene regulatory network that is TGRL lipolysis product specific.

        Conclusion

        System biology analysis has led to the validation of putative lipid-related targets and the discovery of several genes that may be implicated in lipotoxic-related brain microvascular endothelial cell responses. Here, we report that activating transcription factors 3 (ATF3) is a principal regulator of TGRL lipolysis products-induced gene expression in human brain microvascular endothelial cell.
          Cover page: A systems biology analysis of brain microvascular endothelial cell lipotoxicity
          • Article
          Tobacco Control Policy Making: United States (2003)

          Minnesota was a pioneer in the tobacco control movement in the United States. Minnesota enjoyed early success with the passage of the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act in 1975 which created nonsmoking sections in public places, including workplaces and restaurants throughout the state. While modest by 2003 standards, this act represented a major step forward at the time. It was enacted without any overt opposition from the tobacco industry, something that would never happen again.

          Between 1975 and 2003, there have been victories in tobacco control, particularly when political figures have shown leadership. Individuals and organizations outside government have often rallied to support this leadership that is necessary to sustain an effective tobacco control program in the long run in the face of strong opposition from the tobacco industry and its allies. These organizations, however, have not developed an independent leadership and agenda-setting capability. As a result, when the politicians in power adopt positions hostile to tobacco control and supportive of the tobacco industry, the “advocates” for tobacco control tend to retreat in the face of political attack. The series of victories and defeats are often associated with a sense of complacency that success was accomplished, rather than a vigilant preparation for the next attack.

            Cover page: Shifting Tides: Minnesota Tobacco Politics
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC Davis Previously Published Works (2014)
            Given the vast behavioral repertoire and biological complexity of even the simplest organisms, accurately predicting phenotypes in novel environments and unveiling their biological organization is a challenging endeavor. Here, we present an integrative modeling methodology that unifies under a common framework the various biological processes and their interactions across multiple layers. We trained this methodology on an extensive normalized compendium for the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli, which incorporates gene expression data for genetic and environmental perturbations, transcriptional regulation, signal transduction, and metabolic pathways, as well as growth measurements. Comparison with measured growth and high-throughput data demonstrates the enhanced ability of the integrative model to predict phenotypic outcomes in various environmental and genetic conditions, even in cases where their underlying functions are under-represented in the training set. This work paves the way toward integrative techniques that extract knowledge from a variety of biological data to achieve more than the sum of their parts in the context of prediction, analysis, and redesign of biological systems.
              Cover page: An integrative, multi‐scale, genome‐wide model reveals the phenotypic landscape of Escherichia coli
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC Davis Previously Published Works (2015)
              The plant cell wall is an important factor for determining cell shape, function and response to the environment. Secondary cell walls, such as those found in xylem, are composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin and account for the bulk of plant biomass. The coordination between transcriptional regulation of synthesis for each polymer is complex and vital to cell function. A regulatory hierarchy of developmental switches has been proposed, although the full complement of regulators remains unknown. Here we present a protein-DNA network between Arabidopsis thaliana transcription factors and secondary cell wall metabolic genes with gene expression regulated by a series of feed-forward loops. This model allowed us to develop and validate new hypotheses about secondary wall gene regulation under abiotic stress. Distinct stresses are able to perturb targeted genes to potentially promote functional adaptation. These interactions will serve as a foundation for understanding the regulation of a complex, integral plant component.
                Cover page: An Arabidopsis gene regulatory network for secondary cell wall synthesis
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2024)
                BACKGROUND: Supportive care to ensure optimal quality of life is an essential component of cancer care and symptom control across the lifespan. Ongoing advances in cancer treatment, increasing toxicity from many novel treatment regimes, and variations in access to care and cancer outcomes across the globe and resource settings present significant challenges for supportive care delivery. To date, no overarching framework has been developed to guide supportive care development worldwide. As an initial step of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) Supportive Care 2030 Movement, we developed a targeted, unifying set of ambition statements to envision the future of supportive cancer care. METHODS: From September 2022 until June 2023, we used a modified Delphi methodology to develop and attain consensus about ambition statements related to supportive cancer care. Leaders of MASCC Study Groups were invited to participate in an Expert Panel for the first two Delphi rounds (and a preliminary round to suggest potential ambition statements). Patient Advocates then examined and provided input regarding the ambition statements. FINDINGS: Twenty-seven Expert Panelists and 11 Patient Advocates participated. Consensus was attained on 13 ambition statements, with two sub-statements. The ambition statements addressed global standards for guideline development and implementation, coordinated and individualized care, dedicated supportive oncology services, self-management, needs for screening and actions, patient education, behavioral support, financial impact minimization, comprehensive survivorship care, and timely palliative care, reflecting collaboration, coordination and team-based approach across all levels. INTERPRETATION: This study is the first to develop shared ambitions for the future of supportive cancer care on a global level. These ambition statements can facilitate a coordinated, resource-stratified, and person-centered approach and inform research, education, clinical services, and policy efforts. FUNDING: This project received funding support from Prof Raymond Chans NHMRC Investigator Grant (APP1194051).
                  Cover page: Supportive care 2030 movement: towards unifying ambitions for global excellence in supportive cancer care-an international Delphi study.
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