<p>Bioactive gibberellins (GAs) are phytohormones with various effects on plant development, from seed germination through fruit development. The signaling pathway of GA is centered on DELLA proteins (DELLAs), a group of growth repressors degraded upon perception of GA. Previous studies demonstrated that DELLAs administrate global regulation of gene expression. However, given that DELLAs do not contain any canonical DNA-binding domain and that DELLAs only have a moderate association to their target promoters, the nuclear-localized DELLAs are believed to interact with transcription factors for function. Indeed, quite a few transcription factors have been identified as DELLA interactors in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana, some of which are well-known downstream transcription regulators involved in other signaling pathways. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms how DELLAs inhibit so many aspects of plant growth cannot be fully explained by the known DELLA interactors. </p><p>Recently, our lab discovered that INDETERMINATE DOMAIN 1 (IDD1), a C2H2 zinc-finger protein in Arabidopsis, and its closest homolog IDD2, have a strong physical interaction with DELLAs, revealing the potential involvement of these two IDD genes in GA signaling. Hence, the objectives of my doctoral research are (1) to evaluate the roles of IDD1 and IDD2 in GA-responsive phenotypes, (2) to investigate the genetic interaction between IDD1, IDD2 and DELLAs and (3) to identify the function of IDD1 and IDD2 and the significance of IDD-DELLA interaction in transcriptional regulation of IDD/DELLA targets. First, we found that both IDDs redundantly promote GA-induced hypocotyl elongation, and that they also play a positive role in stem elongation and floral initiation. Secondly, epistasis analyses exhibit that REPRESSOR OF ga1-3 (RGA) and GA INSENSITIVE (GAI), two DELLAs with a predominant role in vegetative growth, antagonize IDD1 and IDD2 in hypocotyl elongation, and that GAI also opposes IDD2 in stem elongation and floral initiation. These results entail an antagonistic relationship between IDDs and DELLAs via protein-protein interaction. We then showed that IDD1 and IDD2 repress the expression of canonical DELLA direct targets, including GA20ox2, GA3ox1, GID1b and SCL3. IDD1 also inhibits transcription of CAPRICE (CPC) and GLABRA2 (GL2), two crucial regulators of root epidermal cell patterning. Taking into account that IDD1 and RGA associate with the same region in CPC promoter, we conclude that CPC is a direct target of the IDD1/RGA complex. In addition, transient expression assays suggested that IDD1 and RGA counteract each other's effects on expression of GA20ox2, GID1b, SCL3, CPC and GL2, providing evidence that IDDs and DELLAs function antagonistically in transcriptional regulation of downstream genes in general. Although both IDDs bear a putative repression motif GLGLGL in their C termini, mutation of this motif did not affect the repressive activity of IDD1 in our transient expression system. On the other hand, fusion of the viral protein 16 (VP16) transcriptional activation domain to IDD1 seems to override the original repressive activity of IDD1. Together, these results uncover a new branch of GA signaling pathway through IDD1 and IDD2, shed light on the interplay of the two IDDs and DELLAs in GA feedback regulation and give insights into the molecular mechanism underlying IDD-mediated GA repression of root hair development.</p> / Dissertation

Parenting roles and occupations are complex and become even more challenging when navigated with a physical disability. Physical, social, and political barriers are among many factors that shape experiences in parenting and disability. Occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs), with their holistic and client-centered approach, are ideally positioned to provide professional support to alleviate or adapt to environmental barriers. However, OTPs confront their own barriers to providing services, including a deficit in and accessibility to occupation therapy-specific resources and education on disability and parenting. These factors together result in a gap in service between disabled parents and occupational therapy. This doctoral manuscript offers a potential solution to these issues in the form of Adapting Parenthood, an online resource and education platform for OTPs. The platform is designed to provide occupational therapy specific professional education for practitioners working with parents who experience barriers in their parenting roles due to disability or related factors. Adapting Parenthood offers a user-friendly, digital interface that allows users to navigate at their own pace, fostering autonomy, and learning motivation. It incorporates a range of multimedia resources, catering to various learning styles and preferences, to enhance user engagement and information retention. The platform is organized into topic areas comprised of resources and educational modules. The resources include a diverse range of documents, manuals, recommendations, and legal information intended to supplement interventions and enhance the practice of healthcare professionals. The educational modules focus on topic areas where practitioners may need to refine their skills and knowledge when working with parents with physical disabilities. These topics include adapting parenting occupations, home modification and universal design, as well as disability-affirming education on interdependence, social support, and disability rights related to parenting. The content and design of Adapting Parenthood underscores the importance of disability-affirming practice. It emphasizes understanding the unique lived experiences of disabled individuals, particularly those who are parents, and the development of support that mitigate and alleviate the challenges they face. Ultimately, this dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of the unique challenges faced by parents with physical disabilities and proposes a comprehensive online platform to support and educate OTPs working with this population. Adapting Parenthood aims to bridge the service gap and foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for disabled parents.

När en medlemsstats genomförande av ett EU-direktiv innebär tillförsel av ytterligare bestämmelser vilka medför en förhöjd skyddsnivå i förhållande till direktivet, innebär det utförande av gold plating. Eftersom förfarandet leder till särreglering i förhållande till andra medlemsstater uppstår därmed en konflikt med EU:s harmoniseringsambitioner på den inre marknaden. Det saknas emellertid en allmängiltig definition av gold plating; kommissionens definition är exempelvis snävare än hur definitionen görs gällande i andra fall. Uppsatsen har till syfte att besvara hur gold plating bör definieras och för att ge ytterligare förståelse för begreppet undersöks det svenska genomförandet av IDD, vilket innebar strängare nationella krav i förhållande till direktivet på ett antal områden. IDD beskrivs som ett minimiharmoniseringsdirektiv, men är utformat enligt en lagstiftningsmodell som förutsätter ett enhetligt lagstiftningsgenomförande i medlemsstaterna. IDD kan även relateras till ett flertal rättsområden inom vilka fullharmonisering råder, exempelvis finansmarknadsområdet och direktivet MiFID II. I uppsatsens analys framförs ett ställningstagande om att en definition av gold plating bör tydliggöra åtskillnad mellan å ena sidan ett utvidgat tillämpningsområde, å andra sidan tillförsel av materiella krav, eftersom de olika förfarandena innebär olika juridiska problem. Det framhålls dessutom att en bred och deskriptiv definition av gold plating kan vara användbar vid identifiering av direktivs miniminivå. Analysen innebär vidare några kommentarer avseende IDD:s harmoniseringsgrad och en övergripande kategorisering av de avvikelser från miniminivån som har identifierats i genomförandet av direktivet. Därtill framhålls att ett nationellt införande av en norm eller princip som innebär att minimikraven ska vara vägledande vid genomförande av minimiharmoniseringsdirektiv kan strida mot direktivet i det enskilda fallet. Med tanke på EU:s höga regleringsaktivitet och det faktum att medlemsstaternas lagstiftningsmakt har fått ta ett steg tillbaka, kan gold plating mer eller mindre vara en förutsättning för åtgärdade av nationella reformbehov. För att säkerställa att gold plating utförs i enlighet med direktivet och EU-rätten i övrigt, krävs ett tidigare nationellt engagemang och deltagande i den EU-rättsliga beslutsprocessen.

The problem examined in this study was the lack of policy in New York State regarding the provision of prioritized residential services for intellectually disabled individuals who are being cared for by an aging caregiver. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and document the needs experienced by aging parents regarding securing the future of their intellectually disabled adult child. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework. The research questions examined the lived experiences of aging parents caring for an adult child with an intellectual disability what parents perceive their needs are in order to secure their adult intellectually disabled child’s future. Data were retrieved from 5 parents who resided in New York State. The findings from this study confirmed existing literature indicating that aging parents will need to secure residential placement or alternative living arrangements before they can no longer care for their adult intellectually disabled child. Another finding from this study was that the pertinent service delivery program does not provide direct assistance to these families. Therefore, advocacy was a necessary action in order to obtain services. The voices of the parents could influence policy makers to make aging parents with an adult intellectually disabled child a higher priority when seeking residential placement, provide direct representation from OPWDD, and provide residential placement that fits the ID adult’s needs. These programmatic changes may result in positive social change for this population

När nya politiska regleringar införs på en marknad kan det få konsekvenser för alla aktörer på marknaden. Det kan påverka både deras verksamhet och deras relationer. Syftet med denna uppsats är att få en ökad förståelse för hur relationen mellan företag på försäkringsmarknaden förändras inför en större politisk förändring och vilka faktorer som kan spela in. För att undersöka detta intervjuas företrädare för försäkringsbolag och försäkringsförmedlare inför det kommande direktivet om försäkringsdistribution (IDD). För att undersöka hur relationerna förändrats används en modell av relationen som grundar sig i bland annat Anderson och Narus (1990) forskning om relationens beståndsdelar och hur dessa hänger ihop. För att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar hur förändringen går till används en modell av Hadjikhani, Thilenius och Pourmand (2009) som förklarar hur politiska förändringar kan påverka företag, både direkt genom lagstiftning och indirekt via andra företag. Slutsatserna som dras är att: Relationerna mellan försäkringsbolag och försäkringsförmedlare påverkas av regleringar såsom direktivet om försäkringsdistribution (IDD) och att relationen börjar förändras redan innan regleringen trätt i kraft. Vilken relation två företag har till varandra influerar till vilken grad företagen utsätts för direkt och indirekt påverkan inför förändringar i politiska regleringar. Graden av indirekt påverkan de olika företagen utsätts för kan påverka relationen mellan företagen. En politisk förändring kan innehålla både stödjande och tvingande element. / When new political regulations are introduced to a market, they can have consequences for all market players. This can affect both the activities and relationships between them. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how the relationship between companies in the insurance market is changing as a consequence of a major political change and which factors can be relevant to this change. To investigate this, representatives from insurance companies and insurance brokers are interviewed about the forthcoming Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD). To investigate how the relationships changed, a model of the relationship, based in, among others, Anderson and Narus (1990) model, which deals with the constituents of a relationship and how they relate to each other. To investigate the factors which influence how the relationship changes, a model of Hadjikhani, Thilenius and Pourmand (2009) is used, which explains how political changes can affect companies, both directly through legislation and indirectly through other companies. The conclusions drawn are that: Relationships between insurance companies and insurance brokers are affected by regulations such as the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) and that the relationship begins to change even before the regulation is implemented. The relationship between the companies influences the extent to which companies are exposed to direct and indirect influence as a result of political regulations. The degree of indirect impact on the various companies can affect the relationship between the companies. A political change can contain both supporting and compelling elements.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Telemetry Data Center (TDC) at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), New Mexico recently targeted analog best source selectors for replacement along with their associated signal handling equipments. The commercial selectors available offered no better performance, so TDC engineers circulated a "White Paper" on real time correlation based compositing. Within two years a Correlating Source Selector (CSS) was fielded successfully. The CSS’s bridging feature unexpectedly opened the door to a ubiqituous software decommutator (decom) that has catalyzed a complete “make-over” of the entire TDC architecture. Hardware and software interaction in a decom is different with the CSS. While performing its correlation tasks the CSS is able to provide raw data over TCP/IP directly to the end application. The CSS places the data in computer friendly frame aligned form and the decommutation may be performed in software. The converse is similarly simple, a data file maybe transferred to the CSS for commutation into PCM. This white paper describes the morphing of software decommutation into a commodity, integrated into each end device, be it graphics display, Disk or Chart recorder. The result is an interesting consolidation that spawns a new functionally integrated Telemetry Data Center ( iTDC). This integrated Display Decom (iDD) concept has been demonstrated on Apple G5 RISC computers.

No description available.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the insulin producing β-cells in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans are selectively attacked by the immune system. The β-cells are destroyed resulting in a reduced or eliminated insulin production, which in turn lead to a high blood glucose level. The non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is the most commonly used animal model for human T1D. NOD mice develop diabetes spontaneously through a process that closely resembles the human pathogenesis. In both humans and the NOD mouse, disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In the NOD mouse, more than 30 insulin-dependent diabetes (Idd) loci on 15 chromosomes have been linked to disease susceptibility, however, most of the Idd-regions lack identification of a disease associated gene. B cells are required for T1D development, although the underlying mechanisms are not fully revealed. The aim of this thesis was to dissect B cell-related immune deviations in the NOD mouse, including the underlying genetics of these traits. The TACI receptor binds two ligands, i.e. the cytokines BAFF and APRIL.TACI ligation by APRIL mediates class switch, drives plasma cell differentiation and increases immunoglobulin production. In Paper I, a novel NOD-specific B cell-related trait was identified, i.e. the increased percentage of TACIhigh-expressing splenic B cells, by comparing NOD mice with non-autoimmune disease prone C57BL/6 mice. To investigate if the described TACI trait was controlled by genes linked to any Idd-region, an Idd-focused linkage analysis was performed. The TACI-trait mapped to regions on chromosome 1 and 8, more specifically to the vicinity of the Idd5.4 and Idd22. Interestingly, the linkage to Idd22 was explained by mice ≥61 days of age, suggesting a temporal genetic regulation of TACI expression possibly influenced by the ongoing autoimmune process. In Paper II, the linkage of the TACI trait to chromosome 1 and 8 was confirmed by analyzing the percentage of TACIhigh-expressing B cells in congenic NOD.C1/Idd22 mice. Moreover, the functional consequence of TACI upregulation was investigated, with the focus on plasma cell development and immunoglobulin production. NOD splenic B cells stimulated with APRIL displayed increased numbers of plasma cells and produced higher amounts of IgG and IgA compared to B cells from C57BL/6 mice. Thus, the TACI upregulation on NOD B cells possibly contribute to a B cell compartment which is more disposed to plasma cell differentiation and isotype switch. NOD mice display enhanced and prolonged immune response towards several antigens, including non-self immunoglobulins. In Paper III, the genetic factor(s) controlling the altered immune response against a BALB/c derived monoclonal antibody were dissected. Significant linkage to the Idd1/Idd24, Idd12, and Idd18.1 regions as well as to a proximal region on chromosome 2 (33.5 Mb) was detected. The linkage to Idd1/24 was verified by analyzing a set of H2-congenic NOD and C57BL/6 mice, and the linked region was narrowed down to ~8 Mb. Candidate gene analysis revealed a significant difference in the transcription of the H2-O/DO molecule. This suggests that multiple mechanisms contribute to the loss of immune response control, including an altered MHC class II peptide loading on NOD B cells. In Paper IV, a novel B cell intrinsic receptor for IgM and IgG was revealed. The receptor appeared to be more abundant in NOD mice compared to C57BL/6 mice, as the level of extramembranous IgG monomers and IgM pentamers on peripheral blood B cells from NOD mice was significantly higher compared to C57BL/6 mice. In addition, analysis of immune complex binding using IgG- or IgM-opsonized bacterial particles revealed a higher degree of binding in NOD mice compared with C57BL/6 mice. The enhanced capture of immunoglobulins and immune complexes could thus contribute to the development of T1D by altering normal B cell functions such as activation and immune complex transportation.

The C₄ photosynthetic pathway acts to concentrate CO₂ around the enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (Rubisco), ensuring that it catalyses a carboxylation rather than oxygenation reaction, which in turn suppresses photorespiration. In nearly all cases C₄ photosynthesis is underpinned by characteristic Kranz anatomy, with concentric wreaths of bundle sheath (BS) and mesophyll (M) cells surrounding closely spaced veins. The increased yields associated with the C₄ pathway have lead to the suggestion that C₃ crops such as rice should be engineered to undertake C₄ photosynthesis, however, this goal is currently held back by a lack of understanding about how the development of Kranz anatomy is regulated. Recently, a number of candidate Kranz regulators have been identified in an RNA-seq study that compared leaf development in maize foliar (Kranz) and husk (non-Kranz) leaves. However, this study did not consider the impact of a recent whole genome duplication in the maize lineage on the gene expression patterns analysed. Therefore, in this thesis maize homeolog gene-pair divergence during early leaf development was assessed. This revealed that expression divergence of homeolog gene-pairs is a significant evolutionary phenomenon. Functional validation of a subset of Kranz candidates revealed that a Zmscr1-1; Zmscr1h-1 double mutant exhibited defects in Kranz patterning, including increased formation of extra BS cells and veins with no separating M cells. Furthermore, Zmnkd1; Zmnkd2 double mutants exhibited a subtle increase in extra BS cell formation. Taken together, this indicates that both ZmSCR1/ZmSCR1h and ZmNKD1/ZmNKD2 function redundantly during Kranz development. No evidence was obtained that two additional genes, ZmSHR2 and ZmRVN1, play a role in Kranz development, and expression of candidate Kranz regulators in rice did not alter leaf anatomy. Together, this work has confirmed roles for a number of genes in Kranz regulation, and has provided insight into the complex regulation underpinning Kranz development in maize.

No description available.