Organisational reforms in active welfare states: A comparative analysis of the turn to 'single gateways' in Western Europe

Based on the case of reforms aimed at integrating the provision of income protection and employment services for jobless people in Europe, this thesis seeks to understand the reasons which may prompt governments to engage in large-scale organisational reforms. Over the last 20 years, several European countries have indeed radically redesigned the organisational structure of their welfare state by merging or bundling existing front-line offices in charge of benefit payment and employment services together into 'one-stop' agencies. Whereas in academic and political debates, these reforms are generally presented as a necessary and rational response to the problems and inconsistencies induced by fragmentation in a context of the reorientation of welfare states towards labour market activation, this thesis shows that the agenda setting of these reforms is in fact the result of multidimensional political dynamics. More specifically, the main argument of this thesis is that these reforms are best understood not so such from the problems induced by organisational compartmentalism, whose political recognition is often controversial, but from the various goals that governments may simultaneously achieve by means of their adoption. This argument is tested by comparing agenda-setting processes of large-scale reforms of coordination in the United Kingdom (Jobcentre Plus), Germany (Hartz IV reform) and Denmark (2005 Jobcentre reform), and contrasting them with the Swiss case where the government has so far rejected any coordination initiative involving organisational redesign. This comparison brings to light the importance, for the rise of organisational reforms, of the possibility to couple them with the following three goals: first, goals related to the strengthening of activation policies; second, institutional goals seeking to redefine the balance of responsibilities between the central state and non-state actors, and finally electoral goals for governments eager to maintain political credibility. The decisive role of electoral goals in the three countries suggests that these reforms are less bound by partisan politics than by the particular pressures facing governments arrived in office after long periods in opposition.

Comparative genomic and phylogeographic analysis of Mycobacterium leprae.

Reductive evolution and massive pseudogene formation have shaped the 3.31-Mb genome of Mycobacterium leprae, an unculturable obligate pathogen that causes leprosy in humans. The complete genome sequence of M. leprae strain Br4923 from Brazil was obtained by conventional methods (6x coverage), and Illumina resequencing technology was used to obtain the sequences of strains Thai53 (38x coverage) and NHDP63 (46x coverage) from Thailand and the United States, respectively. Whole-genome comparisons with the previously sequenced TN strain from India revealed that the four strains share 99.995% sequence identity and differ only in 215 polymorphic sites, mainly SNPs, and by 5 pseudogenes. Sixteen interrelated SNP subtypes were defined by genotyping both extant and extinct strains of M. leprae from around the world. The 16 SNP subtypes showed a strong geographical association that reflects the migration patterns of early humans and trade routes, with the Silk Road linking Europe to China having contributed to the spread of leprosy.

Sequence and comparative analysis of the chicken genome provide unique perspectives on vertebrate evolution.

We present here a draft genome sequence of the red jungle fowl, Gallus gallus. Because the chicken is a modern descendant of the dinosaurs and the first non-mammalian amniote to have its genome sequenced, the draft sequence of its genome--composed of approximately one billion base pairs of sequence and an estimated 20,000-23,000 genes--provides a new perspective on vertebrate genome evolution, while also improving the annotation of mammalian genomes. For example, the evolutionary distance between chicken and human provides high specificity in detecting functional elements, both non-coding and coding. Notably, many conserved non-coding sequences are far from genes and cannot be assigned to defined functional classes. In coding regions the evolutionary dynamics of protein domains and orthologous groups illustrate processes that distinguish the lineages leading to birds and mammals. The distinctive properties of avian microchromosomes, together with the inferred patterns of conserved synteny, provide additional insights into vertebrate chromosome architecture.

Comparative study of the LC-MS/MS and UPLC-MS/MS for the multi-residue analysis of quinolones, penicillins and cephalosporins in cow milk, and validation according to the regulation 2002/657/EC

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an analytical method to simultaneously determine European Union-regulated beta-lactams (penicillins and cephalosporins) and quinolones in cow milk. The procedure involves a new solid phase extraction (SPE) to clean-up and pre-concentrate the three series of antibiotics before analysis by liquid chromatography¿tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography¿tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). LC-MS/MS and UPLC-MS/MS techniques were also compared. The method was validated according to the Directive 2002/657/EC and subsequently applied to 56 samples of raw cow milk supplied by the Laboratori Interprofessional Lleter de Catalunya (ALLIC) (Laboratori Interprofessional Lleter de Catalunya, Control Laboratory Interprofessional of Milk of Catalunya).

Comparative analysis of amino acid repeats in rodents and humans

Amino acid tandem repeats, also called homopolymeric tracts, are extremely abundant in eukaryotic proteins. To gain insight into the genome-wide evolution of these regions in mammals, we analyzed the repeat content in a large data set of rat-mouse-human orthologs. Our results show that human proteins contain more amino acid repeats than rodent proteins and that trinucleotide repeats are also more abundant in human coding sequences. Using the human species as an outgroup, we were able to address differences in repeat loss and repeat gain in the rat and mouse lineages. In this data set, mouse proteins contain substantially more repeats than rat proteins, which can be at least partly attributed to a higher repeat loss in the rat lineage. The data are consistent with a role for trinucleotide slippage in the generation of novel amino acid repeats. We confirm the previously observed functional bias of proteins with repeats, with overrepresentation of transcription factors and DNA-binding proteins. We show that genes encoding amino acid repeats tend to have an unusually high GC content, and that differences in coding GC content among orthologs are directly related to the presence/absence of repeats. We propose that the different GC content isochore structure in rodents and humans may result in an increased amino acid repeat prevalence in the human lineage.

Complete nucleotide sequence of Birmingham IncP alpha plasmids. Compilation and comparative analysis.

The IncP alpha promiscuous plasmid (R18, R68, RK2, RP1 and RP4) comprises 60,099 bp of nucleotide sequence, encoding at least 74 genes. About 40 kb of the genome, designated the IncP core and including all essential replication and transfer functions, can be aligned with equivalent sequences in the IncP beta plasmid R751. The compiled IncP alpha sequence revealed several previously unidentified reading frames that are potential genes. IncP alpha plasmids carry genetic information very efficiently: the coding sequences of the genes are closely packed but rarely overlap, and occupy almost 86% of the genome's nucleotide sequence. All of the 74 genes should be expressed, although there is as yet experimental evidence for expression of only 60 of them. Six examples of tandem-in-frame initiation sites specifying two gene products each are known. Two overlapping gene arrangements occupy different reading frames of the same region. Intergenic regions include most of the 25 promoters; transcripts are usually polycistronic. Translation of most of the open reading frames seems to be initiated independently, each from its own ribosomal binding and initiation site, although, a few cases of coupled translation have been reported. The most frequently used initiation codon is AUG but translation for a few open reading frames begins at GUG or UUG. The most common stop-codon is UGA followed by UAA and then UAG. Regulatory circuits are complex and largely dependent on two components of the central control operon. KorA and KorB are transcriptional repressors controlling at least seven operons. KorA and KorB act synergistically in several cases by recognizing and binding to conserved nucleotide sequences. Twelve KorB binding sites were found around the IncP alpha sequence and these are conserved in R751 (IncP beta) with respect to both sequence and location. Replication of IncP alpha plasmids requires oriV and the plasmid-encoded initiator protein TrfA in combination with the host-encoded replication machinery. Conjugative plasmid transfer depends on two separate regions occupying about half of the genome. The primary segregational stability system designated Par/Mrs consists of a putative site-specific recombinase, a possible partitioning apparatus and a post-segregational lethality mechanism, all encoded in two divergent operons. Proteins related to the products of F sop and P1 par partitioning genes are separately encoded in the central control operon.

Deoxyribonucleic acid content as an indicator of progression of squamous cell carcinogenesis in the esophagus: comparative analysis on imprint-cytospin and tissue section preparation.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to explore the potential use of image analysis on tissue sections preparation as a predictive marker of early malignant changes during squamous cell (SC) carcinogenesis in the esophagus. Results of DNA ploidy quantification on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue using two different techniques were compared: imprint-cytospin and 6 microm thick tissue sections preparation. METHODS: This retrospective study included 26 surgical specimens of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from patients who underwent surgery alone at the Department of Surgery in CHUV Hospital in Lausanne between January 1993 and December 2000. We analyzed 53 samples of healthy tissue, 43 tumors and 7 lymph node metastases. RESULTS: Diploid DNA histogram patterns were observed in all histologically healthy tissues, either distant or proximal to the lesion. Aneuploidy was observed in 34 (79%) of 43 carcinomas, namely 24 (75%) of 32 early squamous cell carcinomas and 10 (91%) of 11 advanced carcinomas. DNA content was similar in the different tumor stages, whether patients presented with single or multiple synchronous tumors. All lymph node metastases had similar DNA content as their primary tumor. CONCLUSIONS: Early malignant changes in the esophagus are associated with alteration in DNA content, and aneuploidy tends to correlate with progression of invasive SCC. A very good correlation between imprint-cytospin and tissue section analysis was observed. Although each method used here showed advantages and disadvantages; tissue sections preparation provided useful information on aberrant cell-cycle regulation and helped select the optimal treatment for the individual patient along with consideration of other clinical parameters.

The Social Politics of Fatherhood in Spain and France: a Comparative Analysis of Parental Leave and Shared Residence

The Social Politics of Fatherhood in Spain and France: A Comparative Analysis of Parental Leave and Shared Residence The article provides a comparative analysis of policy developments on leaves for fathers and joint custody in Spain and France in the last decade. These two types of measures have been selected because they are both widely recognised as main instruments to promote new fathering styles and consequently more gender equality in the European Union. While the rhetoric of choice has been developed in both countries in relation to maternal employment and childcare, with better results in France than in Spain, it remains to be seen to what extent choice will also be extended to fathers. Keywords: Fatherhood. Family. Comparative social policy. Parental leave. Joint custody.

Comparative analysis of the transcriptome across distant species.

The transcriptome is the readout of the genome. Identifying common features in it across distant species can reveal fundamental principles. To this end, the ENCODE and modENCODE consortia have generated large amounts of matched RNA-sequencing data for human, worm and fly. Uniform processing and comprehensive annotation of these data allow comparison across metazoan phyla, extending beyond earlier within-phylum transcriptome comparisons and revealing ancient, conserved features. Specifically, we discover co-expression modules shared across animals, many of which are enriched in developmental genes. Moreover, we use expression patterns to align the stages in worm and fly development and find a novel pairing between worm embryo and fly pupae, in addition to the embryo-to-embryo and larvae-to-larvae pairings. Furthermore, we find that the extent of non-canonical, non-coding transcription is similar in each organism, per base pair. Finally, we find in all three organisms that the gene-expression levels, both coding and non-coding, can be quantitatively predicted from chromatin features at the promoter using a 'universal model' based on a single set of organism-independent parameters.