Campylobacter jejuni is the leading bacterial cause of human gastroenteritis in the United States. Increasing resistance of Campylobacter to clinical antibiotics raises an urgent need for novel strategies to prevent and control infections in humans and animal reservoirs, which necessitates a better understanding of Campylobacter pathogenesis. We hypothesize that multidrug efflux pump CmeABC and ferric enterobactin (FeEnt) iron acquisition systems, which play a critical role in Campylobacter pathogenesis, are novel targets for developing effective measures against Campylobacter. To test this, the molecular, antigenic, functional, and protective characteristics of two outer membrane proteins, CmeC (an essential component of CmeABC drug efflux pump) and CfrA (a FeEnt receptor), were examined. Both CmeC and CfrA are highly conserved and widely produced in C. jejuni strains. Anti-CmeC and Anti-CfrA antibodies inhibited the function of CmeABC efflux pump and CfrA, resulting enhanced susceptibility to bile salts and reduced utilization of FeEnt of C. jejuni, respectively. Immunoblotting analysis also indicated that CfrA is expressed and immunogenic in vivo. Amino acid substitution mutagenesis demonstrated that a highly conserved basic amino acid R327 in CfrA plays a critical role in FeEnt acquisition. The purified recombinant CmeC and a Salmonella live vaccine expressing the protective epitope of CfrA were evaluated as subunit vaccines against Campylobacter infection in the chicken model. CmeC vaccination elicited immune response but failed to reduce C. jejuni colonization in the intestine. However, Salmonella-vectored vaccine conferred significant protection against C. jejuni challenge. To further elucidate the role of iron acquisition in the pathogenesis of Campylobacter, whole genome sequence of a unique C. jejuni strain was determined using a 454 GS FLX sequencer with Titanium series reagents. Comparative genomics analysis led to the identification of a novel Campylobacter Enterobactin Esterase (Cee) that is essential in the CfrB-dependent FeEnt utilization pathway. Extensive genetic manipulation revealed molecular pathways and mechanistic features of the two orchestrated FeEnt acquisition systems in Campylobacter. This project provides critical information about the feasibility of targeting CmeC and CfrA for immune protection against Campylobacter colonization in the intestine, and increases our understanding of the critical role of FeEnt acquisition in the pathophysiology of Campylobacter.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--University of Oxford$, 1976. / Notes bibliogr. Index.

Private equity and venture capital in Europe.

The diploma thesis is focused on the situation of university graduates in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The main objective of the thesis is to analyse opinions, attitudes and expectations of today's university graduates in the CEE region, with focus on the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, and then, based on this analysis, to define recommendations for companies. This analytical part is preceded by a general definition of relationship between university graduates and companies, concentrating particularly on their recruitment, as well as description of labour market and system of tertiary education in CEE countries. Furthermore, education policy of European Union and its influence on development of tertiary education systems in the region is also mentioned.

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The aim of this thesis is to verify and analyse presumed relations between selected macro-fundamentals, namely USD exchange rate, production index, interbank offered rate, inflation, money supply and two exogenous indices ( Standard & Poor's 500 and EURO STOXX 50), and CEE (Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary) or SEE (Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania) financial markets over the period from December 1995 to December 2015. In order to test the long-run cointegration relationships between studied markets and the set of macroeconomic variables, the Engle-Granger and Johansen tests are applied. The vector error correction model is used to confirm the long-run equilibrium interlinkages and the results show similar trend tendencies between stock indices and some of the macro-fundamentals in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. To verify the short-run causal linkages, the Granger causality test is employed. Based on retrieved findings, the efficiency of studied markets with respect to Efficient Market Theory is reviewed. Our findings reveal several pairwise short-run causal impacts between studied macroeconomic indicators and stock indices. The only indicator which does not impact any stock market is the interbank offered rate. Moreover, according to our results, all CEE&SEE stock...

Le sujet de cette thèse est la politique culturelle grecque dans l'Europe occidentale ainsi que le développement des efforts sur l'approche et l'intégration dans la famille européenne, du lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale jusqu’à l’adhésion de la Grèce à la CEE. Dès sa fondation, pour l’État néo-hellénique, son passé historique et glorieux constituait le point central de référence. Dans ce cadre, la question qui se pose est celle de savoir quand et pourquoi le leadership politique décida d’exploiter ce passé au niveau politique. La politique culturelle utilise l’histoire et la civilisation d’une nation au profit de la politique. Dans la plupart des cas quant à la Grèce, les ‘messages’ de la politique culturelle ont pour ‘destinataires’ les Européens, phénomène notamment visible pendant la période des négociations d’adhésion. Couvrant l’ensemble de ces tentatives, à partir d’un niveau théorique par un groupe d’intellectuels (par exemple Tsatsos, Canellopoulos) à un niveau pratique par le monde politique (par exemple Caramanlis), l’ampleur de cette période, comprenant plus de trente ans, permet d’examiner et de mettre en valeur l’évolution des relations entre la Grèce et l’Europe ainsi que les initiatives et l’organisation de la politique culturelle de manière globale, dans un contexte européen et international. La politique culturelle extérieure que la Grèce exerça face aux Européens jusqu’en 1979, renvoie aux idées d’identité nationale, au sentiment d’appartenance, voire à l’image approfondie de l’Europe, mais, parallèlement, dans la mesure où elle fait partie de la politique européenne de la Grèce, inextricablement liée à l’histoire de l’intégration européenne. / This thesis discusses Greek cultural policy in Western Europe as well as its place in the country’s effort to participate in European integration from the aftermath of the Second World War until the accession of Greece to the EEC. From its foundation, the neo-Hellenic state used its historic past as a central point of reference. In this context, the question arises as to when and how the political leadership decided to project this past on the level of its political relations with the post-war European institutions. Cultural policy uses the history and civilization of a nation for the benefit of politics. In most cases involving Greece, the 'messages' of its cultural policy were 'addressed' to the Europeans, a phenomenon that is particularly visible during the period of accession negotiations. This was projected both at the intellectual level (for example by people such as Tsatsos, Kanellopoulos) and at the realm of practical politics by the political world (for example Karamanlis). This study, extending to a period longer than thirty years, examines the development of cultural relations between Greece and Europe, the initiatives and organization of Greek cultural policy within a European and international context as well as the role of cultural policy and Greece’s cultural arguments in the effort to achieve accession to the EEC.The foreign cultural policy that Greece exercised towards the Europeans until 1979 refers to national identity, the sentiment of belonging, the cultural connotations of the European project. Thus, to the extent that it is part of Greece's European policy, it is inextricably linked to the history of European integration.

L'hyperdéformation est une technique efficace pour transformer la microstructure des métaux en une structure de grain de taille inférieure au micron ou même en nanostructure (<100 nm). Cette très petite taille de grain confère d'excellentes propriétés mécaniques au matériau. Dans ce travail de thèse, deux techniques d'hyperdéformation récemment développées, appelées High Pressure Tube Twisting (HPTT) and Cyclic Expansion and Extrusion (CEE) ont été appliquées à température ambiante sur différents matériaux métalliques. La fragmentation de la microstructure ainsi que le développement de la texture cristallographique ont été analysés en détails par la diffraction d'électrons rétrodiffusés (EBSD), par microscopie électronique en transmission (TEM), par transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) ainsi que par diffraction des rayons X (XRD). Le gradient de déformation de cisaillement dans l'épaisseur des tubes d'aluminium déformés par HPTT a été déterminé par une méthode de mesure locale du cisaillement. Ce gradient de cisaillement induit une hétérogénéité aussi bien de microstructure que de texture dans les échantillons d'aluminium et de magnésium purs ainsi que dans l'alliage Al-4%Mg en solution solide. La micro-dureté et la taille de grain dans différentes zones ont été mesurées et analysées en fonction du taux cisaillement local. Les tailles de grain limites atteintes de façon stationnaire pour ces différents matériaux produit par HPTT sont respectivement de 700 nm, 900 nm et 100 nm. L'évolution de texture du magnésium pur après HPTT jusqu'à un cisaillement de 16 a été simulée par cisaillement simple par le model auto-cohérent (VPSC), le résultat de simulation a montré de bons accords avec les mesures de texture obtenues par XRD. Sur la base des mesures de distribution de désorientation dans l'aluminium déformé par HPTT, une nouvelle technique de détermination du taux de cisaillement local dans les procédés d'hyper déformation a été proposée. Cette nouvelle technique a été appliquée sur deux échantillons d'aluminium produit par twist extrusion (TE) et par torsion à extrémités libres. Les échantillons d'aluminium et de cuivre ont été déformés intensément par CEE. Les évolutions de texture et de microstructures ont été mesurées par EBSD, montrant un gradient du centre à la périphérie des échantillons cylindriques. L'évolution de texture dans le cuivre déformé par CEE a été simulée par le modèle VPSC en utilisant un modèle de ligne de courant pour décrire la déformation dans le procédé. Les résultats de simulation confirment les caractéristiques de la texture expérimentale observées après CEE. Le comportement en traction du cuivre pré-déformé par grande déformation en torsion a ensuite été testé. En dépit du gradient de cisaillement existant dans la barre, une technique a été proposée pour obtenir la courbe contrainte-déformation pour ce type de matériau. / Severe plastic deformation (SPD) is an efficient technique to transform the microstructure of bulk metals into ultra fine grained structure with grain sizes less than 1 µm or even into nanostructure with nano-grains of less than 100 nm in diameter. The very small grain size attributes excellent mechanical properties to the material. In present thesis work, two recently developed SPD techniques, namely, High Pressure Tube Twisting (HPTT) and Cyclic Expansion and Extrusion (CEE) were performed on different metallic materials at room temperature. Details of fragmentation of microstructure and metallographic texture evolution were investigated by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), transmission kikuchi diffraction (TKD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Shear strain gradient across the thickness of the HPTT deformed Al tube sample was found by a local shear measurement method. This shear strain gradient induced the inhomogeneity of microstructure and texture in HPTT deformed pure Al, solid solution alloy Al-4%Mg and pure Mg. The microhardness and average grain size in different zones as a function of shear strain were measured. The limiting steady grain sizes in the steady state for these different materials produced by HPTT were 700 nm, 100 nm and 900 nm, respectively. The texture evolution of pure Mg in HPTT up to a shear strain of 16 was simulated in simple shear using the self-consistent (VPSC) polycrystal model and showed good agreements with the experimental results measured by XRD. Based on the measured disorientation distribution function in HPTT deformed Al, a new technique for the magnitude of local shear strain in SPD was proposed. This new technique was applied to a protrusion produced in twist extrusion (TE) and to an Al sample deformed in free-end torsion. Cu and pure Al samples were intensively deformed by the CEE SPD technique. The microstructure and texture evolutions were measured by EBSD, showing a gradient from the center-zone to the edge part of the rod sample. The texture evolution of CEE deformed Cu was simulated by the VPSC polycrystal model using a flow line function. The simulation results confirmed the experimental texture features observed in the CEE process. The tensile testing behavior of large strain torsion pre-processed Cu was examined. In spite of the shear strain gradient existing in the bar, a technique was proposed to obtain the tensile stress-strain curve of such gradient material.

From the United Kingdom's Brexit on June 23, 2016, to the formal Brexit on January 30, 2020, there has been a large amount of academic literature discussing the possible effects of Brexit. Among them, the literature on the impact of Brexit on tax policy reforms and capital markets in EU countries is too numerous to enumerate. However, the current research literature lacks a discussion of Central and Eastern European countries, and there is even less research on the link between capital markets and tax policy reforms. This article assumes that the impact of Brexit on the capital markets of CEE countries will cause the government to turn to tax increases to increase fiscal revenue. Three hypotheses are proposed under this assumption. In addition, the empirical research in this article uses the combination of the Poisson model and the Heckman selection model to conduct regression research on the overall taxation of CEE countries, changes in direct and indirect taxation tax policies and bond interest rates, government changes, and political parties left or right. It is concluded that Brexit has no significant impact on the capital markets of CEE countries, and has not caused enough shocks that the government will turn to the government to increase revenue by issuing more tax increases. And Brexit...

Mit den immensen Aufgaben und Problematiken der Transformation konfrontiert, wechselten die Mehrparteien-Regierungen in Estland vergleichsweise häufig. Im Jahr 2002 war die insgesamt achte Regierung seit 1992 im Amt. Eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Regierungsstabilität am Beispiel von Estlands bis dato sieben Regierungen erscheint daher angebracht, da das Land trotz der häufigen Regierungswechsel im osteuropäischen Vergleich als erfolgreichstes Transformationsland angesehen wird.<br> Kann Regierungsstabilität auch dann vorliegen, wenn die Regierungen selbst sehr häufig wechseln? Dies ist die eigentliche Fragestellung der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich Regierungsstabilität aus mehreren Variablen zusammensetzt, die sich gegenseitig beeinflussen. Angaben über die durchschnittliche Verweildauer einer Regierung im Amt besitzen wenig Aussagekraft, vielmehr müssen die eigentlichen Hintergründe für einen Wechsel beleuchtet werden. / Confronted with the immense tasks and problems of the democratic transition, the multiparty governments of Estonia change comparatively often. Following the elections of March 2003, a new government is being formed: the ninth since 1992. A detailed examination of government stability and the example of Estonia is accordingly warranted, given that the country is seen as the most successful Eastern European transition country in spite of its frequent changes of government.<br> This article asks whether government stability can exist in a case that exhibits frequent changes of government. It is presumed that government stability is composed of various variables influencing one another. Data about the average tenure of a government is not very conclusive. Rather, the deeper political causes for changes of governments need to be examined.