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This article explores the formation of a "showmen's culture" among circus employees in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, a cultural identity which had the effect of diffusing labor conflicts in this developing industry. The showmen's culture created an affective bond between employees of all levels, from manual laborers, to middle managers, to company owners. This article links cultural history and labor history and provides an example of how workers outside traditional manual-labor industries coped with the challenges of industrialization, and how proprietors used the same cultural identity to their own advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role that the American business owner J.H. “Jack” Haverly played in managing and developing blackface minstrel shows in the U.S. during the late 19th century and early 20th century. An overview of Haverly's advertisements and marketing efforts for the minstrel shows is provided.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is necessary but insufficient for progression of epithelial cells from dysplasia to carcinoma- in situ (CIS) to invasive cancer. The combination of mutant cellular and viral oncogenes that regulate progression of cervical cancer (CC) remains unclear. Using combinations of HPV16 E6/E7 (E+), mutant Kras (m Kras) (K+) and/or loss of Pten (P−/−), we generated autochthonous models of CC without exogenous estrogen, carcinogen or promoters. Furthermore, intravaginal instillation of adenoCre virus enabled focal activation of the oncogenes/inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene. In P+/+ mice, E6/E7 alone (P+/+E+K−) failed to cause premalignant changes, while m Kras alone (P+/+E−K+) caused persistent mucosal abnormalities in about one-third of mice, but no cancers. To develop cancer, P+/+ mice needed both E6/E7 and m Kras expression. Longitudinal endoscopies of P+/+E+K+ mice predicted carcinoma development by detection of mucosal lesions, found on an average of 23 weeks prior to death, unlike longitudinal quantitative PCRs of vaginal lavage samples from the same mice. Endoscopy revealed that individual mice differed widely in the time required for mucosal lesions to appear after adenoCre and in the time required for these lesions to progress to cancer. These cancers developed in the transition zone that extends, unlike in women, from the murine cervix to the distal vagina. The P−/−E+K+ genotype led to precipitous cancer development within a few weeks and E6/E7 -independent cancer development occurred in the P−/−E−K+ genotype. In the P−/−E+K− genotype, mice only developed CIS. Thus, distinct combinations of viral and cellular oncogenes are involved in distinct steps in cervical carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of exposure to environmental pollutants, infectious agents, and genetic predisposition, companion animals develop respiratory illnesses similar to those in humans. Older dogs of smaller breeds develop canine infectious respiratory disease, chronic bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with chronic lung infection, airway goblet cell hyperplasia and metaplasia, and mucus hypersecretion. Excessive mucus clogs airways, reduces gas exchanges, disables the mucociliary clearance, and reduces drug penetration. The Forkhead box protein A2 (FOXA2) is a key transcriptional regulator that maintains airway mucus homeostasis. Prior studies have shown that FOXA2 expression is frequently depleted in diseased human airways. Unfortunately, FOXA2 depletion has not been examined in dogs. Our current study indicated that both single bacterial infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bordetella bronchiseptica and polymicrobial infection by viral/bacterial pathogens depleted FOXA2 in canine airways, resulting in goblet cell hyperplasia and metaplasia and excessive mucus production. Furthermore, P. aeruginosa virulence factor pyocyanin activated the antagonistic STAT6 and epidermal growth factor receptor signalling pathways to inhibit FOXA2. Unravelling the mechanism of FOXA2 inactivation will hasten the development of non‐antibiotic therapeutics to improve mucociliary clearance of pathogens in canine airway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]