Psychological conditions, including stress, compromise immune defenses. Although this concept is not novel, the molecular mechanism behind it remains unclear. Neuropeptide Y (NPY), regulates anxiety and is a part of the stress response. The NPY system also modulates immune functions such as cytokine release, cell migration, and innate immune cell activity. Postganglionic sympathetic nerves innervating lymphoid organs release NPY, which together with other peptides activate five receptors (Y1, Y2, Y4, Y5, and y6). Additionally, immune cells themselves release NPY following activation. Previous studies have shown that Y1 mediates NPY-immune effects and data presented here shows expression of Y1 on a wide range of immune cells. Results presented in this thesis, using Y1-deficient mice (Y1-/-), have uncovered a novel role for Y1 on immune cells. NPY acts endogenously to inhibit T cell activation whereas Y1-/- T cells are hyper-responsive to activation and trigger severe colitis after transfer into lymphopenic mice. Thus, signalling through the Y1 receptor on T cells inhibits T cell activation and controls the magnitude of T cell responses. Paradoxically, in Y1-/- mice, T cell differentiation to Th1 T cells appears to be defective as these mice were resistant to T helper type 1 (Th1) cell???mediated inflammatory responses and showed reduced levels of the Th1 cell???promoting cytokine interleukin 12 and reduced interferon ?? production. This defect was due to functionally impaired antigen presenting cells (APCs). Y1-deficient APCs are defective in their ability to produce Th1-promoting cytokines and present antigens to T cells and consequently, Y1-/- mice had reduced numbers of effector T cells. Key reciprocal bone marrow chimera experiments indicated that this effect is intrinsic to immune cells and not driven by other Y1-expressing cell types. These results demonstrate a fundamental bimodal role for the Y1 receptor in the immune system, serving as a strong negative regulator on T cells as well as a key activator of APC function. The findings presented in this thesis uncover a sophisticated molecular mechanism regulating immune cell functions and thus adds to a growing number of signalling pathways shared by the immune and nervous system.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1995. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2005. / Author's name on approval form and OhioLink ETD database: Maria Isabel Rico-Salas. [School of Medicine] Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Habilitationsschrift--Ruhr-Universität Bochum. / Bibliography: p. [457]-475.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Political Science, 2005. / Title from second page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [2], ix, 199 p. : ill., maps. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-147).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2008. / Title from web page (viewed on June 26, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1995. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Organizations in many domains such as healthcare, finances, telecommunications, educa-tion, and software development, must comply with an ever-increasing number of regula-tions, including laws and policies. In order to measure compliance to regulation, several recent approaches propose modelling regulations using goals and indicators. However, creating goal models for regulations is time consuming and prone to errors, especially as this is usually done manually. This thesis tackles this issue by automating some of the steps for creating goal models, and by offering better ways to create graphical views of goal models than what is currently available nowadays in goal modelling tools. The notation used in this thesis is the Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL), which is part of the User Requirements Notation standard and is supported by the jUCMNav tool. The concepts of regulations and their indicators are captured using a tab-ular presentation in Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files. An import mechanism is added to jUCMNav to automatically create regulation goal models from such files. The imported GRL model can then by visualized using novel features that enable the addition of multiple views/diagrams in an efficient and usable way.

The enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA) contributes to multiple physiological processes by catalysing the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide. However, regulation of CA activity in response to homeostatic challenges remains poorly understood. The objectives of this thesis were to investigate whether CA is transcriptionally regulated by cortisol in fish and whether post-translational modification (PTM) of CA occurs in fish. The results of an in vivo reporter assay used to investigate potential transcriptional regulation of zebrafish, Danio rerio, cytoplasmic CA (CAc) were inconsistent, and it remains unclear whether zebrafish CAc is regulated transcriptionally by cortisol. Phosphorylation of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, CAc was predicted from in silico analysis of the putative amino acid sequence and confirmed by Western analysis of phosphoprotein levels following in vitro incubation of CA, purified from trout gill, under conditions designed to potentiate endogenous kinases. Again using in vitro incubations designed to potentiate endogenous kinases and phosphatases, changes to the phosphorylation state of CAc were found to modulate its enzymatic properties. These findings suggest that CA activity may be regulated by signalling pathways that activate cellular protein kinases, and future work should focus on identifying these pathways.

This work is will deal with the amount of costs and personal provisions with a view to the performance of regulations of independent regulatory authorities in the Czech Republic from 2001 until the present day. Independent regulatory authorities are characteristic for their specific placement within the hierarchy of state administration, their independence from the political will, and they are financed from the state budget. This work aims to find out what is the proportion of costs related to the output of regulations of independent regulatory authorities to the overall costs linked to the output of state administration, and analyze the development of this indicator in the aforesaid period. In the same way, the development in the personnel area will be analysed. As the source for data analysis will be primarily used annual reports of selected regulatory authorities, The Czech Statistical Authority and Ministry of Finance. The amount of regulations by the state and reinforcing or streamlining of the functions of the state administrations -- these are the topics of constant scholarly discussions both in the economic and political fields. At present, The European Commission requires that the Czech Republic establish two new independent regulatory authorities in the fields of railway transport and water management. The reason to establish an independent regulatory authority shall be to make sure of equal conditions of liberalized market of railway transportation and functioning of independent regulatory authority in the water-management field, as stated in the conditions of European Commission for subsidizing in the period between 2014 and 2020. The theoretical part will define the terms of regulations and describe the concepts of economic theories related to the regulations controlled by the state. Furthermore, the theoretical part will focus on definitions of independent regulatory authority and will describe the historical development of independent regulatory authorities. The practical part will concern itself with the institutional and legal framework, competency and activities of independent regulatory authorities. Furthermore, their budget and personnel aspects will be analysed. The goal of the Thesis is to analyse the development of costs and personnel scope of independent regulatory authorities with a view to the overall costs linked to the state administration and to the overall personnel provisions of the state administration in the mentioned period.