Galectin-1 in myelin repair

Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is a member of a highly conserved family of animal lectins which binds to the common disaccharide [Galβ(1-4)-GlcNAc] on both N- and O-glycans decorating cell surface glycoconjugates. Current evidence supports a role for Gal-1 in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases, as approximately one third of MS patients generate high titres of anti-Gal-1 antibodies. Four different lesion types have been described in MS: pattern-1 and -2 lesions are thought to be mediated by the autoimmune response, while pattern-3 and -4 lesions are considered primary oligodendropathy. The first two types are experimentally simulated in mice by experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), while the second two are mimicked by toxic models such as cuprizone (CPZ) or lysolecithin (LPC) administration. Studies in EAE models have demonstrated that Gal-1 is highly expressed in the acute phase of the disease and that its deficiency leads to severe inflammation-induced neurodegeneration [1]. Regarding its mechanism of action,Fil: Rinaldi, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Thomas, Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Pasquini, Laura Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; Argentin

The calculation of optical absorption spectra using linear-scaling density-functional theory

The goal of the work presented in this thesis was to develop and implement a method for calculating optical absorption spectra for large electronic systems within a linear-scaling density-functional theory (LS-DFT) formalism. The key feature of this method was the development of a scheme for optimizing a set of localized orbitals to accurately represent unoccupied Kohn-Sham states, which are not well represented by the localized orbital basis sets used for ground state LS-DFT calculations. Three different schemes were compared for the calculation of unoccupied states using a one-dimensional “toy model” and the most promising of these, based on the use of a projection operator, was implemented in a fully-functional LS-DFT code. Using the toy model, two methods for the calculation of band structures within a localized basis set were investigated and some of the features required by localized basis sets in order to produce accurate band structures were identified. The method was tested by the application to both molecular and extended systems, with calculations of densities of states, band structures and optical absorption spectra. The results for the smaller systems were validated by comparison with a cubic-scaling plane-wave density-functional theory code, with which excellent agreement was achieved. Additionally, the method was shown to be linear-scaling for a conjugated polymer for system sizes up to 1000 atoms. The use of the projection method was shown to be crucial for calculating the above results, as was the implementation of a momentum operator based formalism for the calculation of spectra. Finally, it was shown that the method can be used to identify the transitions responsible for particular peaks in the spectra and is sensitive enough to distinguish between spectra for systems with very similar structures, demonstrating the capabilities of the method to aid the interpretation of experimental results

The Duty to license software in a dominant market position : the essential facility doctrine

Tutkielma käsittelee tietokoneohjelmistojen pakkolisensiointia määräävässä markkina-asemassa. Tutkielman erityisenä näkökulmana aiheeseen on se, onko Euroopan unionin oikeuden mukaan tietokoneohjelmistojen pakkolisensiointi määräävässä markkina-asemassa mahdollista ja jos on, niin mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat immateriaalioikeuksien pakkolisensiointivelvoitteeseen. Tutkielma jakautuu viiteen pääjaksoon, joista ensimmäisessä esitellään tutkimusongelma sekä tutkielman rakenne tarkemmin. Toisessa pääjaksossa kuvataan yleisellä tasolla tekijänoikeuden pääperiaatteita, tietokoneohjelmistojen tekijänoikeussuojaa sekä tietokoneohjelmistoihin liittyviä erityispiirteitä että ilmiöitä. Kolmas jakso sisältää kuvauksen määräävän markkina-aseman väärinkäytöstä Euroopan unionin toiminnasta tehdyn sopimuksen 102 artiklan mukaan. Neljäs pääjakso käsittelee pakkolisensiointia määräävässä markkina-asemassa. Jakso jakaantuu neljään alajaksoon, joista ensimmäisessä alajaksossa tarkastellaan immateriaalioikeuden ja kilpailuoikeuden vastakkainasettelua. Toinen alajakso sisältää kuvauksen niin sanotusta olennainen toimintaedellytys-opista (”the essential facility doctrine”) sekä siitä, kuinka immateriaalioikeuteen liittyvät tapaukset tulisi tulkita tämän opin mukaan. Kolmannessa alajaksossa tarkastellaan Euroopan unionin oikeuskäytäntöä ja sitä kuinka olennainen toimintaedellytys-oppi on kehittynyt oikeuskäytännössä immateriaalioikeuksien osalta. Neljäs alajakso sisältää erityisiä huomioita pakkolisensioinnista, kun kyseessä ovat immateriaalioikeudet. Tutkielman viides ja viimeinen pääjakso sisältää johtopäätelmän siitä, voidaanko määräävässä markkina-asemassa oleva yhtiö velvoittaa myöntämään lisenssi tietokoneohjelmistoonsa sekä esitetään joitakin aiheeseen liittyviä avoimia kysymyksiä jatkotutkimusten kannalta. Tutkimuksessa käydään läpi aiheeseen liittyvää lainsäädäntöä ja oikeuskäytäntöä sekä aiheesta tuotettua oikeustieteellistä kirjallisuutta, joiden perusteella pyritään tulkitsemaan millä edellytyksin immateriaalioikeuksia voidaan pakkolisensioida. Tutkimuksen mukaan olemassa olevan oikeuskäytännön valossa määräävässä markkina-asemassa oleva yhtiö voidaan velvoittaa lisensioimaan tietokoneohjelmistoja tiettyjen edellytysten täyttyessä

“Precocious girls” : age of consent, class and family in late nineteenth-century England

A fixed legal age of consent is used to determine when a person has the capacity to consent to sex yet in the late Victorian period the idea became a vehicle through which to address varied social concerns, from child prostitution and child sexual abuse to chastity and marriageability of working-class girls. This article argues that the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLAA) 1885, the Act that raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, and its application were driven by constructions of gender in conjunction with those of social class and working class family. The article firstly argues that CLAA 1885 and related campaigns reinforced class boundaries, and largely framed the working class family as absent, thereby, requiring the law to step in as a surrogate parent to protect the girl child. Secondly, the paper focuses on narratives emerging from the archives and argues that while narratives of capacity and protection in particular were key concepts behind reforms, the courts showed limited understanding of these terms. Instead, the courts focused on notions resistance, consent, and untrustworthiness of the victim, even when these concepts were not relevant to the proceedings due to victims' young age

State Tax Incentives for Research and Development Activities:A Review of State Practices - Brief

This report documents state tax incentives offered around the country designed to encourage state level R&D activity.This report also simulates the effect of various credit components in the value of the credit. FRC Brief 13

A study of the spatial characteristics of the Jews in London 1695 & 1895

This paper suggests that the settlement pattern of Jews in London is in a distinct cluster, but contradicts the accepted belief about the nature of the 'ghetto'; finding that the traditional conception of the 'ghetto', as an enclosed, inward-looking immigrant quarter is incorrect in this case. It is shown that despite the fact that the Jews sometimes constituted up to 100% of the population of a street, that in general, the greater the concentration of Jews in a street, the better connected (more 'integrated') the street was into the main spacial structure of the city. It is also suggested here that the Jewish East End worked both as an internally strong structure of space, with local institutions relating to and reinforcing the local pattern of space; and also externally, with strong links tying the Jewish East End with its host society. It is proposed that this duality of internal/external links not only strengthens Jewish society but possibly contradicts accepted beliefs on the structure of immigrant societies

Speaking Crisis in the Eurozone Debt Crisis: Exploring the Potential and Limits of Transformational Agonistic Conflict

Agonism as a political theory emphasizes the ontological aspect of conflict in human political interaction. This article aims to shed light on the political practice of agonism – and in doing so on its limits – by viewing 'crisis discourse' as an agonistic political practice. As my analysis of the Dutch Socialist Party and the Freedom Party’s speech in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis shows, crisis discourse aimed to (re)create a ‘people’ and to justify radical change in economic and social structures. Crisis discourse is employed to construct an 'other' that can be based on ethnic and nationalist terms and to justify retroactive application of the law and the stripping of Dutch citizens of their rights. This attention to crisis discourse as an agonistic political practice highlights an unease within agonism itself: where must the agonist accepts limits to the conflict and contestation she so values? The article starts with Chantal Mouffe's answer to this question - her insistence that legitimate conflict must always recognize the shared values of equality and liberty - and proceeds to show that Mouffe's view unnecessarily relies on a deliberative democratic desire for consensus. Other than Mouffe, I draw on Honig’s emphasis of perpetual contestation to propose that the issue of limits can be best answered by reference to the core of agonistic thought: the preservation of the struggle over political norms and processes. It is not shared values or even a shared political space that matters, but that the political space of the ‘people’ – however contested membership therein might be – remains a place that the 'other' can re-ente

Competing in a Global Market

Students put complex business practices to work in a global online simulation

Henberg Takes Holistic Approach

Long before the whisper of terms like global warming and carbon footprints, before SIGG bottles and reusable shopping bags, Marvin Henberg was already a committed environmental advocate