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This thesis seeks to establish how the fifth-century audience’s perception of Aeschylean tragedy was influenced by their prior knowledge of the myths on which the dramas were based. Thus we study references to these myths in earlier epic and lyric sources in an attempt to detect borrowings and deviations from the earlier material on the part of the poet. The earliest surviving tragedy, the Persae, has a historical basis and so mythical knowledge is supplanted by the audience's own first-hand experience of the recent war. We see how foreknowledge of the Greek victory at Salamis will prove a deep influence on the audience s perception of the presentation of the enemy court and how Aeschylus presents the Persians as being utterly devastated by the defeat. Likewise an appreciation of the Seven Against Thebes is greatly enhanced if we remember that from the very beginning of the drama the audience were anticipating the double fratricide from their knowledge of this events in previous versions of the myth. During the Supplices, the audience would have suspected that not only would the Argives accept the supplication of the Danaids but also that these helpless girls would shortly murder their bridegrooms on their wedding-night, and Aeschylus includes many dark hints at this future event during the course of his play. Our study of the myth of Agamemnon will enable us to appreciate the exploitation of audience expectation throughout the Oresteia and their foreknowledge that murder is plotted against Agamemnon on his return and that Orestes will return to exact vengeance proves vital to the tragic effect. In addition we detect certain areas in which Aeschylus may diverge from his inherited material, such as his presentation of Clytemnestra as the sole unaided killer of her husband and his inclusion of a trial of Orestes before the court of the Areopagus. Thus it is hoped that by considering the mythical knowledge shared by both Aeschylus and his audience we are able to gain a fuller appreciation of the effects sought by the poet in the fifth-century theatre.

No description available.

In this thesis the neurocognitive deficits in adult ADHD and the effects of ADHD medication have been investigated in animals and in humans. Firstly, by utilising a translational behavioural paradigm we have characterised of a novel animal model of the core symptoms of adult ADHD. In the first study, the 5-choice continuous performance task (5C-CPT) was used to examine different forms of attention and impulsivity in female Lister-hooded adult rats. Subsequently rats were separated into subgroups according to their baseline levels of attention and impulsivity in the 5C-CPT. The low-attentive; LA subgroup and the high-attentive; HA subgroup were selected based on levels of sustained attention and vigilance. The second subgroups include animals with varying levels of motor impulsivity and response inhibition (high-impulsive; HI and low-impulsive; LI subgroups). This allowed for examination of the effects of ADHD medication (methylphenidate and atomoxetine) on attention and impulsivity in the subgroups of animals modeling the inattentive subtype (ADHD-I), and the impulsive symptoms in the combined (ADHD-C) and impulsive-hyperactive (ADHD-IH) subtypes. Both drugs significantly improved sustained attention and vigilance in LA animals only. In HI animals methylphenidate decreased motor impulsivity, however in LI also increased motor impulsivity. Atomoxetine decreased motor impulsivity and response disinhibition in HI animals only. The second animal study extended this by selecting a group of animals with combined deficits in both attention and impulsivity (ADHD-C group). This separation (ADHD-C) allowed for the investigation of potential novel therapeutic targets, revealing the cognitive effects of tolcapone and A-412997. Tolcapone increased vigilance and sustained attention and reduced response disinhibition in ADHD-C animals only, while A-412997 increased vigilance and reduced response disinhibition also in ADHD-C animals only. The first clinical study evaluated the core neurocognitive deficits, including emotion recognition abilities in medicated and unmedicated adult ADHD patients, compared with a group of healthy controls. The back-translational cognitive tasks used for the evaluation were taken from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB). Unmedicated adults with ADHD showed core deficits in sustained attention, attentional set-shifting, response inhibition and spatial working memory. Medicated patients showed no impairments compared with controls; highlighting the importance of ADHD medication for improving these cognitive deficits in ADHD. In the second study, the emotion recognition ability of each group was assessed and compared to each other. The second study also examined if the emotion recognition impairments were as a result of a general cognitive dysfunction or are a specific impairment in social perception. The unmedicated ADHD patients showed deficits in the correct recognition of the negative emotions including; fear, anger, sadness and disgust compared with controls. The group of patients followed-up after starting treatment with methylphenidate showed significant improvements in the recognition of all four negative emotions. This improvement was improved to a level comparable to healthy controls. Interestingly, in the unmedicated ADHD group, anger recognition proved to be a specific deficit in social perception whereas sadness, disgust and fear were influenced by deficits in attention and working memory. Following treatment with methylphenidate, improvements in attention accounted for the improvements in sadness, fear and disgust recognition but not anger recognition. In conclusion the animal studies have shown that animals from within a normal population could be selected according to variations in levels of attention and impulsivity. The ADHD drugs had different effects on attention and impulsivity depending on the natural baseline levels of behaviour of the adult rats. These findings highlight the need for a patient stratification approach in adult ADHD; as different responses are dependent of differences in symptom expression. They also show some potential new therapeutic targets in the animal model, which warrant further exploration. The clinical studies highlight the range of neurocognitive deficits, including emotion recognition deficits in adult ADHD. Together these results highlight the importance of pharmacotherapy in ADHD, not only to treat the core symptoms of ADHD (inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity) but also to improve the disabling emotion recognition deficits of this disorder.

The subject of this diploma thesis is the communications mix of The Coca-Cola Company and it is focusing on the brand Coca-Cola on the Czech market. The aim is to analyze current communication mix of brand Coca-Cola, reveal fundamental aspects that influence the communication mix and propose specific changes to the mix. Introductory part acquaints readers with the various communication tools, their advantages and disadvantages, the optimal structure of the communication mix and other theoretical information. This theoretical framework forms the basis for the understanding of marketing communications and this knowledge is connected with the brand Coca-Cola on the following pages. The main part is devoted to soft drinks market, trends and analysis. There are captured key factors influencing the structure of the communication mix. This information forms the basis for changes in the communications mix of brand Coca-Cola.

Le gène CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator) a été identifié en 1989. Vingt-cinq ans après, les mécanismes contrôlant sa fine expression, sont encore mal compris. Bien qu’environ 1980 mutations aient été découvertes, il reste des patients pour qui le génotype n’a pas été établi. Les éléments de régulation, décrits au sein du promoteur, ne peuvent à eux seuls expliquer cette complexe régulation tissu spécifique. Des éléments de régulation à distance, en cis ou en trans, sont certainement impliqués dans ce contrôle d’expression. L’objectif de ce projet est de mieux décrypter les mécanismes de régulation à distance du gène CFTR en identifiant des séquences régulatrices éloignées, mais pouvant, par des mécanismes de repliement, interagir spécifiquement avec celui-ci. Afin d’étudier ces contacts chromosomiques, nous avons, dans un premier temps, mis au point la technique de Capture de Conformation Chromosomique (3C). Suite à cette technique, nous sommes passés à une approche à plus grande échelle, la technique de Copie Conforme de 3C (5C), qui permet de mesurer des milliers d’interactions chromatiniennes en une analyse. L’organisation spatiale d’une région d’environ 790 kb recouvrant le gène CFTR, a été analysée dans des cultures primaires de cellules épithéliales nasales, exprimant le gène CFTR et des fibroblastes de peau, ne l’exprimant pas ou très peu. Les interactions entre les régions de ce locus et le promoteur CFTR ont été étudiées par séquençage nouvelle génération sur Ion PGM™. Nous avons comparé ces conformations chromatiniennes afin d’identifier des éléments de régulation spécifiques d’une expression de CFTR. Notre approche a été validée par l’identification de régions régulatrices précédemment décrites. De plus, nous avons mis en évidence de nouveaux contacts chromatiniens avec le promoteur CFTR. Ces régions semblent fortement impliquées dans la régulation de l’expression du gène CFTR. Grâce à la technique 3C et ses variantes, l’identification de nouvelles mutations à distance du gène pourraient expliquer des dérégulations de son expression. / The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene was identified in 1989. Twenty five years later, the regulatory mechanisms controlling its complex expression are still not fully understood. Although, almost 1980 mutations have been identified, many cases of cystic fibrosis or CFTR Related Disorders remain still of unknown origin. The promoter which binds transcription factors and drives some aspects of CFTR gene expression, cannot alone account for tissue specific control. This implicates other distal cis- or trans-acting elements in cell-type-specific regulation of CFTR expression. The aim of our project is to study long-range regulatory elements of the CFTR gene, which could interact specifically with the CFTR promoter by tri-dimensional folding mechanism. We first developed the Chromosome Conformation Captures (3C) approach to map these chromosomal contacts. Subsequently, we enhanced our analyses with a high-throughput adaptation of 3C: the 3C-Carbon Copy (5C) technology. This approach allows the analysis of millions chromatin interactions. Thus, we have analyzed the spatial organization of a ～790kb region, comprising the CFTR gene, in primary nasal epithelial cells, which express the gene, and primary skin fibroblasts, which do not express the gene. Interactions between this locus and the CFTR promoter have been analysed by next generation sequencing with the Ion PGM™. We have compared chromatin conformation in order to identify uncharacterized regulatory elements that act especially in CFTR-expressing cells. Our approach has been validated by the identification of previously characterized regulatory elements. Moreover, we identify novel chromatin contacts of the CFTR promoter with chromosomal regions, which could potentially be involved in CFTR gene expression regulation. Thanks to 3C and 3C-derivated analyses, we could identify new possible mutations far from the gene, which may lead to its dysfunction by modifying the chromatin conformation or regulatory elements.

The weak selectivity of chemotherapeutic drugs against tumors has sustained efforts to develop better chemotherapeutic agents that are more potent and selective at destroying tumor cell populations versus normal tissues. This project focuses on evaluating the cell killing effects of the microtubule inhibitor, stilbene 5c, against melanoma cancer. We utilized an in vitro murine melanoma model to study the effects of stilbene 5c on tumor proliferation and survival, as well as growth arrest and cell death. Our findings indicate that stilbene 5c promotes dose dependent cell death in melanomas with the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. The role of autophagy was further assessed using the pharmacological autophagy inhibitor, Bafilomycin A1. It was concluded that autophagy was partially cytoprotective as inhibition of autophagy was shown to induce extensive cell death through an increase in apoptosis. Residual surviving cells were shown to be in a state of growth arrest characterized to be senescence. These findings indicate that stilbene 5c could potentially be developed for the treatment of melanoma.

Nystartade företag är i synnerlighet i behov av finansiering i ett tidigt skede, och vänder sig då till kreditinstitut för ett lån. Det lägger i sin tur höga krav på institutens kreditbedömning för att uppnå så lite kreditförluster som möjligt.  Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur kreditbedömning till nystartade företag kan se ut, undersöka vilka brister som kan finnas i kreditbedömningen samt lyfta fram hur banken kan arbeta för att minimera dessa brister. I denna studie har en deduktiv forskningsansats använts och en kvalitativ medtod. Som datainsamlingsmetod använde forskarna sig av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studiens resultat konstaterar att kreditbedömningen inte har specifika riktlinjer som kreditinstituten är tvungna att följa. Det finns allmänna metoder och modeller men varje enskilt institut använder sig av egenutvecklade modeller med inslag av befintliga modeller/riktlinjer. De största brister i kreditbedömning till nystartade företag är avsaknaden av historik och informationsasymmetri. Dessa brister kan lösas genom att ha en god kundrelation samt en god kundkännedom där kreditinstituten jobbar nära kunden. I studien kom författarna även fram till att för att kunna lösa problemet med informationsasymmetri måste kreditinstituten och kunderna vara mer transparenta mot varandra och vara mer öppna för att kunna skapa bättre förtroende för varandra.

Frågeställning: Hur ser bankernas kreditbedömning för små och medelstora företag ut och hur kommer den att förändras i och med införandet av de nya regelverken K2 och K3? Hur resonerar banker vid kreditbedömning när företag redovisar enligt K2 och K3?Vill bankerna styra åt en viss tillämpning eller önskar de rapportering på basis av den löpande bokföringen? Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka och analysera bankers kreditbedömning för små och medelstora företag, samt vilken påverkan kreditbedömningen kommer få efter införandet av de nya redovisningsregelverken. Metod: Studien hade en deduktiv forskningsansats och metoden var kvalitativ. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes som datainsamlingsmetod. Empirin analyserades med hjälp av den referensram som blev insamlad under en litteraturstudie och en artikelsökning. Slutsats: Studien visade att kreditbedömningens utgångspunkt är väldigt lika för de undersökta bankerna. Bankernas kreditbedömning har ännu inte påverkats av de nya regelverken K2 och K3 men det kan ändras i framtiden. Bankerna vill framförallt ha tillräckligt med underlag från företagen så att de kan göra en bra kreditbedömning. / Research questions: How does the banks credit assessment for SMEs look like and how will it change with the introduction of the new regulations K2 and K3? How do banks reason at credit assessment when companies report according to K2 and K3? Would banks steer to a particular application or do they wish to get reports on the basis of the daily accounting? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze banks’ credit assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the impact of credit assessment due to the new accounting regulations. Method: The study had a deductive research approach and the methodology was qualitative. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as a data collection method. The empirical data were analyzed using the reference frame which was collected in a literature search and an article search. Conclusion: The study outcome shows that the credit assessment starting point is very alike from the examined banks. The banks credit assessment process has not been affected due to introduction of the new regulations K2 and K3 although it can change in future context. The banks want, above all, to have enough material from the companies so that they can make a good credit assessment.

Introduktion Lån- och kreditgivning är en väsentlig del av dagens samhällsekonomi både när det gäller privatpersoner och företag. Om bankerna är för restriktiva till företagskreditgivning riskerar den ekonomiska tillväxten att påverkas. Vidare anses affärsbankerna ha blivit mindre riskvilliga. Det är en problematisk trend och faktum är att företag inte heller kan vara säker på att man får en objektiv bedömning av sin kreditansökan, då kreditgivares resonemang spelar en avgörande roll i kreditbedömningen. Bankens strukturella riktlinjer som kreditgivare ska förhålla sig till påverkar också hur banktjänstemännen fattar kreditbeslut. Syfte Studiens syfte är att utforska banktjänstemäns kreditbedömning samt dennas förankring i bankens struktur kontra tjänstemannens professionella bedömning. Metod Studien genomförs med en deduktiv ansats och kvalitativ metod. Empiriinsamlingen är baserad på semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats Studiens resultat visar att kreditgivare har ett stort utrymme när det kommer till den individuella bedömningen av en kreditsökande. Där bankens hjälpmedel slutar börjar det en tydlig individuell bedömningsfråga, om hur man väljer att gå vidare och vad man väljer att prioritera. Av empiriinsamlingen framgick det tydligt att 5C-modellen var en stor del av kreditbedömningen hos alla respondenter. Det mest intressanta var hur mycket samtliga respondenter betonade vikten av det personliga mötet med kunden och dess påverkan i kreditbedömningen. / Introduction Loan and credit is an essential part of today’s economy, both in term of private individuals and corporates. If the banks are too restrictive for corporate credit, the economic growth risks being affected. Furthermore, the banks are considered to be less willing to take risk. This is a problematic trend and the fact is that corporates cannot be sure that they get an objective assessment of their credit application. Thus, a creditors’ reasoning in their assessment plays a crucial role in a credit application. The bank´s structural guidelines that creditors must relate to also affect how the bank officials make credit decisions. Purpose: The aim of the study is to explore the bank official's credit assessment and its anchoring in the bank's structure versus the official's professional judgement. Method: The study is conducted with a deductive approach and qualitative method. The empirical collection is based on semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: The result of the study show that creditors have a considerable amount of space when it comes to the individual assessment of a credit applicant. Where the bank’s assistive tools end, a clear individual assessment begins, about how to choose to continue ahead. It becomes clear that the 5C model was a large part of the credit assessment of all respondents. The most important component of the five Cs is the capacity of repayment, as it is the one that generates revenue for the bank. What we consider to be the most interesting were how much all respondents emphasized the importance of the personal meeting and its impact on the credit decision.