How the gut links innate and adaptive immunity.

Mucosal surfaces represent the main sites in which environmental microorganisms and antigens interact with the host. Sentinel cells, including epithelial cells, lumenal macrophages, and intraepithelial dendritic cells, continuously sense the environment and coordinate defenses for the protection of mucosal tissues. The mucosal epithelial cells are crucial actors in coordinating defenses. They sense the outside world and respond to environmental signals by releasing chemokines and cytokines that recruit inflammatory and immune cells to control potential infectious agents and to attract cells able to trigger immune responses. Among immune cells, dendritic cells (DC) play a key role in controlling adaptive immune responses, due to their capacity to internalize foreign materials and to present antigens to naive T and B lymphocytes, locally or in draining organized lymphoid tissues. Immune cells recruited in epithelial tissues can, in turn, act upon the epithelial cells and change their phenotype in a process referred to as epithelial metaplasia.

How to regulate neutrophils in gout.

Most research in gout has concentrated on the proinflammatory mechanisms to explain the inflammation that is generated when leucocytes are in contact with monosodium urate crystals. However, the episodic nature of gout and the absence of inflammation even when crystals are present suggest that there are natural counter-regulatory mechanisms to limit the inflammatory response. Gagné and colleagues showed that myeloid inhibitory C-type lectin, a C-type lectin inhibitory receptor expressed on neutrophils, modulates monosodium urate-induced neutrophil responses in vitro.

How reliable is the monitoring of permanent vegetation plots? A test with multiple observers

Questions: A multiple plot design was developed for permanent vegetation plots. How reliable are the different methods used in this design and which changes can we measure? Location: Alpine meadows (2430 m a.s.l.) in the Swiss Alps. Methods: Four inventories were obtained from 40 m(2) plots: four subplots (0.4 m(2)) with a list of species, two 10m transects with the point method (50 points on each), one subplot (4 m2) with a list of species and visual cover estimates as a percentage and the complete plot (40 m(2)) with a list of species and visual estimates in classes. This design was tested by five to seven experienced botanists in three plots. Results: Whatever the sampling size, only 45-63% of the species were seen by all the observers. However, the majority of the overlooked species had cover < 0.1%. Pairs of observers overlooked 10-20% less species than single observers. The point method was the best method for cover estimate, but it took much longer than visual cover estimates, and 100 points allowed for the monitoring of only a very limited number of species. The visual estimate as a percentage was more precise than classes. Working in pairs did not improve the estimates, but one botanist repeating the survey is more reliable than a succession of different observers. Conclusion: Lists of species are insufficient for monitoring. It is necessary to add cover estimates to allow for subsequent interpretations in spite of the overlooked species. The choice of the method depends on the available resources: the point method is time consuming but gives precise data for a limited number of species, while visual estimates are quick but allow for recording only large changes in cover. Constant pairs of observers improve the reliability of the records.

How do improvements in labour productivity in the Scottish economy affect the UK position on the Environmental Kuznets Curve?

The research reported here is an output of Karen Turner’s ESRC Climate Change Leadership Fellow project (Grant reference RES-066-27-0029). However, this research builds on previous work funded by the ESRC on modelling the economic and environmental impacts of technological improvement (Grant reference: RES-061-25-0010) and by the EPSRC through the SuperGen Marine Energy Research Consortium on accounting for and modeling environmental indicators (Grant reference: EP/E040136/1).

How much does the amphioxus genome represent the ancestor of chordates?

One of the main motivations to study amphioxus is its potential for understanding the last common ancestor of chordates, which notably gave rise to the vertebrates. An important feature in this respect is the slow evolutionary rate that seems to have characterized the cephalochordate lineage, making amphioxus an interesting proxy for the chordate ancestor, as well as a key lineage to include in comparative studies. Whereas slow evolution was first noticed at the phenotypic level, it has also been described at the genomic level. Here, we examine whether the amphioxus genome is indeed a good proxy for the genome of the chordate ancestor, with a focus on protein-coding genes. We investigate genome features, such as synteny, gene duplication and gene loss, and contrast the amphioxus genome with those of other deuterostomes that are used in comparative studies, such as Ciona, Oikopleura and urchin.

PKS2: A link between phototropin signalling and auxin transport - a study on how plants sense and respond to light.

The blue light photoreceptors phototropins (phot1 and phot2 in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.)) carry out various light responses of great adaptive value that optimize plant growth. These processes include phototropism (the bending of an organ induced by unequal light distribution), chloroplast movements, stomatal opening, leaf flattening and solar tracking. The biochemical pathways controlling these important blue light responses are just starting to be elucidated. The PHYTOCHROME KINASE SUBSTRATE (PKS1-4) proteins - the subject of this research - have recently been identified as novel phototropism signalling components. PKS1 (the founding member of this family) interacts in a same complex in vivo with phot1 and the important phot1 signalling element NON-PHOTOTROPIC HYPOCOTYL 3 (NPH3). This suggested that the PKS may act as early components of phot signalling. This work further investigates the role of this protein family during phototropin signalling Genetic experiments clearly showed that the PKS do not control chloroplast movements or stomatal opening. However, PKS2 plays a critical role with NPH3 during leaf flattening and solar tracking. Epistasis data indicated that both proteins act in phot1 and phot2 pathways, which is consistent with their in vivo interaction with both phototropins. Because phototropism, leaf flattening and solar tracking are developmental processes regulated by the hormone auxin, the role of PKS2 and NPH3 during auxin homeostasis was also investigated. Interestingly, PKS2 loss-of-function restores leaf flattening in the auxin transporter mutant aux1. Moreover, PKS2 and NPH3 are found in a same complex with AUX1 in vivo. Taken together, these results suggest that PKS2 may act with NPH3 as a connecting point between phot signalling and auxin transport. Further experiments were performed to explore the molecular mode of action of PKS2 and NPH3 in this process. The significance of these results is discussed.

Policy Shocks and Contract Renegotiation: Who Gets Raked Over the Coals?

Changes in climate policy have large influence on businesses. Firms anticipate and respond to such changes, but what if they have already engaged in a longterm relationship with other firms or customers at the time of policy change? For example, coal supply to power stations is typically based on long-term contracts, while the nature of the buyer-supplier relationship may well be affected substantially by climate regulations. However, there has been little evidence on whether or how firms amend their contractual agreements in response to a change in policy.

How much does industry matter in an emerging market economy?

Theories of firm profitability make different predictions about the relative importance of firm, industry and time specific factors. We assess, empirically, the relevance of these effects over a sixteen year period in India, as a regime of control and regulation, pre 1985, gave way to partial liberalisation between 1985 and 1991 and to more decisive liberalisation after 1991. We find that firm effects are important throughout, when rent seeking opportunities proliferated, as well as when competitive forces were enhanced by institutional change. In contrast, industry effects significantly increased after liberalisation, suggesting that industry structure matters more within competitive markets. These findings help understand the relevance of different models over different stages of liberalisation, and have important implications for both theory and policy.

Market Familiarity and the Location of South and North MNEs

We use a systematic empirical analysis of the determinants of South-South (SS) and North-South (NS) foreign direct investment (FDI) as a canvas to explore how multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) location decisions are shaped by better acquaintance with a foreign market resulting from bilateral ties, experience of international expansion, and knowledge of how to deal with poor governance. We find that these various aspects of market familiarity, which can interact together, are important to explain and differentiate the location behaviours of South MNEs (S-MNEs) and North MNEs (N-MNEs) in developing countries.

How Heavy Is A Job?: A Critical Survey of Job Evaluation as a Payment Device.

With salaries subjected to scrutiny more than ever, it is increasingly important that the process by which they are determined be understood and justifiable. Both public and private organisations now routinely rely on so-called “job evaluation” as a means of constructing an appropriate pay-scale and as such it is ever more necessary that we appreciate how this system works and that we recognise its limits. Only with such an understanding of the way in which salaries are set can we hope to have a meaningful discussion of their economic function. This paper aims to expound the details of job evaluation both in theory and in practice, and critically assess its shortcomings. In Section 1 below we describe the job evaluation system and in Section 2 we briefly outline the history and the usage of the system in both the private and the public sector. In Section 3 we theoretically analyse the often unstated but nonetheless implicit assumptions made by practitioners of the art of job evaluation. Section 4 applies the analysis of Section 3 to review a particular and important case study, namely The Senior Salaries Review of the Welsh Assembly 2004. Section 5 concludes.

Forward Looking and Myopic Regional Computable General Equilibrium Models. How Significant is the Distinction?

We present a stylized intertemporal forward-looking model able that accommodates key regional economic features, an area where the literature is not well developed. The main difference, from the standard applications, is the role of saving and its implication for the balance of payments. Though maintaining dynamic forward-looking behaviour for agents, the rate of private saving is exogenously determined and so no neoclassical financial adjustment is needed. Also, we focus on the similarities and the differences between myopic and forward-looking models, highlighting the divergences among the main adjustment equations and the resulting simulation outcomes.

How Optimal is US Monetary Policy?

Most of the literature estimating DSGE models for monetary policy analysis assume that policy follows a simple rule. In this paper we allow policy to be described by various forms of optimal policy - commitment, discretion and quasi-commitment. We find that, even after allowing for Markov switching in shock variances, the inflation target and/or rule parameters, the data preferred description of policy is that the US Fed operates under discretion with a marked increase in conservatism after the 1970s. Parameter estimates are similar to those obtained under simple rules, except that the degree of habits is significantly lower and the prevalence of cost-push shocks greater. Moreover, we find that the greatest welfare gains from the ‘Great Moderation’ arose from the reduction in the variances in shocks hitting the economy, rather than increased inflation aversion. However, much of the high inflation of the 1970s could have been avoided had policy makers been able to commit, even without adopting stronger anti-inflation objectives. More recently the Fed appears to have temporarily relaxed policy following the 1987 stock market crash, and has lost, without regaining, its post-Volcker conservatism following the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000.

How do technical change and technological distance influence the size of the Okun’s Law coefficient?

How does technical change influence the size of the Okun’s Law coefficient? Using a nonlinear version of Okun’s Law augmented with technical change and technological distance, we show that the impact of output movements on unemployment variations is influenced by the imitation or innovation origins of technical change

How private is private information? The ability to spot deception in an economic game

We provide experimental evidence on the ability to detect deceit in a buyer-seller game with asymmetric information. Sellers have private information about the buyer's valuation of a good and sometimes have incentives to mislead buyers. We examine if buyers can spot deception in face-to-face encounters. We vary (1) whether or not the buyer can interrogate the seller, and (2) the contextual richness of the situation. We find that the buyers' prediction accuracy is above chance levels, and that interrogation and contextual richness are important factors determining the accuracy. These results show that there are circumstances in which part of the information asymmetry is eliminated by people's ability to spot deception.