In der vorliegenden Studie wurde an 109 Patienten mit einer Erkrankung des Fesselträgers retrospektiv untersucht, ob die intraläsionale Applikation von autologem thrombozyten-reichem Plasma (PRP) Vorteile gegenüber der intraläsionalen Applikation von xenogener azellulärer Matrix aus porziner Harnblasenmukosa (ACell Vet™ UBM Powder) besitzt. Die gesamten Daten zum Patientenmaterial entstammen einer großen, schwerpunktmäßig orthopädisch orientierten Pferdeklinik. In die Gruppe mit Thrombozyten angereichertem Plasma (PRP) wurden 75 Patienten aufgenommen. Es wurden 3 verschieden Methoden zur Herstellung von thrombozytenreichem Plasma verwendet. Als Vergleichsgruppe dienten 34 Patienten, welche mit einer xenogenen Therapieform (ACell™) am Fesselträger behandelt wurden. Initial wurden alle Patienten klinisch und ultrasonographisch untersucht, wobei bei allen Patienten ein frischer oder alter aufgefrischter/chronischer Schaden am Fesselträger dargestellt werden konnte. Die Wahl der Therapieform richtete sich nach der Einschätzung, der Präferenz und den Erfahrungen des jeweiligen behandelnden Tierarztes unter Berücksichtigung des finanziellen Aufwandes für die Patientenbesitzer. Alle Patienten wurden entweder mit PRP oder mit ACell™ behandelt und Boxenruhe in Verbindung mit einem steigernd aufgebauten Schritt- und Aufbautrainingsprogramm verordnet. Die Nachuntersuchungen zur Kontrolle des Heilungserfolges und -fortschrittes beinhalteten eine klinische Lahmheitsuntersuchung sowie eine ultrasonographische Untersuchung. Je nach klinischer und ultrasonographischer Entwicklung wurde das Bewegungsprogramm angepasst. Zum Abschluss der Studie konnte als Resultat festgestellt werden, dass 45 (60 %) Patienten der PRP Gruppe ihr ursprüngliches Leistungsniveau wieder erreicht hatten, 8 (10,7 %) Patienten konnten ihr ursprüngliches Leistungsniveau nicht wieder erreichen, 17 (22,7 %) Patienten erlitten ein Rezidiv und ein (1,3 %) Patient musste euthanasiert werden. Im Vergleich dazu erreichten 20 (58,8 %) Patienten der ACell™ Gruppe wieder ihr ur-sprüngliches Leistungsniveau, 5 (14,7 %) Patienten konnten ihr ursprüngliches Leistungs-niveau nicht wieder erreichen, 7 (20,6 %) erlitten ein Rezidiv und ein (2,9 %) Patient musste euthanasiert werden. Die Unterschiede im Resultat sind statistisch nicht signifikant. Ein statistisch signifikanter Unterschied (p= 0,05) ist allerdings bei der Dauer der Rehabilitationsphase zu beobachten. Im Durchschnitt benötigten erfolgreich therapierte PRP Patienten signifikant weniger Zeit bis zum Erreichen der vollen Belastbarkeit als erfolgreich therapierte ACell™ Patienten. PRP Patienten wurden durchschnittlich 15,6 Wochen im Schritt bewegt und erhielten 13,2 Wochen Aufbautraining, so dass sie im Durchschnitt nach 29,6 Wochen wieder ihre volle Belastbarkeit erreicht hatten. Erfolgreich therapierte ACell™ Patienten wurden durchschnittlich 20,2 Wochen im Schritt bewegt und erhielten im Anschluss im Durchschnitt 19,8 Wochen Aufbautraining, so dass sie im Durchschnitt nach 40,6 Wochen wieder ihre volle Belastbarkeit erreicht hatten. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Rehabilitationsdauer bei mit thrombozytenreichem Plasma behandelten Fesselträgerschäden signifikant kürzer ist als bei mit ACell™ behandelten Fesselträgerschäden, obwohl sich das Resultat der Behandlung statistisch nicht wesentlich unterscheidet (p= 0,88). Die vielversprechenden Ergebnisse einiger ähnlich konzipierten Arbeiten konnten in der vorliegenden Studie mit keiner der angewandten Behandlungsform erreicht werden. Erwähnte Studien umfassten deutlich größere oder deutlich kleinere Patientengruppen und unterschieden sich hinsichtlich Rasse und Nutzung des Patientenmaterials sowie dem meist kürzeren Untersuchungszeitraum. Insofern erscheint einerseits eine derartige Studie aus praktischer Sicht sinnvoll und lohnenswert, andererseits zeigt sich auch der Bedarf an vergleichbaren, klinischen, praxisorientierten Arbeiten zur Evaluierung dieser Behandlungsmethoden.

<p>Acyl-carrier-protein (ACP) is the principal transporter of fatty acids, coordinating acyl-transfer among a vast network of diverse enzymes and biochemical processes. ACP association with protein partners is thought to be exceedingly transient. This paradigm has posed challenges for understanding the molecular basis for acyl-delivery and dissociation. During biosynthesis of the lipid A component (endotoxin) of lipopolysaccharides, ACP shuttles acyl-intermediates thioester-linked to its 4'-phosphopantetheine arm among four acyltransferases: LpxA, LpxD, LpxL, and LpxM. LpxA and LpxD are essential cytoplasmic enzymes, which not only provide an excellent model system to study ACP-based interaction, but also offer an important therapeutic target for development of novel antibiotics. The current dissertation reports the crystal structures of three forms of <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> ACP engaging LpxD, which represent stalled substrate and breakage products along the reaction coordinate. The structures reveal the intricate interactions at the interface that optimally position ACP for acyl-delivery and directly involve the pantetheinyl group. Conformational differences among the stalled ACPs provide the molecular basis for the association-dissociation process. An unanticipated conformational shift of 4'-phosphopantetheine groups within the LpxD catalytic chamber reveals an unprecedented role of ACP in product release. Moreover, the crystal structure of <italic>E. coli</italic> LpxA in complex with one form of ACP (holo-ACP) is presented. The structure reveals three molecules of holo-ACP localize to the C-terminal domain of the LpxA homotrimer, and shows the functional role of this domain is two-fold: ACP recognition and nucleotide binding of UDP-GlcNAc. A comparison with the LpxD:ACP complexes uncovers that ACP utilizes different surface residues for recognition even amongst closely related acyltransferases, yet still relies on "electrostatic steering" for docking to its enzyme partner. Insights gleaned from the presented structures have provided not only a better understanding of ACP interaction with acyltransferases, but also has identified the "drugable molecular landscape" for the development of novel antibiotics against infective bacteria.</p> / Dissertation

<p>The Sugar Industry in Fiji is facing a lot of problems. Since the Government of Fiji has not fulfilled their commitments to the European Union (EU), the EU has backed away from supporting the industry. The milling efficiency has been constantly declining since the mid 1980’s and farm productivities have not kept pace with the changing international market for sugar. To be able to obtain the economies of scale, the sugar production in Fiji has to increase with 75 % from the current level of production. A lot of towns in Fiji would be nothing without the Sugar Industry, and thousands of people are dependent on the industry for their sustenance. Due to this fact, it is certain that the loss of confidence in the industry, or any likely collapse, would imply disaster for Fiji as a whole. It will lead to serious implications on the economic, social and political stability of Fiji.</p><p>The overall aim of this thesis is to study the effects of the EU measures especially on the Sugar Industry in Fiji, to be able to understand to which extent the industry depends on the support from the EU. The aim is also to analyse and discuss different competition strategies on how Fiji can compete and be a part of the global market of sugar.</p><p>This research was made from a qualitative approach in order to gain a deeper understanding about the problem. Abduction made it possible to work parallel with different parts of the thesis. A combination of primary and secondary data gathering has been used, with the secondary data as a basis for building the empirical part of the thesis. The primary data was collected through in-depth interviews with people at different positions within the Sugar Industry in Fiji.</p><p>Fiji is dependent on the Sugar Industry and since there is no other obvious donor for Fiji today, and it is crucial that the industry gets support, the conclusion is that Fiji also is dependent on the support from the EU. Even though Fiji has the possibility to increase their competitiveness on the regional as well as on the international market, there is no need for Fiji to strive after the world market at the moment.</p>

Caseinolytic protease (ClpP) is a cylindrical protease forming the core of protein degradation machinery in eubacteria. ClpP is tightly regulated and is non-functional without a member of the Clp-ATPases. A new class of antibiotics, termed ADEPs, bind to ClpP and allow for activation without the Clp-ATPases; leading to cell death. A more efficient synthetic route to the ADEPs utilizing solid-phase peptide synthesis was investigated. A linear peptide was synthesized, however attempts to close the depsipeptidic macrocycle via macrolactonization failed. Further attempts of assembling a branched depsipeptide for ring closure via a macrolactamization resulted in products that were not stable to cleavage conditions. A group of molecules termed Activators of Self-Compartmentalizing Proteases (ACP) were identified through a screen for activity towards ClpP. Compound ACP1 was synthesized along with twelve analogs and their activity towards ClpP evaluated. The project resulted in a compound with a higher activity than its natural product counterpart.

The relatively high level of palmitic acid (22 mol%) in cottonseeds may be due in part to the activity of a palmitoyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase (PATE). In embryo extracts, PATE activity was highest at the maximum rate of reserve accumulation (oil and protein). The cotton FatB mRNA transcript abundance also peaked during this developmental stage, paralleling the profiles of PATE enzyme activity and seed oil accumulation. A cotton FatB cDNA clone was isolated by screening a cDNA library with a heterologous Arabidopsis FatB probe (Pirtle et al., 1999, Plant and Cell Physiology 40: 155-163). The predicted amino acid sequence of the cotton PATE preprotein had 63% identity to the Arabidopsis FatB thioesterase sequence, suggesting that the cotton cDNA clone probably encoded a FatB-type thioesterase. When acyl-CoA synthetase-minus E. coli mutants expressed the cotton cDNA, an increase in 16:0 free fatty acid content was measured in the culture medium. In addition, acyl-ACP thioesterase activity assays in E. coli lysates revealed that there was a preference for palmitoyl-ACP over oleoyl-ACP in vitro, indicating that the cotton putative FatB cDNA encoded a functional thioesterase with a preference for saturated acyl-ACPs over unsaturated acyl-ACPs (FatA). Overexpression of the FatB cDNA in transgenic cotton resulted in elevated levels of palmitic acid in transgenic somatic embryos compared to control embryos. Expression of the anti-sense FatB cDNA in transgenic cotton plants produced some plants with a dwarf phenotype. These plants had significantly smaller mature leaves, all with smaller cells, suggesting that these plants may have less palmitic acid available for incorporation into extraplastidial membrane lipids during cell expansion. Thus manipulation of FatB expression in cotton directly influenced palmitic acid levels. Collectively, data presented in this dissertation support the hypothesis that there indeed is a palmitoyl-ACP thioesterase in cotton, encoded by the isolated FatB cDNA, which plays a major role in regulating palmitic acid content of extraplastidial complex glycerolipids. This work forms the basis for future studies of the influence of palmitic acid content on plant membrane function and provides a key target for the metabolic engineering of palmitic acid levels in storage oils of developing cottonseeds.

Legal aspects of cooperation between the EU and ACP countries The origins of the EU cooperation with the group of Sub-saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP Group) date back to the very beginnings of the European integration with Part IV of the Treaty of Rome establishing association of the former colonies of the several founding member states to the European Economic Community. After the colonies gained their independence, their association to the EEC was given a basis of the international law by means of the conventions from Yaoundé (1963, 1969) and Lomé (1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 - revised in 1995). The cooperation between the EC/EU and ACP countries has progressively evolved into a comprehensive partnership encompassing the political, development and economic cooperation. The relations between the EU and 78 ACP countries are actually ruled by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000, revised in 2005 and 2010) which is to be in force until 2020. The EU-ACP partnership constitutes a specific system of international law and probably can be described as the most comprehensive relationship between developed and developing countries. In many ways, the cooperation with the ACP countries represents a special case in the field of the EU external relations and, due to a specific historical...

Dans le système financier et commercial actuel, l'OMC est au cœur des débats, sa politique libérale divisant tant les universitaires que les praticiens sur les formes de gouvernance économique mondiale. Très ouverte à la participation de divers acteurs du commerce mondial, l'OMC a en effet vu la percée lente mais assurée des ONG lors des négociations. Dans le même temps, les intégrations économiques régionales se sont multipliées et leur participation aux négociations de l'OMC s'est accrue, ce qui a conduit à augmenter les interrogations sur les formes de gouvernance étatique économique mondiale. Au sein de l'Organisation, il est un type de regroupement étatique qui a un rôle de plus en plus important, mais dont l'étude reste quasi inexistante : les Groupes d’États, qui reposent sur le respect et la défense de relations équitables. or, l'équité est affichée comme un des objectifs de l'OMC. L'approche constructiviste et de politique juridique permettront d'analyser les modalités et conséquences de l'interaction entre les Groupes et l'Organisation. Cette analyse mettra alors en lumière le degré de contribution des groupes au droit de l'OMC et, dans une plus large mesure, dessinera uen nouvelle acception de l'équité et des formes de gouvernance économique mondiale. / The WTO, which is one of the most criticized international organizations in the world, is currently the focus of debates because of its liberalisms policies. As academics as lawyers wonder how the WTO philosophy can be linked to different forms of international economic governance. Indeed, the number of NGO has grown in the WTO negotiations. In the same time, the number of Regional Economic Integration and their participation to the WTO negotiations increased. As a consequence, interrogations concerning international economic governance rose. At the WTO, a kind of coalitions is particularly remarkable but rarely studied in law: State Coalitions, which are based on the respect and defence of Equity. Similarly, one of the goals of the WTO is to establish Equity in international economic relations. Thanks to constructivism, this thesis highlights the interaction between State coalitions and the WTO. The focus is to point up how important is the contribution of State coalitions to WTO law. As a consequence, this thesis will draw a new meaning of Equity and international economic governance.

Denna examensrapport ingår som ett obligatoriskt moment i den treåriga Byggingenjörsutbildningen, vid Högskolan i Borås. Studien beskriver den förbättringspotential anläggningsprojektet Knutpunkt Gamlestaden har, för att kunna minska koldioxidavtrycket. Kortare beskrivningar kring posterna armering, asfalt, drivmedel och plattor av natursten ges, där produktionsprocesser och transporter vägs in. Författarna har tagit fram alternativa producenter och material, vilket i slutändan reducerar projektets totala koldioxidbelastning. Det har även tagits hänsyn till om dessa alternativ är tillgängliga och realistiska att införa i projektet. De eventuella fördelar och nackdelar som förändringen kan medföra, förs det en diskussion kring. Med hjälp av Skanskas interna klimatkalkylsverktyg, redovisas förbättringspotentialen i siffror. Detta för att få ut koldioxidbelastningen och därmed kunna jämföra de nya alternativen mot de befintliga. / This report is a part of the three-year Bachelor in Civil Engineering program at the University of Borås. The study describes the potential of improvement that the project Knutpunkt Gamlestaden have, in order to reduce the carbon footprint. Brief descriptions of the items rebar, asphalt, fuel and slabs of natural stone is given, where the production and  ransportation are considered. The authors have looked at alternative producers and materials, which ultimately reduces the project's total carbon footprint. It has also been taken into account if these options are available and realistic to implement in the project. The possible advantages and  isadvantages that the change can bring are discussed. With help from Skanska's in-house climate calculation tool, the potential for improvement is graphically described. This is to demonstrate the carbon load and to be able to compare the new options to the existing ones.

Les gestes de la main représentent un moyen naturel et intuitif de communication chez l'homme lui permettant d'interagir avec son environnement dans la vie de tous les jours. Ils permettent notamment de ponctuer et de renforcer l'expression orale d'un dialogue entre personnes. Outre la communication entre individus, les gestes de la main permettent de manipuler des objets ou encore d'interagir avec des machines. Avec le développement de la vision par ordinateur, on assiste à un véritable engouement pour de nouveaux types d'interactions qui exploitent le mouvement de la main et qui passent par une étape d'analyse et de reconnaissance du mouvement afin d'aboutir à l'interprétation des gestes de la main. La réalisation d'un tel objectif ouvre un large champ d'applications. C'est dans ce cadre que se positionne le travail réalisé au cours de cette thèse. Les objectifs visés étaient de proposer des méthodes pour: 1) permettre le transfert d'animation depuis une séquence réelle vers un modèle 3D représentant la main. Dans une telle perspective, le suivi permet d'estimer les différents paramètres correspondant aux degrés de liberté de la main. 2) identifier les gestes de la main en utilisant une base de gestes prédéfinie dans le but de proposer des modes d'interactions basés sur la vision par ordinateur. Sur le plan technique, nous nous sommes intéressés à deux types d’approches : le premier utilise un modèle 3D de la main et le deuxième fait appel à une base de gestes / Hand gestures take a fundamental role in inter-human daily communication. Their use has become an important part of human-computer interaction in the two last decades. Building a fast and effective vision-based hand motion tracker is challenging. This is due to the high dimensionality of the pose space, the ambiguities due to occlusion, the lack of visible surface texture and the significant appearance variations due to shading. In this thesis we are interested in two approaches for monocular hand tracking. In the first one, a parametric hand model is used. The hand motion tracking is first formulated as an optimization task, where a dissimilarity function between the projection of the hand model under articulated motion and the observed image features, is to be minimized. A two-step iterative algorithm is then proposed to minimize this dissimilarity function. We propose two dissimilarity functions to be minimized. We propose also in this thesis a data-driven method to track hand gestures and animate 3D hand model. To achieve the tracking, the presented method exploits a database of hand gestures represented as 3D point clouds. In order to track a large number of hand poses with a database as small as possible we classify the hand gestures using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Applied to each point cloud, the PCA produces a new representation of the hand pose independent of the position and orientation in the 3D space. To explore the database in a fast and efficient way, we use a comparison function based on 3D distance transform. Experimental results on synthetic and real data demonstrate the potentials of ours methods

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a relação entre a Temperatura da Superfície do Mar (TSM) no Oceano Atlântico Sul (OAS) e a precipitação no estado de São Paulo. Para tanto, adotaram-se as escalas mensal e sazonal. A técnica estatística multivariada, chamada Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP, ou EOF em inglês) foi aplicada para definir as áreas homogêneas do oceano (de \'A\' a \'L\') e as subregiões do continente (de 1 a 7). Além da definição das áreas e sub-regiões, a ACP identificou muito bem os padrões espaciais da precipitação e da TSM em todas as escalas adotadas: mensal contínua, mensal descontínua e sazonal. Na ACP da série temporal sazonal de verão, o primeiro e o segundo modos da precipitação evidenciam a distribuição espacial típica de verão (zonal) para o estado de São Paulo, e a variância explicada por esses dois modos juntos é de 59,79% do total. Esta distribuição espacial já havia sido observada nas análises iniciais a partir das médias sazonais da precipitação, padrão que se explica pelos fluxos de umidade que, nesta estação, devido ao sistema de monções da América do Sul, movem-se mais intensamente em direção ao continente. Já na ACP da série temporal sazonal de inverno, o primeiro e segundo modos da precipitação evidenciam a distribuição meridional, com variância explicada de 39,15 e 17,77%, respectivamente. Os sistemas frontais no inverno agem como responsáveis por uma parcela considerável do total precipitado, o que explica o padrão meridional da chuva. Os coeficientes de correlação linear significativos entre as áreas oceânicas e sub-regiões continentais homogêneas demonstraram que a variabilidade sazonal da precipitação está associada à TSM, sobretudo na porção central da área estudada (próximo ao litoral sul e sudeste do Brasil), nas estações seca (abril a setembro) e chuvosa (outubro a março). Além das variáveis principais (precipitação e TSM), os campos de Radiação de Onda Longa Emergente (ROLE), Pressão no nível do Mar (PNM), e Divergência do ar em 250 e 850hPa auxiliaram na identificação dos padrões atmosféricos e na análise dos eventos extremos. As estações consideradas atípicas, ou seja, as que apresentaram média muito acima ou muito abaixo do desvio padrão, foram separadas em quatro classes: verão chuvoso, verão seco, inverno chuvoso e inverno seco. A partir da análise desses eventos, conclui-se então que a TSM do OAS pode alterar consideravelmente o padrão sazonal de precipitação no estado de São Paulo, principalmente se estiver atrelada a padrões atmosféricos. No inverno, anomalias negativas (positivas) de TSM estão associadas com a precipitação acima (abaixo) da média climatológica nesse estado. Devido a bloqueios atmosféricos no OAS no verão, a diminuição da passagem de sistemas frontais pode intensificar anomalias positivas no oceano, as quais estão associadas aos períodos chuvosos no sul do país e de seca no estado de São Paulo. / The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in the South Atlantic Ocean (SAO) and the precipitation in São Paulo state. So, the monthly and seasonal scales were adopted. The Principal Component Analysis multivariate statistic technic (PCA, and also called EOF) was applied to define the oceans homogeneous areas (from A to L) and the continents sub-regions (from 1 to 7). Besides defining the areas and sub-regions, the PCA has identified very well the spatial patterns of the precipitation and SST in all the adopted scales: continuous monthly, discontinuous monthly and seasonal. In the PCA of the summer seasonal temporal series, the first and the second precipitations mode evidence the summer-typical spatial distribution (zonal) for São Paulo state, and the variance explained by these two modes together is 59,79% of the total. This spatial distribution was already noted in the first analysis from the seasonal precipitation averages, and such a pattern is explained by the flow of humidity, which in the summer, owing to the South America monsoon systems, move more intensely toward the continent. On the other hand, in the PCA of the winter seasonal temporal series, the first and the second precipitations modes evidence the meridional distribution, with a variance explained from 39,15 to 17,77%, respectively. The frontal systems in the winter act as responsibles for a substantial portion of the total of precipitation, which explains the rains meridional pattern. The significative linear correlation coefficients between the oceanic areas and the homogeneous continental sub-regions demonstrate that the precipitations seasonal variability is associated to the SST, mostly in the central portion of the studied area (next to the southern and southeastern Brazilian coast), in the drought season (from April to September) and rainy season (from October to March). Besides the principal variables (precipitation and SST), the fields of Outgoing Long wave Radiation (OLR), Sea-level Pressure (SLP) and air Divergence in 250 and 850hPa has helped to identify the atmospheric patterns and to analyze the extreme events. The atypical seasons, in other words, those which presented an average too high or too low compared to the standard deviation, were divided in four categories: rainy summer, drought summer, rainy winter and drought winter. With the analysis of these events, it is possible to conclude that the SST of the SAO can change substantially the precipitation seasonal pattern in São Paulo state, mainly if it is linked to atmospheric patterns. In the winter, SSTs negative (positive) anomalies are associated to the overage (underage) climatologic precipitation in this state. Owing to atmospheric blockades on the SAO in the summer, the decreasing transit of frontal systems can intensify positive anomalies in the ocean, which are associated to the rainy periods in the Brazilian South and drought periods in the São Paulo state.