Acetylation was previously thought to occur exclusively on histones, but recent high-throughput screens have identified thousands of non-histone substrates. Despite the identification of these sites, little is known about how these acetyltransferase enzymes target their substrates. Gcn5 is the catalytic acetyltransferase found within the highly conserved SAGA complex. Recently, a member of this complex, Ada2, was found to impact Gcn5 substrate selection. In the yeast model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a synthetic substrate developed from a proposed Gcn5-specific consensus sequence is used to identify regulators of Gcn5 substrate selection. This work is the first to demonstrate that addition of a consensus sequence is enough to confer acetylation of a non-substrate. With this method, Ada3 was identified as a key regulator, and acetylome profiling identified novel targets for Gcn5 dependent acetylation specifically regulated by Ada3. This system could be adapted for other acetyltransferases to identify regulators of substrate selection.

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradci Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Technology Consultant: PharmDr. Ondřej Holas, PhD. Student: Petra Staňková Title of Thesis: Pharmaceutical applications of polyesters as drug nanocarriers Nanoparticles are nowadays intensively studied and perspective type of a drug carrier. Its potential is based on a possibility of targeted drug delivery and controlled drug release. The theoretical part is about nanoparticles types, polymers derived from α-hydroxyacids (PLA, PGA, PLGA). Focus is given on methods of nanoparticles preparation: dispersion of preformed polymers or the polymerization of monomers. The modification of particles surface and practical use of nanomedicine in healthcare are described in other chapters. The research in experimental part is focused on the influence of different types of PLGA and their weighing on the size, polydispersity, nanoparticles zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency of rhodamine B. Nanoparticles were prepared by nanoprecipitation method or by solvent evaporation method. The Zetasiser ZS 90 device was used to measure the size of the nanoparticles and to measure zeta potential. The result of the research shows the most suitable weighing for creation of nanoparticles is 25 mg. The samples of this weighing show a...

xi, 56 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The development of a functional nervous system is paramount for the ability of animals to interact with their environments. Minor defects in nervous system function compromise the effectiveness of sensing and responding to stimuli. Severe defects in nervous system function often lead to extreme sensory, cognitive and motor skill impairment. The nervous system is a complex network of connections, with each neuron making functional contacts with several other neurons. Any single animal species generally exhibits a stereotyped pattern of neuronal connectivity, but the specific intrinsic and extrinsic signals that impart to a neuron its unique connective properties have only recently begun to be identified. In this study, we use the Drosophila visual system to examine neuronal connectivity. Our screen for genes involved in R7 photoreceptor connectivity led to the identification of the RhoGAP domain-containing protein dsyd-1 and the transcriptional repressor tramtrack . Flies harboring homozygous mutant dsyd-1 R7s fail to phototax towards UV light, an innate behavior mediated by the R7s. Subsequent analysis of axons of dsyd-1 R7s showed abnormal morphology in the region of presynaptic sites, suggesting that similar to its role in C. elegans , dsyd-1 is involved in presynaptic assembly. Further analysis demonstrated a requirement for dsyd-1 function in docking presynaptic components to terminal sites of contact. R7 axons are restricted to non-overlapping columns in the optic neuropil, thereby preserving spatial visual information in the retintopic map. The axon terminals of tramtrack mutant R7s exhibit overgrowth, similar to that observed in R7s that have loss of function mutations in genes involved in the activin signaling pathway. Previous studies have shown that activin signaling is involved in restricting R7 axons to their appropriate columns, and our results demonstrate that tramtrack may be functioning in the same pathway. One of two tramtrack isoforms, ttk69 , is expressed in photoreceptors after they have differentiated, and expression of ttk69 is specifically required for R7 axon targeting. / Committee in charge: Eric Johnson, Chairperson, Biology; Victoria Herman, Advisor, Biology; Bruce Bowerman, Member, Biology; Christopher Doe, Member, Biology; Tom Stevens, Outside Member, Chemistry

Si la raison d'être des aides sociales, les conditions de leur versement, l'étude des bénéficiaires sont des préoccupations anciennes et constantes de la sociologie politique de l'aide sociale, la question des modalités techniques de versement de ces aides a peu été travaillée. Parmi ces diverses modalités, des outils tels que les chèques sont restés dans l'ombre. Partant de la notion de « voucher » développée aux Etats-Unis dans les années 60 par Milton Friedman et tout particulièrement du « school voucher » ou « chèque éducation », certaines collectivités françaises ont introduit au début des années 1990 ce concept sous la forme de chèques cultures destinés au jeune public en se revendiquant d'idées libérales. Dans les années qui suivirent, on a observé un essaimage important des chèques dans les collectivités françaises sans pour autant que la filiation libérale et anglo-Saxonne ne soit revendiquée. Parallèlement, le chèque en France est arrivé sous une forme encadrée par la loi et principalement destiné au versement d'aides sociales : le Chèque Emploi Service Universel, le Chèque d'Accompagnement Personnalisé, sont désormais bien implantés dans le paysage des interventions sociales françaises. La possibilité ouverte par le législateur de payer certaines aides sociales obligatoire a permis à ces chèques d'entrer en nombre au sein des Conseils Généraux. Après avoir démontré que les chèques sociaux et culturels sont, malgré leurs modalités d'apparition différente, les descendants des « vouchers » friedmaniens, l'enquête de terrain, portant sur 6 dispositifs présents dans 3 collectivités françaises (Conseil Régional Rhône-Alpes, Conseils Généraux de la Drôme et de la Saône et Loire, a principalement consisté en la comparaison entre le discours des acteurs et les arguments traditionnellement employés dans la littérature anglo-Saxonne. Le résultat de l'enquête qualitative menée en utilisant une méthode proche de l'approche phénoménologique et priorisant donc la représentation de l'objet par l'acteur montre en effet que les 6 attributs les plus fréquemment cités dans la littérature reviennent régulièrement dans les propos des acteurs même si ces derniers ne revendiquent qu'à la marge le caractère libéral du chèque. L'enquête a pu démontrer que c'est l'action décisive de médiateurs et la promotion d'un argument absent des analyses anglo-Saxonnes qui a favorisé cette diffusion. Les acteurs citent en effet, dans les avantages du chèque, la notion de visibilité de l'aide et d'outil de communication. Il s'agit en effet de l'argument le plus répandu parmi les entreprises commercialisant ces dispositifs. Nous avons donc étudié à la fois la formation de réseaux formels et informels entre collectivités et l'apport, selon nous décisif, des entreprises ayant pu réorienter leurs « business model » afin de rendre cet outil plus attractif pour des collectivités qui auraient eu plus de difficultés à l'accepter si elles en avaient connu la vraie nature. / In France, more and more social or cultural subsidies, given by local authorities to a targeted group of the population are not distributed directly in cash but under the shape of vouchers. In fact, the first local government to have proceeded like this is the Conseil Régional Rhône-Alpes in 1993 that have launched the “cultural voucher” which was given to the high school students. During the 90s, this way to proceed has become a kind of “fashion” among the French local authorities and nowadays, everything the French Region has at least one subsidy given through vouchers. This kind of tools are very wide-Spread over the world, especially in the US. As a tool of public policy it has been studied first by Milton Friedman and categorized as a pro-Choice and a libertarian tool. The most famous example of “liberal” voucher is the “school voucher” that permits the parents to choose the school of their children (it has been tested in Florida, Milwaukee and New York). The school voucher and a lot of other ones (stamp foods, medical vouchers…) has been implemented all over the world within the framework of programs leaded by institutions as the World Bank of the International Monetary Fund. The arrival of such vouchers in France seems surprising because of the political ideas of the leaders of most of the local government. It seems at least paradoxical to note that social democrat leaders have been the first to use vouchers to pay some social, cultural or other individual subsidies. This thesis tries to answer questions such “how such tools have been to spread through the French regions so easily” and “why haven't the local governments recognize that it was a pro-Choice and liberal tool that they were supposed to fight against?” Vouchers are in fact part of the French culture. France has developed in the 60s a program of luncheon vouchers that everybody knows named “Ticket restaurant”. Four firms composed the national market of the vouchers editors, three of them are the three world leaders of this global market. By using the example of the first cultural voucher created in France in 1993, they have gradually made their Business model evolved to suit these new market opportunities. One of the conclusions of the thesis is that the spreading of the vouchers among French local authorities has not only an ideological cause, but is simply the consequence commercial actions of French vouchers editor companies that have detected a new important market to conquer.

A assimetria nas preferências dos Bancos Centrais é um assunto que vem sendo muito discutido no meio acadêmico, mas até o momento essa polêmica tem se restringido a economias desenvolvidas como a canadense e inglesa. O que o texto a seguir se propõe é, em parte, tentar trazer essa discussão para o campo dos países emergentes, tomando como centro da análise a economia brasileira. Preferências assimétricas consistem num comportamento por parte da autoridade monetária que atribui perdas diferentes a desvios da taxa de inflação observada em relação à meta definida, que embora sejam de mesma magnitude apresentam sinais opostos. Replicando os testes já usados em outros estudos, o regime de Metas de Inflação é aqui abordado, iniciando sua análise sob uma ótica mais geral e depois o particularizando para a economia brasileira, desde sua concepção (em 1999 após a crise cambial de janeiro desse ano) até os dias atuais. Este comportamento assimétrico parece, ainda, ocasionar um viés inflacionário diferente daquele proposto pelo modelo KPBG (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) que surge da ambição do Banco Central em estabelecer uma taxa de desemprego que esteja abaixo da taxa natural, num ambiente no qual as preferências, ao contrário do proposto, são quadráticas. Infelizmente, os dados brasileiros ainda não apontam na direção da assimetria, talvez por causa do tempo de implantação do regime no Brasil, talvez devido às turbulências que a economia brasileira sofreu decorrentes de crises internacionais e de suas conseqüências sobre o desempenho da política de Metas de Inflação que gerou inúmeros insucessos. No entanto, o histórico de hiperinflações e sua influência sobre as expectativas e os comportamentos dos agentes econômicos nos faz suspeitar de que dentro em breve a assimetria será não só detectada em nossa economia como também será fruto de estudos para o desenho e direcionamento da política monetária. / Central Banks preferences asymmetry is a subject that has been discussed for quite some time in academic publications. However, such controversy has been restricted to developed economies, such as the English and Canadian ones, so far. The following text intends to bring about the discussion to emerging countries, using the brazilian economy as the focus of the analysis. Asymmetric preferences can be defined as a particular behaviour of the monetary authorities that weigh differently their losses concerning inflation deviations from its predetermined target that have the same magnitude but different signs. The main tests used in other studies have been repeated here and the inflation target regime is approached, initially from a broader outlook and then specifically to the brazilian case, ever since its conception in 1999 (after the exchange rate crash in the same year) to the present day. The asymmetric behaviour seems to cause an inflationary bias different from the one proposed by the KPBG model (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) which derives from the Central Bank ambition to establish an unemployment rate lower than its natural rate, in an environment in which preferences are quadratic. Unfortunately, brazilian data do not suggest asymmetry yet, maybe because the inflation target regime has been installed for too little time, or because of all the turmoil in the brazilian economy in recent international crisis and their consequences on the regime performance, that has been usually compromised. Nevertheless, the history of hyperinflations and their impacts on expectations and the agents behaviour raises suspicions that soon not only will asymmetry be found in our economy but it will also be studied to design monetary policy directives.

A assimetria nas preferências dos Bancos Centrais é um assunto que vem sendo muito discutido no meio acadêmico, mas até o momento essa polêmica tem se restringido a economias desenvolvidas como a canadense e inglesa. O que o texto a seguir se propõe é, em parte, tentar trazer essa discussão para o campo dos países emergentes, tomando como centro da análise a economia brasileira. Preferências assimétricas consistem num comportamento por parte da autoridade monetária que atribui perdas diferentes a desvios da taxa de inflação observada em relação à meta definida, que embora sejam de mesma magnitude apresentam sinais opostos. Replicando os testes já usados em outros estudos, o regime de Metas de Inflação é aqui abordado, iniciando sua análise sob uma ótica mais geral e depois o particularizando para a economia brasileira, desde sua concepção (em 1999 após a crise cambial de janeiro desse ano) até os dias atuais. Este comportamento assimétrico parece, ainda, ocasionar um viés inflacionário diferente daquele proposto pelo modelo KPBG (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) que surge da ambição do Banco Central em estabelecer uma taxa de desemprego que esteja abaixo da taxa natural, num ambiente no qual as preferências, ao contrário do proposto, são quadráticas. Infelizmente, os dados brasileiros ainda não apontam na direção da assimetria, talvez por causa do tempo de implantação do regime no Brasil, talvez devido às turbulências que a economia brasileira sofreu decorrentes de crises internacionais e de suas conseqüências sobre o desempenho da política de Metas de Inflação que gerou inúmeros insucessos. No entanto, o histórico de hiperinflações e sua influência sobre as expectativas e os comportamentos dos agentes econômicos nos faz suspeitar de que dentro em breve a assimetria será não só detectada em nossa economia como também será fruto de estudos para o desenho e direcionamento da política monetária. / Central Banks preferences asymmetry is a subject that has been discussed for quite some time in academic publications. However, such controversy has been restricted to developed economies, such as the English and Canadian ones, so far. The following text intends to bring about the discussion to emerging countries, using the brazilian economy as the focus of the analysis. Asymmetric preferences can be defined as a particular behaviour of the monetary authorities that weigh differently their losses concerning inflation deviations from its predetermined target that have the same magnitude but different signs. The main tests used in other studies have been repeated here and the inflation target regime is approached, initially from a broader outlook and then specifically to the brazilian case, ever since its conception in 1999 (after the exchange rate crash in the same year) to the present day. The asymmetric behaviour seems to cause an inflationary bias different from the one proposed by the KPBG model (Kydland-Prescott-Barro-Gordon) which derives from the Central Bank ambition to establish an unemployment rate lower than its natural rate, in an environment in which preferences are quadratic. Unfortunately, brazilian data do not suggest asymmetry yet, maybe because the inflation target regime has been installed for too little time, or because of all the turmoil in the brazilian economy in recent international crisis and their consequences on the regime performance, that has been usually compromised. Nevertheless, the history of hyperinflations and their impacts on expectations and the agents behaviour raises suspicions that soon not only will asymmetry be found in our economy but it will also be studied to design monetary policy directives.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第15397号 / 工博第3276号 / 新制||工||1493(附属図書館) / 27875 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科高分子化学専攻 / (主査)教授 田畑 泰彦, 教授 岩田 博夫, 教授 木村 俊作 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

This doctoral thesis contains three essays on the macroeconomic impact of inflation targeting: (1) Inflation-targeting regime, as a framework for monetary policy conduct, has been adopted by central banks in thirty countries. Some of these countries enjoy high incomes while others have middle incomes. In contrast to the development-based classification –often applied in the literature, thus ignoring income disparity– this study employs income-based classification in constructing the data sample. The objective is to investigate, using a panel of middle-income countries, whether inflation targeting is a good remedy for high inflation. In addition to the commonly used covariates in the literature, this study also includes in its covariate matrix the worldwide governance indicators as proxy for institutional quality. The findings exhibit a significant reduction of inflation and its volatility among the inflation-targeting adopters compared to the non-adopting middle-income countries. The results are robust to the exclusion of high inflation episodes, and to using the alternative measures of inflation. The results are also robust to the post-estimation sensitivity tests recommended for such empirical analysis. (2) Many economists acknowledge the paramount role that foreign investment plays in fostering economic development and growth via integrating economies around the globe. Studies have shown that foreign investment, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI) is attracted to countries that exhibit good governance, low uncertainty and a high degree of macroeconomic stability. The literature also argues that monetary policy under inflation targeting (IT) mitigates uncertainty, enhances governance and brings macroeconomic stability to the adopting countries. Hence, it would seem that the IT-adoption should enable the adopting countries attract the largest FDI inflows. To verify this conjecture, this study performs a comparison between the IT-adopting countries and the non-adopters in attracting FDI. Using a panel of OECD and middle-income countries, the empirical findings exhibit an interesting but contradicting pattern: when it comes to the OECD countries, the results show that the IT-adopters do better than the non-adopters in attracting the FDI inflows. For the middle-income countries, however, the IT-adoption appears to have the opposite effect: a significant reduction in the FDI inflows is witnessed among the IT-adopters compared to their counterparts. The results are robust to the post-estimation sensitivity tests. (3) Inflation targeting, as a monetary-policy framework, is said to promote economic efficiency and growth. Yet, when evaluating the macroeconomic performance of inflation-targeting regimes, the existing literature only emphasizes the dynamics of inflation and the costs associated with taming inflation. There is hardly any assessment of the claim of efficiency and growth. To fill this gap, and to measure the causal impact of inflation-targeting adoption on economic efficiency, we compare the dynamics of output growth and long-term unemployment between countries that have adopted inflation targeting and the non-adopting countries. Our findings seem to refute the efficiency claim, and paint a bleak picture of inflation targeting: when compared to the countries that did not adopt inflation targeting, there is a significant reduction in the average growth rate among the inflation-targeting adopters by over ½ percentage point. Additionally, long-term unemployment significantly rises among the inflation-targeting countries by almost 2 percentage points as compared to the non-adopters. These results are robust to both the exclusion of the outlier observations and to the sensitivity tests recommended for such analysis.

The Czech National Bank adopted an inflation targeting approach after the change rate turmoil in 1997. It went about a new strategy that was known only in a few developed countries. Monetary policy is being realized by directly targeting on its final object (price stability). I analyze the developments of consumer price index, inflation expectations, prognosis of inflation and other economic values, because I determine, if the inflation targeting is a correct alternative for monetary policy in case of Czech Republic, Slovakia and United Kingdom. I can tell that changeover on inflation targeting has being guaranteed a stable economic setting with a low measure of inflation, but results confirm that. This is important for our entrance into monetary union.

Diploma thesis Marketing strategy of wine cellar will introduce strategic mareting and service marketing in theoretical part. Furthermore, in the theoretical part, I write about the segmentation, targeting and positioning. The practical part is devoted to the story of wine cellar, statistical data about wine and competition analysis. The most part of the practical part deals with questionnaire. The results of this investigation should be useful to the proper market segmentation, targeting and positioning further. The evaluation questionnaire also illustrate SWOT analysis and recommendations for the owners of the wine cellar.