Men and Women of the Corporation

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The platinum drugs, cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin, prevail in the treatment of cancer, but new platinum agents have been very slow to enter the clinic. Recently, however, there has been a surge of activity, based on a great deal of mechanistic information, aimed at developing nonclassical platinum complexes that operate via mechanisms of action distinct from those of the approved drugs. The use of nanodelivery devices has also grown, and many different strategies have been explored to incorporate platinum warheads into nanomedicine constructs. In this Review, we discuss these efforts to create the next generation of platinum anticancer drugs. The introduction provides the reader with a brief overview of the use, development, and mechanism of action of the approved platinum drugs to provide the context in which more recent research has flourished. We then describe approaches that explore nonclassical platinum(II) complexes with trans geometry or with a monofunctional coordination mode, polynuclea...

The Next Generation of Platinum Drugs: Targeted Pt(II) Agents, Nanoparticle Delivery, and Pt(IV) Prodrugs

Inclusion and democracy.

The review covers the knowledge on photoremovable protecting
groups and includes all relevant chromophores studied in the
time period of 2000–2012; the most relevant earlier works are
also discussed.

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Photoremovable Protecting Groups in Chemistry and Biology: Reaction Mechanisms and Efficacy

New institutionalism (NI) may no longer qualify as being ‘new’, but since re-emphasizing institutions as a central explanatory variable in political analysis over two decades ago, it continues to provide scholars with a useful perspective through which to analyse political dynamics and outcomes that shape everyday life. The renewed focus on institutions has rebalanced the structure/agency scales back toward the former without losing important insights about the role and impact of political actors. NI has allowed for greater understanding about the co-constitutive nature of politics: the various ways in which actors bring about or resist change in institutions; and the way institutions shape the nature of actors’ behaviour through the construction of rules, norms and policies.

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New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?:

We show by x-ray crystallography that the complex trans, trans, trans-[Pt(N3)2(OH)2(NH3)(py)] (1) contains an octahedral PtIV center with almost linear azido ligands. Complex 1 is remarkably stable in the dark, even in the presence of cellular reducing agents such as glutathione, but readily undergoes photoinduced ligand substitution and photoreduction reactions. When 1 is photoactivated in cells, it is highly toxic: 13–80 x more cytotoxic than the PtII anticancer drug cisplatin, and ca. 15 x more cytotoxic toward cisplatin-resistant human ovarian cancer cells. Cisplatin targets DNA, and DNA platination levels induced in HaCaT skin cells by 1 were similar to those of cisplatin. However, cisplatin forms mainly intrastrand cis diguanine cross-links on DNA between neighboring nucleotides, whereas photoactivated complex 1 rapidly forms unusual trans azido/guanine, and then trans diguanine PtII adducts, which are probably mainly intrastrand cross-links between two guanines separated by a third base. DNA interstrand and DNA–protein cross-links were also detected. Importantly, DNA repair synthesis on plasmid DNA platinated by photoactivated 1 was markedly lower than for cisplatin or its isomer transplatin (an inactive complex). Single-cell electrophoresis experiments also demonstrated that the DNA damage is different from that induced by cisplatin or transplatin. Cell death is not solely dependent on activation of the caspase 3 pathway, and, in contrast to cisplatin, p53 protein did not accumulate in cells after photosensitization of 1. The trans diazido PtIV complex 1 therefore has remarkable properties and is a candidate for use in photoactivated cancer chemotherapy.

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A potent cytotoxic photoactivated platinum complex

Activating platinum with light: An inert platinum(IV) diazido complex trans, trans,trans-[Pt(N3)2(OH)2(py)2] becomes potently cytotoxic to cancer cells when activated by low doses of visible light.

A Potent Trans-Diimine Platinum Anticancer Complex Photoactivated by Visible Light

The development of photoactivatable prodrugs of platinum-based antitumor agents is aimed at increasing the selectivity and hence lowering toxicity of this important class of antitumor drugs. These drugs could find use in treating localized tumors accessible to laser-based fiber-optic devices. Pt(IV) complexes appeared attractive because these octahedral complexes are usually substitution inert and require reduction to the Pt(II) species to become cytotoxic. Based on the knowledge of Pt(IV) photochemistry, Pt(IV) analogs of cisplatin, [Pt(en)Cl(2)] and transplatin were designed, synthesized and investigated for their ability to be photoreduced to cytotoxic Pt(II) species. Two classes of photoactivatable Pt complexes have been looked at thus far: diiodo-Pt(IV) and diazido-Pt(IV) diam(m)ine complexes. The first generation, diiodo-Pt(IV) complexes, represented by cis, trans-[Pt(en)(I)(2)(OAc)(2)], react to visible light by binding irreversibly to DNA and forming adducts with 5'-GMP in the same manner as [Pt(en)Cl(2)]. Furthermore, the photolysis products are cytotoxic to human cancer cells in vitro. However, these complexes are too reactive towards biological thiols (i.e., glutathione), which rapidly reduced them to cytotoxic Pt(II) species, thus making them unsuitable as drugs. The second generation, diazido-Pt(IV) complexes, represented by cis, trans, cis-[Pt(N(3))(2)(OH)(2)(NH(3))(2)] and cis, trans-[Pt(en)(N(3))(2)(OH)(2)], are also photosensitive, binding irreversibly to DNA and forming similar products with DNA and 5'-GMP in the presence of light as the respective Pt(II) complexes. However, they are stable to glutathione and thus show very low dark cytotoxicity. Light of lambda(irr) = 366 nm activates both complexes to cytotoxic species that effectively kill cancer cells by destroying their nuclei, leaving behind shrunken cell ghosts. Interestingly, the all-trans analog, trans, trans, trans-[Pt(N(3))(2)(OH)(2)(NH(3))(2)] is non-toxic to HaCaT keratinocytes in the dark, but as active as cisplatin in the light. These studies show that photoactivatable Pt(IV) antitumor agents represent a promising area for new drug development.

Photoactivatable platinum complexes.

Foreword J.Lovenduski Introduction: Gender, Politics, and Institutions: Setting the Agenda F.Mackay & M.L.Krook Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment: Candidate Selection in Post-Devolution Scotland M.Kenny Discursive Strategies for Institutional Reform: Gender Quotas in Sweden and France L.Freidenvall & M.L.Krook Gendered Institutions and Women's Substantive Representation: Female Legislators in Argentina and Chile S.Franceschet Gendering the Institutional Reform of the Welfare State: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland M.Beyeler & C.Annesley Gender and Institutions of Multi-Level Governance: Child Care and Social Policy Debates in Canada J.Grace The Institutional Roots of Post-Communist Family Policy: Comparing the Czech and Slovak Republics H.Haskova & S.Saxonberg Gendering Federalism: Institutions of Decentralization and Power-Sharing J.Vickers Gendered Institutionalist Analysis: Understanding Democratic Transitions G.Waylen Nested Newness and Institutional Innovation: Expanding Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court L.Chappell Conclusion: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism? F.Mackay

Fiona Mackay

Papers

New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?:

A potent cytotoxic photoactivated platinum complex

A Potent Trans-Diimine Platinum Anticancer Complex Photoactivated by Visible Light

Photoactivatable platinum complexes.

Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism