Pendant longtemps, la chromatine a été uniquement décrite comme un moyen de compacter près de deux mètres d’ADN dans un noyau de quelques micromètres de diamètre. On sait aujourd’hui que la chromatine représente en fait un élément majeur de régulation de toutes les fonctions nucléaires impliquant l’ADN. Dans le contexte de dommages de l’ADN induits par irradiations UV, la chromatine endommagée subit une décondensation rapide et transitoire qui l’amène à occuper un volume 1,5 fois plus grand que son volume initial. Cette relaxation chromatinienne est associée à une plus grande accessibilité de l’ADN. Néanmoins, le lien entre ces deux effets découlant de la présence de dommages, n’a pas été établi, ni caractérisé. En couplant l’imagerie de cellules vivantes à l’induction de dommages ciblés au sein de noyaux cellulaires par micro-irradiation laser, ces travaux ont permis de mettre en évidence le rôle majeur de PARP1 dans la réponse chromatinienne aux dommages de l’ADN. En effet, certaines conclusions contradictoires présentes dans la littérature scientifique concernant l’action de PARP1 sur la chromatine ont été réconciliées en démontrant que PARP1 seul peut se lier à la chromatine et entraîner une plus forte compaction de celle-ci, tandis que son activité catalytique de PARylation va, quant à elle, conduire à une décompaction de la structure chromatinienne. Cette étude s’est aussi intéressée à la dynamique particulière de l’histone H1 suite aux dommages de l’ADN. En effet, celui-ci est rapidement exclu des zones de dommages par un mécanisme encore inconnu, et les éléments apportés ici suggèrent que H1 pourrait jouer un rôle dans la décondensation de la chromatine suite aux dommages de l’ADN. Pour finir, des techniques de photo-perturbation et de spectroscopie de corrélation de fluorescence ont été employées pour comprendre et caractériser l’environnement moléculaire que constitue la chromatine endommagée et décondensée. Bien qu’une augmentation significative des interactions entre la chromatine et certains de ses partenaires d’interactions soit observée au sein des zones endommagées, aucun changement en termes d’encombrement moléculaire n’a pu être mis en évidence à ce niveau qui pourrait expliquer une plus grande accessibilité de l’ADN. / For a long time, chromatin was only described as a mean to fit the two-meters long DNA molecule into a nucleus of only a few microns. It is admitted today that chromatin actually represents a key element in the regulation of all nuclear functions dependent on DNA. In the context of UV-induced DNA damage, chromatin undergoes a rapid and transient relaxation which leads to an expansion of the damaged area to 1.5 times its original size. While this chromatin response to damage is associated with a higher DNA accessibility, the link between those two phenomena, as well as the mechanisms driving them, are still poorly understood. Using live-cell imaging and laser micro-irradiation to induce DNA damage on specific nuclear areas, this work allowed to gain hindsight on the predominant role played by PARP1 in the DNA damage-induced chromatin relaxation. Indeed, showing that PARP1 at DNA damage sites can both induce chromatin compaction through its recruitment at DNA breaks or chromatin decondensation through its PARylation activity helped reconcile its apparent opposite effects described in the literature. A focus was also made on the linker histone H1, as it displays a peculiar behavior upon DNA damage, being rapidly released from the site of DNA lesions. Even if the driving force behind H1 release from damaged chromatin areas has not been identified yet, its behavior suggests that H1 might play a part in chromatin relaxation or in increasing DNA accessibility upon DNA damage. Lastly, combining photo-activation techniques and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, experiments were performed in order to understand the physical environment that damaged, relaxed chromatin constitutes. We report here that, while enhanced binding of random DNA binding factors is observed in the damaged chromatin area, no significant change is observed in the macromolecular crowding levels that could potentially explain this enhanced binding, as well as a higher DNA accessibility.

Este estudio investiga acerca del efecto que la inversión pública genera en la inversión privada durante los años 2002 – 2020 en el Perú. Esta investigación emplea la prueba de límites en un modelo autorregresivo con retardos distribuidos (ARDL), un enfoque desarrollado recientemente y que ha logrado mejorar las técnicas tradicionales de cointegración. Los resultados encontrados en esta investigación evidencian que la inversión pública presenta un efecto crowding out en corto y largo plazo hacer ca de la inversión privada. Aunque se presenta un efecto crowding out de la inversión pública en la inversión privada, la inversión en infraestructura presenta un efecto de complementa a largo plazo. A través de las cifras resultantes se sugiere que la productividad de la inversión pública e inversión privada puede mejorarse mediante una disminución de la inversión pública en no infraestructura al nivel mínimo necesario y un mayor fortalecimiento a la inversión en infraestructura. / This research studies the effect that public investment generates on private investment during the 2002-2020 period. This study used the limits test in an autoregressive model with distributed lags (ARDL), a recently developed approach that has managed to improve the techniques traditional cointegration. The results show that public investment has a negative effect on private investment in the short and long term. Although there is a crowding out effect of public investment on private investment, investment in infrastructure has a crowding in effect in the long term. The results suggest that the productivity of public and private investment in Peru can be improved by reducing public investment in non-infrastructure to the minimum necessary level and by further strengthening public investment in infrastructure. / Trabajo de investigación

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá vlivem zaplňovacích činidel na interakce v systému DNA-tenzid. DNA o velikosti 4017 párů bází byla připravena polymerázovou řetězovou reakcí, jako templát byl použit plasmid pSB-E1g. Polyetylen glykol (PEG) byl použit jako zaplňovací činidlo a jeho vliv na DNA-tenzid interakce byl zkoumán experimenty založenými na fluorescenci a gelové elektroforéze. Také byl studován vliv iontové síly za použití NaBr na interakce DNA-tenzid za použití zaplňovacího činidla. Data byla vyhodnocena a evaluována v této práci. V úvahu byl brán i možný vliv polyetylen glykolu na kritickou micelarní koncentraci (CMC) tenzidu, bylo provedeno měření CMC pomocí ultrazvuku s vysokým rozlišením, avšak nebyl zjištěn žádný značný vliv zaplňovacího činidla na CMC tenzidu. Část této práce bude zahrnuta v publikaci s anglickým názvem Combined role of macromolecular crowding and cationic surfactant in efficient DNA condensation.

In today’s constantly changing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail market environment, it is imperative that retailers should focus on creating a pleasant shopping experience to differentiate their stores in order to achieve a competitive advantage. One of the strategies to achieve competitive advantage can be human variables. This study focused on the influence of human variables on consumers’ shopping experience in FMCG retail stores in Ekurhuleni. Therefore, this study expands the existing knowledge of human variables in the FMCG retail environment. Human variables in the context of this study comprise other customers and sales associates. Each of these human variables is made up of sub-variables. The sub-variables of other customers include crowding and social relations. On the other hand, the sub-variables of sales associates are sales associates’ availability, physical attributes of sales associates and behavioural attributes of sales associates. This empirical study was conducted with 400 FMCG retail stores consumers of the ages between 18 and 60 who reside in Ekurhuleni. The study followed a descriptive research design and quantitative approach in order to address the research objectives. A convenience sampling method and a mall-intercept survey by means of self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in which the Likert scale statements in question 2 - 6 (see Appendix B) measuring different sub-variables of other customers and sales associates were subjected to a Principal Axis Factoring with Oblimin rotation. The results of the final EFA involved 13 Likert scale items. The test were conducted to validate the measures of human variables. The Principal Axis Factoring revealed five factors. These factors were social relations, behavioural attributes, crowding, physical attributes and sales associates’ availability. Therefore, reliability tests were conducted on the final items measuring the human variables. The results of this research study indicate that social relations, sales associates’ availability, physical attributes of sales associates and behavioural attributes of sales associates influence consumers’ shopping experience in FMCG retail stores in Ekurhuleni. However, the consumers felt neutral with regard to crowding. The test results of a chi-square for equal proportion revealed that all the five hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5) were supported as the proportions of consumers with regard to the influence of these sub-variables on their shopping experience were statistically different. Furthermore, ANOVA and F-test results for testing whether there were differences between demographics indicated that H1a, H2b and H5c were supported because there were statistically significant differences between genders with regard to the influence of crowding, between age groups regarding social relations, as well as between racial groups with regard to the influence of behavioural attributes of sales associates on consumers’ shopping experience. / Business Management / M. Com (Business Management)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the interplay between agile and mechanistic management control and the motivation of the employees affected by them, and thereby contribute to the understanding of how management control interplays with motivation. Research question: How does agile and mechanistic management control interplay with employees’ motivation in the management consulting profession? Methodology: Qualitative research with Semi-structured interviews. Seven management consultants from different firms were interviewed. Findings: Agile management control was found to be somewhat more commonly occurring than mechanistic management control among the respondents. Agile management control was seen as more motivating than mechanistic. Personal development was found to be the most prevalent part of intrinsic motivation in this study. Contributions: This paper contributes to the existing literature by offering a perspective of management control’s interplay with motivation specifically for management consultants. This interplay can be seen as being focused on personal development, possibly due to the employees’ motivation to choose this field.

The increasing population leads to higher passenger travel demand in Stockholm. The public transport becomes more and more crowded in rush hours. However, passengers carry out decisions usually based on limited traffic information and their travel experience. Passengers cannot take the initiative to avoid crowding based on existing SL traffic information. Real time crowding information (RTCI) research aims to help passenger to have more initiative to plan their travel in metro system, and assist operator to have higher space utilization efficiency. RTCI system contains4 subsystems: projection system, communication system, speaker system and recording system. The practical test was applied in Tekniska Högskolan metro station for two weeks in May 2015 with the permission from SL. The triangle analysis was applied to analyze the impacts of RTCI. The analysiscontains three analysis methods: passenger load data analysis, video record analysis and interview result analysis. The interview result shows RTCI increased round nine tenth of passengers ‘satisfaction and 43% of interviewees thought it was very useful for them. The calculation based on video record and interview result shows that 25% of passengers consulted this information and changed their behaviors on platform. According to the video record, the path became wider and passenger flow became smoother while RTCI system was activated. Passenger distribution was more even in metro based on passenger load data. The number of passengers who got into last unit train increased 8%, and the number in first and second unit train decreased 4% during RTCI practical test. The thesis mainly focused to analyze the impacts of RTCI instead of solving technical challenges. But the technical solution for RTCI system was proposed in thesis. The concept - “Smart Travel” was discussed in chapter11 which mainly considers travel time, crowding information and travel cost as most important factors to passenger.

Detta examensarbete går ut på att undersöka på vilket sätt matbutiker kan utformas för att underlätta för besökarna att hålla avstånd och undvika trängsel i syfte att minska spridning av virus. Fokuset i studien ligger på rumslig utformning i kombination med visuell information. Insamlade teorier samt användandet av metoder som platsanalys, benchmarking, observationer, behavioral mapping, intervju samt fokusgrupp, har gett förståelse för vad problemet skulle kunna vara och vad som krävs för att ge rätt förutsättningar för butiksbesökare att undvika trängsel. Utifrån detta har ett gestaltningsförslag tagits fram på hur rumslig utformning och visuell information kan användas i butiker för att styra flödet. Gestaltningsförslaget består av enkelriktade vägar med tillhörande information som vägleder besökarna genom butiken. / This thesis aims to investigate how grocery stores can be designed to make it easier for visitors to keep their distance and avoid crowding in order to reduce the spread of viruses. The focus of the study is on spatial design in combination with visual information. Collected theories as well as the use of methods such as location analysis, benchmarking, observations, behavioral mapping, interview and focus group, have provided an understanding of what the problem could be and what is needed to create the right conditions for shop visitors to avoid crowding. Based on this, a design proposal has been developed on how spatial design and visual information can be used in stores to control the customer flow. The design proposal consists of one-way paths with associated information that guide visitors through the store.

Chapter one: The influence of charitable activity on Indigenous communities’ well-being and other socio-economic outcomes Hitherto and within the Canadian context, no one has investigated the role played by the charitable sector on the economic well-being for “on-reserve” First Nations and Inuit communities. On the one hand, Indigenous peoples face longstanding and complex social problems and economic hardships. On the other hand, there are charities which provide public goods and services and benefits to communities by helping to fill needs. This is the first study to examine how the presence of charities may affect some measurable socio-economic outcomes of Indigenous communities and their people, by triangulating data from multiple sources: administrative data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on registered charities, the 2001 and 2006 Census Surveys, the 2011 National Household Survey and the Community Well-Being (CWB) Index developed by the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC). My findings indicate that having access to at least one charity is associated with increases in a community well-being measure of 3 points on a 100-point scale, in household income (5.1%) and in individual’s wages (6.9%). When the number of charities increases in a reserve by one unit, the CWB rises by 1.1 points (on the 100-point scale), household income by 2.7%, individuals’ total income by 1.9% and individuals’ wages by 3.4%. Chapter two: Government funding to Indigenous charities The government is an important revenue source for charitable organizations in Canada. Big differences in public funding can be observed across registered charities that serve Indigenous peoples and all other registered charities. Using charitable organizations’ tax returns, the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return for the years 2003 to 2017 I investigate these government-funding patterns. I test different hypothesis on financial support from government sources by discerning first between Indigenous and non-Indigenous charities, and second between Indigenous charities on reserve and off reserve. I also analyze the relationship between the funding across levels to see if one level of government funding is contingent on other levels. The results of my study point to a higher likelihood of Indigenous charities receiving government support as compared to non-Indigenous charities, with a 24% increase in the predicted probability of funding. Indigenous charities on reserve have a predicted probability of receiving government funding that is almost 17% lower than those off reserve. From the exploration of the link between the three levels of Canadian government funding for Indigenous and non-Indigenous charities two insights emerge. Firstly, the federal government is more likely to support Indigenous charities if they do not receive any other public funds, and the provincial government supports them if they do not get any municipal funding. Secondly, Indigenous charities are more likely than non-Indigenous charities to get both federal and provincial funding, and federal and municipal funding. The comparison between Indigenous charities off reserve and on reserve reveals that the on-reserve ones are less likely to be funded simultaneously by two levels of government. Chapter three: The causal relationship between government funding and donations to Indigenous charities While billions of dollars are donated annually to charitable organizations, relatively modest amounts go to charities that specifically serve Indigenous populations. In comparison to their non-Indigenous counterparts, these charities get fewer private donations, have less fundraising revenue and receive less gifts from other charities. This chapter studies the causal relationship between public funding and these three types of revenues, focusing on the Indigenous charities and distinguishing between on-reserve and off-reserve charities. I use the large T3010 dataset with financial information for over 95,000 registered charities, covering a 15-year period from 2003 to 2017. The estimation and identification strategy relies on novel instruments using a 2SLS model. The results indicate a crowding out effect of public funding on donations for Indigenous charities; I also find evidence that the level of government funding matters. With the preferred instrument, a one dollar increase in government funding crowds out seven cents of private contributions; the three levels of federal, provincial and municipal funding decrease private donations by 15, 6 and 46 cents respectively. Government funding negatively affects fundraising effort and gifts from other charities. For every dollar in public support the former decreases by one to seven cents and the latter by three to 12 cents. These reductions imply an economically substantial effect on charities’ revenue. Little evidence is found that government grants impact differently Indigenous charities on reserve compared to those off reserve. The area and programs in which charities operate matter though, which is critical for how governments structure grants to Indigenous charities.

The government of Ghana borrows from both domestic and foreign sources to finance the budget deficit. By the year 2013, the domestic debt was 55% of the public debt. Government domestic borrowing is competitive and can potentially crowd out the private corporate sector. Therefore, the specific research problem addressed in this study was whether the Ghanaian government's domestic debt (DEBT) caused financial crowding out (FCO) in Ghana. FCO theory is not conclusive and not proven specifically for Ghana, so the purpose of this research was to investigate its presence in Ghana. The neoclassical theory of FCO underpinned the research. The 2 research questions investigated FCO along the quantity and cost channels. The research examined the relationship between DEBT as the independent variable, the quantity of private sector credit (PSCREDIT), and the net interest margin (NIM) of banks as dependent variables. Covariates were macroeconomic and banking industry variables. The research population was the banking sector of the financial services industry. The research was correlational, and it used time series data from the Bank of Ghana and the World Bank. Data analysis used the autoregressive distributed lag method. The analysis returned a negative relationship between DEBT and PSCREDIT, and a positve relationship between NIM and DEBT. These results indicated the presence of FCO along both the quantity and cost channels. The research provides policymakers a means of quantifying the extent and effects of fiscal policies. The study may contribute to positive social change by promoting the revision of fiscal policies to favor the private corporate sector to invest, create jobs, and grow the Ghanaian economy.

Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) are a promising technology for detecting single photon emissions with high efficiency and low noise. This detector class has numerous applications in quantum optics, communication, and sensing. One typical design for these devices is the hairpin structure, in which a superconducting nanowire is patterned into a meandering shape. The combination of academic research and interest from the industry is boosting the development of hairpin SNSPD devices to achieve high detection efficiency while maintaining fast response time and low jitter, requiring optimization of the device geometry, materials properties, and sophisticated readout electronics. This thesis qualitatively enquires about different device geometries, varying turn designs and features. Moreover, proposing a promising experimental setup with the potential of being scaled up to simultaneously test numerous devices with a varying magnetic field, driving the hairpin SNSPDs to their detection limit, and enabling further quantitative studies to deepen the understanding of the underlying mechanisms currently hindering the SNSPDs. Analyzing the acquired data draws results regarding the critical current and dark counts trends. Furthermore, at low magnetic field strength, the enquired devices are found to have their critical current enhanced. Moreover, comparisons are drawn among similar design structures. Furthermore, a discussion on manufacturing defects detrimental to the SNSPD performance is initiated. Finally, further studies on this topic adopting the presented method are encouraged to acquire additional quantitative results to be compared with theoretical models describing the thin superconducting structures. / Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPD) är en lovande teknik för att detektera utsläpp av enstaka fotoner med hög effektivitet och lågt brus. Denna detektorkategori har många tillämpningar inom kvantoptik, kommunikation och avkänning. En typisk konstruktion för dessa anordningar är hairpin-strukturen, där en supraledande nanotråd är mönstrad i en slingrande form. Kombinationen av akademisk forskning och intresse från industrin ökar utvecklingen av hairpin-SNSPD-enheter för att uppnå hög detektionseffektivitet med bibehållen snabb responstid och låg jitter, vilket kräver optimering av enhetens geometri, materialegenskaper och sofistikerad avläsningselektronik. I denna avhandling undersöks kvalitativt olika anordningsgeometrier, varierande vridningsdesign och funktioner. Dessutom föreslås en lovande experimentell uppställning med potential att skalas upp för att samtidigt testa många anordningar med ett varierande magnetfält, vilket driver hairpin-SNSPD:erna till sin detektionsgräns och möjliggör ytterligare kvantitativa studier för att fördjupa förståelsen av de underliggande mekanismer som för närvarande hindrar SNSPD:erna. Analysen av de insamlade uppgifterna ger resultat när det gäller den kritiska strömmen och trenderna för mörkertalet. Dessutom visar sig de undersökta enheterna ha en ökad kritisk strömstyrka vid låg magnetfältsstyrka. Dessutom görs jämförelser mellan liknande konstruktionsstrukturer. Dessutom inleds en diskussion om tillverkningsfel som är skadliga för SNSPD:s prestanda. Slutligen uppmuntras ytterligare studier i detta ämne med den presenterade metoden för att få ytterligare kvantitativa resultat som kan jämföras med teoretiska modeller som beskriver tunna supraledande strukturer.