Acid-base regulation is vital for animals and while the inorganic carbon system largely determines body fluid pH, another potentially valuable acid-base pair is ammonia (NH4+/NH3). This study focuses on the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), a phylogenetically ancient marine chelicerate with no published studies on its acid-base physiology. Physiological and molecular analyses indicate that Na+/K+-ATPase, Rhesus-protein (Rh), and carbonic anhydrase (CA) are involved in acid-base homeostasis and/or ammonia regulation. This likely occurs in the book gills, which consist of ultrastructurally distinct regions. The ventral half-lamella is ion-leaky and displayed high Rh-protein, cytoplasmic CA, and hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated K+ channel mRNA expression levels, suggesting a specialization in facilitated CO2 and/or ammonia diffusion compared to the dorsal half-lamella. During hypercapnia acclimation, hemolymph acid-base status exhibited a compensated respiratory acidosis accompanied with signs of metabolic depression. Ammonia influx associated with high environmental ammonia acclimation was successfully counteracted, but induced modifications in acid-base homeostasis. / October 2016

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine whether maternal sensitivity acts as a mediator in the associations between a mother‟s childhood history of care and her child‟s emotion regulation and attachment security at 2 ½ years of age. It was hypothesized that children of mothers who perceived their own childhood experiences with parents as caring and accepting would display more adaptive regulatory behaviors in fear-eliciting contexts and be more securely attached than children of mothers who recollected rejection in their own childhood experiences, with maternal sensitivity mediating these associations. Participants were 82 toddlers and their mothers. Mothers rated their childhood experiences of care and acceptance with their own parents prior to the laboratory procedure. Each child was presented with four novel stimuli, with mothers present, but not involved for the first two tasks and involved in the remaining two. Presentation of the novel stimuli was in pairs including one toy task (i.e., monster or robot) and one person task (i.e., clown or masks). Children‟s emotion regulation behaviors were coded continuously during the mother not involved condition, whereas observed maternal sensitivity was rated in the mother involved condition. Information about maternal sensitivity and children‟s attachment behaviors was reported by mothers using a diary technique. A path analysis was used to test the model examining the relationship between maternal history of care and sensitivity and children‟s attachment security and emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, withdrawal, contact with mother). Maternal sensitivity mediated the association between a mother‟s childhood history of care and acceptance and child attachment. Post-hoc analysis showed that this conditional indirect effect was significant only for children of mothers with less than a complete college education. In contrast, a childhood history of care and acceptance did not predict children‟s emotional regulation behaviors, although it interacted with education to predict distraction. Maternal sensitivity was associated positively with distraction and negatively with withdrawal, whereas children‟s attachment security was not associated with any emotion regulation behavior. Results are discussed in relation to attachment theory and continuities and discontinuities in the transmission process in mother-child relationships.

In my thesis I analyse the issue of the legal regulation of activities of financial advisors in the Czech Republic. Besides the applicable law, the work examines the legal literature, periodicals, as well as the case law of the Czech courts and decisions of the Czech national bank and other sources of information. The main contribution of this work lies in the evaluation of the current state of the regulation of activities of financial advisors in the Czech Republic, alongside a comprehensive review of the matter, resolution of issues of possible definitions of certain terms and removal of certain ambiguities associated with the interpretation of the legal norms entailing the regulation. Alongside the introduction and conclusion, the thesis contains six chapters, each focusing on a specific part of the regulation of activities. Second chapter is dedicated to the definition of the term of financial advisor, as there is no legal definition and the term is used with many meanings. Thereafter, the chapter focuses on the position of financial advisors on the financial market, the need of regulation and the purpose of state supervision. Third chapter addresses the definition of the activities of financial advisors as an entrepreneurship, and its possible divisions. The fourth chapter examines the...

Legal Regulation of Biodiversity Conservation The thesis deals with applicable legal regulation of biodiversity conservation in the Czech Republic. First it defines biodiversity (biological diversity) from the point of view of natural science and as the subject matter of legal protection. Then the thesis presents the most significant international sources of soft law and hard law in the field, the European Union's strategic documents and law and the Czech Republic's national strategic documents and law concerning biodiversity conservation. In its conclusion the thesis summarizes some problems associated with biodiversity conservation and its regulation.

1 Abstract Thesis: Protection of customers and investors on financial markets The purpose of my thesis is to analyse and comment an issue of legal tools implemented for the protection of investors on financial markets and customers, clients of financial institutions. The thesis is formally divided into eight chapters. Thesis commences by introductory defining the scope of thesis and tasks given to be commented. Chapter one summarize definitions of terms further used in the thesis with special focus on content of the term "Customer (Client)" and "Investor" and their distinction for purpose of this thesis. Second chapter focuses on historical aspects and inputs for development and improvement of financial regulation. I am attempting especially to highlight the influence of political changes and financial crises to concerns about regulation of financial environment (which usually lead to its modification or tightening of rules) on given samples firstly of development in the Czech Republic after year 1989 and secondly on European Union during the last financial crisis of years 2007 - 2009. Third chapter consists of analysis of the financial markets regulation in the Czech Republic under present legislation mainly and in detail focusing on the role of Czech National Bank. As the Czech National Bank integrated...

Background Within the context of developmental psychopathology and the psychological factors associated with the onset of severe mood instability, this thesis proposes that early attachment related interactions underlie the development of reflective functioning and effective emotional regulation necessary for optimal functioning. Both insecure attachment and poor reflective functioning have been linked to various mental disorders in which emotion dysregulation surfaces as a core feature. However, the underlying mechanisms by which these constructs interact to predict increased risk to develop bipolar disorder have yet to be considered. Objectives This project’s objectives were to investigate, through a quantitative cross sectional design, the following questions: 1) In what way are attachment, reflective function and emotion regulation associated with proneness to bipolar disorder? 2) Do reflective functioning, emotion regulation, depression and specific metacognitive patterns mediate the influence of attachment on increased likelihood of developing bipolar disorder? Method An online survey was used to ask 2325 participants to complete questionnaires measuring the variables of hypomanic traits, attachment relationship style, mood, emotion regulation, metacognitive patterns and reflective functioning. The survey was designed to give participants feedback immediately after entry completion, which proved to be a very successful recruitment strategy. For the analysis of the data, structural equation modeling (SEM), multivariate and univariate statistics were used. Results SEM analysis demonstrated that internal dysfunctional emotion regulation is the strongest predictor of bipolar disorder proneness, whilst anxious insecure attachment holds a strong direct relationship with internal dysfunctional emotion regulation not mediated by reflective functioning. Thus, anxious insecure attachment and reflective functioning emerged as indirect predictors to bipolar proneness, being fully mediated by internal dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies, depressive symptoms, perceived well being and negative metacognitive patterns. The use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies directly predicted low mood and indirectly predicted decreased well being and increased risk to develop bipolar disorder. Furthermore, in this sample the presence of hypomanic traits alone did not imply proneness to bipolar disorder, but it was the combination of hypomanic traits and depressive symptoms that best predicted increased likelihood of experiencing bipolar disorder. Discussion The results highlight the importance of investigating the underlying mechanisms of severe mood instability. The findings support the manic defense hypothesis, which suggests that manic symptoms emerge to offset underlying depressive mood. It was concluded that severe mood instability emerges and is maintained because of the influence of developmental interpersonal risk factors such as anxious insecure attachment. The latter fosters dysfunctional cognitive features that promote the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, which in turn give rise to depressive mood, diminished well being and ultimately increased risk to develop bipolar disorder. Thus, to better understand and treat bipolar disorder it is important to focus on tackling these psychological aspects of the disorder.

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The present study is a preliminary investigation assessing the associations between socioemotional adjustment and executive functioning problems in a low-income, high-risk sample of elementary students who participated in a mindful yoga practice. Mindfulness is a concept that encompasses attention within the present moment and requires acceptance and nonjudgment. Rather than being an outcome-reliant principle, it emphasizes the individual’s present state of mind and being (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Recently, mindfulness has become a popular phenomenon in research. It has shown to be a highly effective coping strategy and mediator for cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems (Flook, 2010; Hayes & Feldman, 2004; Broderick & Metz, 2009; Mendelson et al., 2010). However, little research has been done to assess the role mindfulness plays in children. The objective for this study was to investigate the associations between contextual stress, mindfulness, executive functioning difficulties, emotion dysregulation, and aggression. Data for these variables was reported via self-report (n=21), parent-report, and teacher-report at one time towards the end of the yoga curriculum. Mindfulness was not associated with executive functioning or emotional dysregulation. However, parent and teacher reports did reveal significant links among more aggression, executive functioning difficulties, and emotion dysregulation. Discussion notes the limitations of the current study and recommendations for improving the study design to improve the study of positive interventions for children experiencing high-stress lifestyles.

<p>Quantifying the function of mammalian enhancers at the genome or population scale has been longstanding challenge in the field of gene regulation. Studies of individual enhancers have provided anecdotal evidence on which many foundational assumptions in the field are based. Genome-scale studies have revealed that the number of sites bound by a given transcription factor far outnumber the genes that the factor regulates. In this dissertation we describe a new method, chromatin immune-enriched reporter assays (ChIP-reporters), and use that approach to comprehensively test the enhancer activity of genomic loci bound by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Integrative genomics analyses of our ChIP-reporter data revealed an unexpected mechanism of glucocorticoid (GC)-induced gene regulation. In that mechanism, only the minority of GR bound sites acts as GC-inducible enhancers. Many non-GC-inducible GR binding sites interact with GC-induced sites via chromatin looping. These interactions can increase the activity of GC-induced enhancers. Finally, we describe a method that enables the detection and characterization of the functional effects of non-coding genetic variation on enhancer activity at the population scale. Taken together, these studies yield both mechanistic and genetic evidence that provides context that informs the understanding of the effects of multiple enhancer variants on gene expression.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Post-transcriptional regulation of cytoplasmic mRNAs is an efficient mechanism of regulating the amounts of active protein within a eukaryotic cell. RNA sequence elements located in the untranslated regions of mRNAs can influence transcript degradation or translation through associations with RNA-binding proteins. Tristetraprolin (TTP) is the best known member of a family of CCCH zinc finger proteins that targets adenosine-uridine rich element (ARE) binding sites in the 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNAs, promoting transcript deadenylation through the recruitment of deadenylases. More specifically, TTP has been shown to bind AREs located in the 3’-UTRs of transcripts with known roles in the inflammatory response. The mRNA-binding region of the protein is the highly conserved CCCH tandem zinc finger (TZF) domain. The synthetic TTP TZF domain has been shown to bind with high affinity to the 13-mer sequence of UUUUAUUUAUUUU. However, the binding affinities of full-length TTP family members to the same sequence and its variants are unknown. Furthermore, the distance needed between two overlapping or neighboring UUAUUUAUU 9-mers for tandem binding events of a full-length TTP family member to a target transcript has not been explored. To address these questions, we recombinantly expressed and purified the full-length C. albicans TTP family member Zfs1. Using full-length Zfs1, tagged at the N-terminus with maltose binding protein (MBP), we determined the binding affinities of the protein to the optimal TTP binding sequence, UUAUUUAUU. Fluorescence anisotropy experiments determined that the binding affinities of MBP-Zfs1 to non-canonical AREs were influenced by ionic buffer strength, suggesting that transcript selectivity may be affected by intracellular conditions. Furthermore, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) revealed that separation of two core AUUUA sequences by two uridines is sufficient for tandem binding of MBP-Zfs1. Finally, we found evidence for tandem binding of MBP-Zfs1 to a 27-base RNA oligonucleotide containing only a single ARE-binding site, and showed that this was concentration and RNA length dependent; this phenomenon had not been seen previously. These data suggest that the association of the TTP TZF domain and the TZF domains of other species, to ARE-binding sites is highly conserved. Domains outside of the TZF domain may mediate transcript selectivity in changing cellular conditions, and promote protein-RNA interactions not associated with the ARE-binding TZF domain. </p><p>In summary, the evidence presented here suggests that Zfs1-mediated decay of mRNA targets may require additional interactions, in addition to ARE-TZF domain associations, to promote transcript destabilization and degradation. These studies further our understanding of post-transcriptional steps in gene regulation.</p> / Dissertation