The Tnt1 family member Retrosol copy number and structure disclose retrotransposon diversification in different Solanum species

Eukaryotic genome expansion/retraction caused by LTR-retrotransposon activity is dependent on the expression of full length copies to trigger efficient transposition and recombination-driven events. The Tnt1 family of retrotransposons has served as a model to evaluate the diversity among closely related elements within Solanaceae species and found that members of the family vary mainly in their U3 region of the long terminal repeats (LTRs). Recovery of a full length genomic copy of Retrosol was performed through a PCR-based approach from wild potato, Solanum oplocense. Further characterization focusing on both LTR sequences of the amplified copy allowed estimating an approximate insertion time at 2 million years ago thus supporting the occurrence of transposition cycles after genus divergence. Copy number of Tnt1-like elements in Solanum species were determined through genomic quantitative PCR whereby results sustain that Retrosol in Solanum species is a low copy number retrotransposon (1-4 copies) while Retrolyc1 has an intermediate copy number (38 copies) in S. peruvianum. Comparative analysis of retrotransposon content revealed no correlation between genome size or ploidy level and Retrosol copy number. The tetraploid cultivated potato with a cellular genome size of 1,715 Mbp harbours similar copy number per monoploid genome than other diploid Solanum species (613-884 Mbp). Conversely, S. peruvianum genome (1,125 Mbp) has a higher copy number. These results point towards a lineage specific dynamic flux regarding the history of amplification/activity of Tnt1-like elements in the genome of Solanum species.

Policy instruments to improve energy efficiency in buildings

The newly adopted energy efficiency directive (2012/27/EU) highlights the importance of energy efficiency in reaching the Union’s 2020 targets. The directive commits member states to defining national energy efficiency targets (art. 3), achieving yearly energy savings of 1.5% of the annual energy sales through the energy efficiency obligation scheme (art. 7), and providing a long-term strategy for the building sector that aims at a 3% refurbishment rate for public buildings (art. 4+5). Buildings currently account for 40% of energy use in most countries, putting them among the largest end-use sectors. This report takes a closer look at the best practices for implementing increasing energy efficiency in different regions and countries in Europe. The final aim is to identify some policy tools to be suggested to the region of Dalarna (Dalarna having been chosen as the pilot county in Sweden) as a means of implementing energy efficiency in the building sector. The final objective is to give analysts and decision-makers a better analytical foundation to explore future policy development in the area of buildings to be proposed and tested at the regional level in Dalarna and later at the national level in Sweden.

New routes to enantioenriched substances through small organic molecules

In this thesis we will disclose the results obtained from the diastereoisomeric salt formation (n salt, p salt and p1,n1 salt) between non-racemic trans-chrysanthemic acid (trans-ChA) and pure enantiomers of threo-2-dimethylamino-1-phenyl-1,3-propanediol (DMPP). The occurrence of p1,n1 salt formation can have profound effects on enantiomer separation of scalemic (non-racemic) mixtures. This phenomenon when accompanied by substrate self-association impedes the complete recovery of the major enantiomer through formation of an inescapable racemate cage. A synthetic sequence for the asymmetric synthesis of bicyclo[3.2.0]heptanones and bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-3-en-6-ones through a cycloaddition strategy is reported. The fundamental step is a [2+2]-cycloaddition of an enantiopure amide derived from the reaction between a set of acids and an oxazolidinone as the chiral auxiliary. The inter- and intramolecular cycloaddition of in situ-generated keteniminium salts gives bicycles with a good enantioselection. A key intermediate of Iloprost, a chemically stable and biologically active mimic of prostacyclin PGI2 is synthesized following a ‘green approach’. An example of simple optical resolution of this racemic intermediate involving the diastereoisomeric salt formation is described.

Multi-target-directed ligands: application to the Alzheimer's disease

The MTDL (multi-target-directed ligand) design strategy is used to develop single chemical entities that are able to simultaneously modulate multiple targets. The development of such compounds might disclose new avenues for the treatment of a variety of pathologies (e.g. cancer, AIDS, neurodegenerative diseases), for which an effective cure is urgently needed. This strategy has been successfully applied to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) due to its multifactorial nature, involving cholinergic dysfunction, amyloid aggregation, and oxidative stress. Despite many biological entities have been recognized as possible AD-relevant, only four achetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and one NMDA receptor antagonist are used in therapy. Unfortunately, such compounds are not disease-modifying agents behaving only as cognition enhancers. Therefore, MTDL strategy is emerging as a powerful drug design paradigm: pharmacophores of different drugs are combined in the same structure to afford hybrid molecules. In principle, each pharmacophore of these new drugs should retain the ability to interact with its specific site(s) on the target and, consequently, to produce specific pharmacological responses that, taken together, should slow or block the neurodegenerative process. To this end, the design and synthesis of several examples of MTDLs for combating neurodegenerative diseases have been published. This seems to be the more appropriate approach for addressing the complexity of AD and may provide new drugs for tackling the multifactorial nature of AD, and hopefully stopping its progression. According to this emerging strategy, in this work thesis different classes of new molecular structures, based on the MTDL approach, have been developed. Moreover, curcumin and its constrained analogs have currently received remarkable interest as they have a unique conjugated structure which shows a pleiotropic profile that we considered a suitable framework in developing MTDLs. In fact, beside the well-known direct antioxidant activity, curcumin displays a wide range of biological properties including anti-inflammatory and anti-amyloidogenic activities and an indirect antioxidant action through activation of the cytoprotective enzyme heme oxygenase (HO-1). Thus, since many lines of evidence suggest that oxidative stess and mitochondria impairment have a cental role in age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as AD, we designed mitochondria-targeted antioxidants by connecting curcumin analogs to different polyamine chains that, with the aid of electrostatic force, might drive the selected antioxidant moiety into mitochondria.

Disclosing Sexual Assault Victimization to Others

Previous research has demonstrated that victims of sexual assault disclose their assaults most frequently to members of their intimate social circle. Unfortunately, some friends and family members give support in ways that are perceived as unhelpful by victims. The present study found that victims' reports and non-victims' expectations of positive support after disclosure differed significantly. These results indicate that significant efforts are needed to change the campus culture by increasing support for sexual assault victims.

Three Dichotomies in Lawyers’ Ethics (With Particular Attention to the Corporation as Client)

Three usually unexpressed, and too often unnoticed, conceptual dichotomies underlie our perception and understanding of lawyers’ ethics. First, the existence of a special body of professional ethics and professional regulation presupposes some special need or risk. Criminal and civil law are apparently insufficient. Ordinary day-to-day morality and ordinary ethics, likewise, are not considered to be enough. What is the risk entailed by the notion of a profession that is special; who needs protection, and from what? Two quite different possible answers to this question provide the first of the three dichotomies examined in this article: one can understand the risk as primarily to a vulnerable client from a powerful professional; or, to the contrary, from a powerful client-lawyer combination toward vulnerable others. Second, what is the foundational orientation of lawyers? Are lawyers serving primarily their particular clients, and those clients’ preferences, choices and autonomy? Or is the primary allegiance of lawyers to some community or collective goal or interest distinct from the particular goals or interests of the client? The third dichotomy concerns not the substance of the risk, or the primary orientation, but the appropriate means of responding to that risk or that fundamental obligation. Should professional ethics be implemented primarily through rules? Or, should we rely on character and the discretion of lawyers to make a thought out, all things considered, decision? Each of these three presents a fundamental difference in how we perceive and address issues of lawyers’ ethics. Each affects our understanding and analysis on multiple levels, from (1) determining the appropriate or requisite conduct in a particular situation, to (2) framing a specific rule or approach for a particular category of situations, to (3) more general or abstract theory or policy. A person’s inclinations in regard to the dichotomies affects the conclusions that person will reach on each of those levels of analysis, yet those inclinations and assumptions are frequently unexamined and unarticulated. One’s position on each of the dichotomies tends to structure the approach and outcome without the issues and choice having been explicitly addressed or possibly even noticed. This article is an effort to ameliorate that problem. Part I addresses the question of what is the risk in the work of lawyers, or the function of lawyers, for which professional ethics is the answer. The concluding section focuses on the particular problem of the corporation as client. Part II then asks the related and possibly consequent question of what is the foundational orientation or allegiance of the lawyer? Is it to the individual client? Or is it to some larger community interest? Again, the concluding section focuses on the corporation. Part III turns to the means or method for addressing the obligations and possible problems of the professional ethics of lawyers. Should lawyers’ ethics guide and confine the conduct of lawyers primarily through rules? Or should it function primarily through reliance on the knowledge, judgment and character of lawyers? If the latter were the guide, ethical decisions would be made on a situation by situation basis under the discretion of each lawyer. Toward the end of each discussion possibilities for bridging the dichotomy are considered (and with such bridges each dichotomy may come to look more like a spectrum or continuum.). At several points after its introduction in Parts I and II, the special problem of the corporation as client is revisited and possible solutions suggested. Illustrating the usefulness of keeping the dichotomies in view, Part IV applies them to several exemplary situations of ethical difficulty in actual lawyer practice. For readers finding it difficult to envision the consequences of these distinctions, turning ahead to Part IV may be useful in making the discussion more concrete. Some commonalities across the dichotomies and connections among them are then developed in the concluding section, Part V.

A divulgação de provisões e passivos contingentes ambientais pelas empresas do setor de energia elétrica em comparação ao desenvolvimento da normatização da evidenciação contábil

O pressuposto desta pesquisa é de que a divulgação de informações ambientais, no âmbito das provisões e passivos contingentes, reagiu aos avanços na normatização contábil. A normatização contábil genérica sobre evidenciação de obrigações incertas era restrita, em meados de 1976, à Lei no 6.404, e assim permaneceu ao longo de pelo menos uma década e meia, quando começou a ser desenvolvida. Ao longo dos anos foram criados padrões obrigatórios de divulgação, com critérios de julgamento mais detalhados para a classificação da obrigação incerta em provável, possível ou remota. Embora ainda apresente algum grau de subjetividade, o desenvolvimento destes critérios pode ter contribuído para a diminuição da assimetria informacional: a empresa passou a contar com um conjunto de orientações mais claras e, portanto, com melhores condições de averiguar e divulgar suas obrigações incertas. Esse avanço contribuiu para que as obrigações ambientais passassem a ter maior exposição, principalmente no âmbito das empresas potencialmente poluidoras, como as do setor de energia elétrica, que utilizam recursos naturais e modificam o meio ambiente. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste estudo foi analisar as evidências de passivo ambiental divulgadas pelas empresas do setor de energia elétrica, de 1997 a 2014. Para tanto, foi desenvolvido um estudo qualitativo, descritivo e longitudinal, por meio da análise de conteúdo de 941 notas explicativas, de uma população de 64 empresas do setor de energia elétrica, de acordo com listagem na BM&FBovespa, em maio de 2015. A amostra foi constituída de 26 empresas, que divulgaram o total de 468 notas explicativas no site da CVM, de 1997 a 2014. Ao longo destes 18 anos, 14 empresas da amostra (53,85%) evidenciaram passivos ambientais ao menos uma vez e 12 instituições (46,15%) não o fizeram e, do total de 468 notas explicativas, 100 (21,37%) evidenciaram passivo ambiental. O número de evidências de passivos ambientais era pequeno em meados de 1997, mas ascendeu, com um aumento mais consistente a partir de 2006, ano que coincide com a aprovação da Norma e Procedimento de Contabilidade 22 - Provisões, Passivos, Contingências Passivas e Contingências Ativas, emitida pelo IBRACON. Adicionalmente, a materialidade quantitativa estava na média de 0,61% para provisões ambientais e 0,89% para os passivos contingentes ambientais, desconsiderando-se os outliers. A dimensão das notas explicativas, em termos de quantidade de palavras, foi crescente e diversificada. Em conclusão, a evidenciação contábil pode, em adição à evidenciação voluntária, ser um meio plausível para a divulgação de questões ambientais e redução da assimetria informacional, principalmente quando a normatização contábil se faz mais clara e detalhada.

Three Dichotomies in Lawyers’ Ethics (With Particular Attention to the Corporation as Client)

Three usually unexpressed, and too often unnoticed, conceptual dichotomies underlie our perception and understanding of lawyers’ ethics. First, the existence of a special body of professional ethics and professional regulation presupposes some special need or risk. Criminal and civil law are apparently insufficient. Ordinary day-to-day morality and ordinary ethics, likewise, are not considered to be enough. What is the risk entailed by the notion of a profession that is special; who needs protection, and from what? Two quite different possible answers to this question provide the first of the three dichotomies examined in this article: one can understand the risk as primarily to a vulnerable client from a powerful professional; or, to the contrary, from a powerful client-lawyer combination toward vulnerable others. Second, what is the foundational orientation of lawyers? Are lawyers serving primarily their particular clients, and those clients’ preferences, choices and autonomy? Or is the primary allegiance of lawyers to some community or collective goal or interest distinct from the particular goals or interests of the client? The third dichotomy concerns not the substance of therisk, or the primary orientation, but the appropriate means of responding to that risk or that fundamental obligation. Should professional ethics be implemented primarily through rules? Or, should we rely on character and the discretion of lawyers to make a thought out, all things considered, decision? Each of these three presents a fundamental difference in how we perceive and address issues of lawyers’ ethics. Each affects our understanding and analysis on multiple levels, from (1) determining the appropriate or requisite conduct in aparticular situation, to (2) framing a specific rule or approach for a particular category of situations, to (3) more general or abstract theory or policy. A person’s inclinations in regard to the dichotomies affects the conclusions that person will reach on each of those levels of analysis, yet those inclinations and assumptions are frequently unexamined and unarticulated. One’s position on each of the dichotomies tends to structure the approach and outcome without the issues and choice having been explicitly addressed or possibly even noticed. This article is an effort to ameliorate that problem. Part I addresses the question of what is the risk in the work of lawyers, or the function of lawyers, for which professional ethics is the answer. The concluding section focuses on the particular problem of the corporation as client. Part II then asks the related and possibly consequent question of what is the foundational orientation or allegiance of the lawyer? Is it to the individual client? Or is it to some larger community interest? Again, the concluding section focuses on thecorporation. Part III turns to the means or method for addressing the obligations and possible problems of the professional ethics of lawyers. Should lawyers’ ethics guide and confine the conduct of lawyers primarily through rules? Or should it function primarily through reliance on the knowledge, judgment and character of lawyers? If the latter were the guide, ethical decisions would be made on a situation by situation basis under the discretion of each lawyer. Toward the end of each discussion possibilities for bridging the dichotomy are considered (and with such bridges each dichotomy may come to look more like a spectrum or continuum.). At several points after its introduction in Parts I and II, the special problem of the corporation as client is revisited and possible solutions suggested. Illustrating the usefulness of keeping the dichotomies in view, Part IV applies them to several exemplary situations of ethical difficulty in actual lawyer practice. For readers finding it difficult to envision the consequences of these distinctions, turning ahead to Part IV may be useful in making the discussion more concrete. Some commonalities across the dichotomies and connections among them are then developed in the concluding section, Part V.

An introduction to alysidal algebra (IV)

Purpose – Deontical impure systems are systems whose object set is formed by an s-impure set, whose elements are perceptuales significances (relative beings) of material and/or energetic objects (absolute beings) and whose relational set is freeways of relations, formed by sheaves of relations going in two-way directions and at least one of its relations has deontical properties such as permission, prohibition, obligation and faculty. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Mathematical and logical development of human society ethical and normative structure. Findings – Existence of relations with positive imperative modality (obligation) would constitute the skeleton of the system. Negative imperative modality (prohibition) would be the immunological system of protection of the system. Modality permission the muscular system, that gives the necessary flexibility. Four theorems have been formulated based on Gödel's theorem demonstrating the inconsistency or incompleteness of DISs. For each constructed systemic conception can happen to it one of the two following things: either some allowed responses are not produced or else some forbidden responses are produced. Responses prohibited by the system are defined as nonwished effects. Originality/value – This paper is a continuation of the four previous papers and is developed the theory of deontical impure systems.

The Virtual Interactive Relationship Between BIM Project Teams: Effective Communication to aid Collaboration in the Design Process

Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a shared source of information about a built asset, which creates a collaborative virtual environment for project teams. Literature suggests that to collaborate efficiently, the relationship between the project team is based on sympathy, obligation, trust and rapport. Communication increases in importance when working collaboratively but effective communication can only be achieved when the stakeholders are willing to act, react, listen and share information. Case study research and interviews with Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry experts suggest that synchronous face-to-face communication is project teams’ preferred method, allowing teams to socialise and build rapport, accelerating the creation of trust between the stakeholders. However, virtual unified communication platforms are a close second-preferred option for communication between the teams. Effective methods for virtual communication in professional practice, such as virtual collaboration environments (CVE), that build trust and achieve similar spontaneous responses as face-to-face communication, are necessary to face the global challenges and can be achieved with the right people, processes and technology. This research paper investigates current industry methods for virtual communication within BIM projects and explores the suitability of avatar interaction in a collaborative virtual environment as an alternative to face-to-face communication to enhance collaboration between design teams’ professional practice on a project. Hence, this paper presents comparisons between the effectiveness of these communication methods within construction design teams with results of further experiments conducted to test recommendations for more efficient methods for virtual communication to add value in the workplace between design teams.

La Direttiva 2008/104/CE relativa al lavoro tramite agenzia interinale: aspetti problematici e modelli di implementazione = Directive 2008/104/EC relating to temporary agency work: problematic aspects and implementation models. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 101/2013

The problematic gestation of the Directive on temporary agency work shows the presence of several criticalities that there are also in the national transposition in relation to the principle of equal treatment and to the mechanisms for preventing abuse during successive assignments. From a first analysis it can be said that in some EU Member States only the derogations have been implemented and not the general principle of equal treatment. At the same time, the obligation of the Member States, contained in the Directive on temporary agency work, to establish mechanisms for preventing abuse during successive assignments is crucial, especially in the light of the recent case law of the EU Court of Justice in which the Court does not apply to the temporary agency workers the protective rules of the Directive on fixed-term contracts (see C-290/12 , Della Rocca).

Humanitarian Visas: Option or obligation?. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 68, 27 October 2014

Third-country nationals seeking protection have no EU-wide legal channels at present for entering EU territory and triggering protection mechanisms under the Common European Asylum System. As a result, many embark on hazardous journeys, with concomitant risks and loss of human life. The absence of ‘protection-sensitive’ mechanisms for accessing EU territory, along with EU external and extraterritorial border and migration management and control, undermine Member States' refugee and human rights obligations. Humanitarian visas may offer a remedy in this regard by enabling third-country nationals to apply in situ for entry to EU territory on humanitarian grounds or because of international obligations. This study asks whether the existing Visa Code actually obliges Member States to issue humanitarian visas. It also examines past implementation of humanitarian visa schemes by Member States and considers whether more could be done to encourage them to make use of existing provisions in EU law. Finally, with a Commission proposal for Visa Code reform on the table, it asks whether there is now an opportunity to lay down clear rules for humanitarian visa schemes.

$150,000,000 State of Illinois general obligation bonds, series of April 2007.

The purpose of the Official Statement Addendum is to set forth the details of sale of the $150,000,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series of April 2007 (the "Bonds"), sold by the State of Illinois (the "State") on April 16, 2007. The Bonds will mature on April 1 of each of the years in the amounts and bearing interest as follows: ... Payment of the principal of the interest on the Bonds naturing on April 1, 2013 through April 1, 2032, inclusive (the "Insured Bonds"), when due, will be guaranteed by a municipal bond insurance policy issued by Financial Guaranty Insurance Company(the "Insurer" or "FGIC") simultaneously with the delivery of the Bonds.

Token of regard presented to the pupils of the Elm-Wood School, /

"Errata": leaf at end.