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Dicer endoribonuclease catalyzes the maturation of microRNAs (miRNAs) from double stranded precursors. Studies conditionally inactivating Dicer in the mouse embryonic forebrain continue to shed light on the spectrum of biological processes subject to miRNA regulation. This study looked at defects of brain development following a widespread ablation of Dicer in the early forebrain. The neuroepithelial stem cells failed to specify the radial glia appropriately around the time when the first postmitotic neurons begin to be generated in the neuroepithelium. Ablation of Dicer in only a subset of radial glia was not accompanied by the early apoptosis observed in all other models of Dicer ablation in the cortex. This allowed the study of the role of miRNAs in regulating cell numbers in the cortex. The study revealed that generation of cortical cells is increased during postnatal development. Finally, the study identified a miRNA which is able to negatively regulate the development of neuronal precursor cells of the developing cortex by targeting Tbox transcription factor 2. Together the results presented in this Thesis contribute to the understanding of the roles of endogenous RNA interference in the development of the brain.

Risk-based regulation has grown rapidly as a component of Government decision making, and as such, the need for an established evidence-based framework for decisions about risk has become the new mantra. However, the process of brokering scientific evidence is poorly understood and there is a need to improve the transparency of this brokering process and decisions made. This thesis attempts to achieve this by using agent-based simulation to model the influence that power structures and participating personalities has on the brokering of evidence and thereby the confidence-building exercise that characterises risk-based regulation. As a prerequisite to the adoption of agent-based techniques for simulating decisions under uncertainty, this thesis provides a critical review of the influence power structure and personality have on the brokering of scientific evidence that informs risk decisions. Three case studies, each representing a different perspective on risk-based regulation are presented: nuclear waste disposal, the disposal of avian-influenza infected animal carcases and the reduction of dietary salt intake. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an expert from each case study, and the logical sequence in which decisions were made was mapped out and used to inform the development of an agent-based simulation model. The developed agent-based model was designed to capture the character of the brokering process by transparently setting out how evidence is transmitted from the provider of evidence to the final decision maker. It comprises of two agents, a recipient and provider of evidence, and draws upon a historic knowledge base to permit the user to vary components of the interacting agents and of the decision-making procedure, demonstrating the influence that power structure and personality has on agent receptivity and the confidence attached to a number of different lines of evidence. This is a novel step forward because it goes beyond the scope of current risk management frameworks, for example, permitting the user to explore the influence that participants have in weighing and strengthening different lines of evidence and the impact this has on the final decision outcome.

Telecommunications are nowadays vital part of every developed economy. Goal of this thesis is to analyze development of telecommunication in Czech Republic since the nineties of twenty century. Special attention is paid to the role of state in this process and effects of its behavior on forming and development of Czech telecommunication market. State behavior is mostly the topic of the first part of thesis. This part of thesis is divided into time period in which the most significant state interventions are analyzed in context with Czech telecommunication market development. Second part of thesis is focused on comparison of telecommunications market development in Western Europe and Czech Republic. Focus is specifically on differences and parallels in telecommunications development and their effect on current state of telecommunications market in specific countries. Last part of thesis analysis future development in telecommunications in Czech Republic and Europe in roughly five years horizon with focus on technology, services and regulation

Research has suggested that emotion regulation may be an important predictor of problematic outcomes for children. In particular, the lack of emotion regulation and the inability to effectively utilize emotion regulation have been investigated within the context of children's problematic behaviors. Thus, identifying variables that may be related to the development of emotion regulation abilities in children may prove important for formulating the psychological interventions that are used with young children. One important protective variable may be the parent-child relationship, as empirical evidence suggests that multiple characteristics associated with parenting and the parent-child relationship are intertwined with the emotional development of children. Therefore, this study examined the relationships among parental self-efficacy, parenting style, parents' perceptions of their children· and perceived emotion regulation abilities in preschool children. Thirty-six parents with children between the ages of 2- and 6-years old who were attending private preschool facilities in the greater Orlando area completed measures regarding their parenting behaviors and characteristics, as well as about their children's emotional and behavioral functioning. Results of this study indicate that parenting self-efficacy predicts significantly parenting style and parents' perceptions of children, but does not predict significantly discipline style, and that the parenting variables examined in this study predict significantly reported levels of children, s emotion regulation. These findings emphasize the importance of research investigating the relationships among parenting behaviors and emotional development in young children for bettering the outcomes of these children.

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2017-10-09T16:33:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ANA PAULA FARIA.pdf: 2487761 bytes, checksum: 7e1e3394c08cc6b17385540563b8c212 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-09T16:33:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ANA PAULA FARIA.pdf: 2487761 bytes, checksum: 7e1e3394c08cc6b17385540563b8c212 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-13 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas ? PUC Campinas / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / We understand that the teacher can intentionally assist the students in the construction of self- regulation strategies of their learning with the aim that they become agents of such process. Based on this assumption, the general objective of this research is to investigate if and how there are behavioral changes in the socioeconomic and cognitive aspects of students of the 3rd year of Elementary School participating in a self-regulation project; And the specific objectives are: I) To analyze how children interact and participate in the project activities; II) To analyze students' posture, speech and behaviors, which show the issues related to the sociomoral and cognitive aspects in the classroom. This research is characterized as a descriptive and exploratory study, with a qualitative character, based on the sociocognitive perspective. The research was developed in a School of Application in a city in the countryside of S?o Paulo State and had as subjects 20 students, ages between 8 and 9, and a teacher, all from the 3rd year of Elementary School. For the production of the empirical material, observation of the classroom was used as a tool to which we followed a protocol of general observation and another one focusing on the students' behavior, highlighting some specific points to conduct it, such as: rules, interactions between peers and between the teacher and students, course of activities and strategies of self-regulation of learning. We also conducted interviews focused on the teacher's perception of the project, its development in the classroom and the students? learning she perceived. The analysis of the qualitative data was carried out from the perspective of content analysis based on two axes: The interaction and participation of the children in the activities of the project "The Antics of the Yellow"; Posture, speech and behaviors that showed moral and cognitive issues. Axis 1 covered three categories: Social support; Organization and transformation; and Attention; And axis 2, five categories: Initiative to resolve situations through dialogue; Study; Planning, Execution and Evaluation during project activities; Manifestation of opinions and feelings; Behavior in the absence of teacher V. The results indicated: a) Behavior changes that, although discrete, evidenced that the students were obtaining the strategies of self-regulation from their involvement with the project "The Antics of the Yellow"; b) changes mainly in relation to a general organization of the students and their autonomy in the resolution of conflicts. With this research, it is expected to contribute with the discussion about self- regulation in Basic Education in the scope of teacher training, and also to highlight the importance of a meaningful, autonomous and happy learning process for students. / Entendemos que o professor pode auxiliar intencionalmente os alunos na constru??o de estrat?gias de autorregula??o de suas aprendizagens com o objetivo de que eles se tornem agentes deste processo. A partir desse pressuposto, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa ? investigar se e como h? mudan?as de comportamento relacionadas aos aspectos sociomorais e cognitivos em alunos do 3? ano do Ensino Fundamental participantes de um projeto de autorregula??o. Por objetivos espec?ficos apresentamos: i) Analisar o modo como as crian?as interagem e participam das atividades do projeto; ii) Analisar a postura, a fala e os comportamentos dos alunos que evidenciem quest?es relacionadas aos aspectos sociomorais e cognitivos em sala de aula. Essa pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo descritivo e explorat?rio, de car?ter qualitativo, fundamentado na perspectiva sociocognitiva. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em um Col?gio de Aplica??o de uma cidade do interior do Estado de S?o Paulo e teve como sujeitos 20 alunos, com idades entre oito e nove anos, e uma professora do 3? ano do Ensino Fundamental. Para a produ??o do material emp?rico foram utilizados como instrumentos 1) a observa??o da sala de aula, para a qual utilizamos um protocolo de observa??o geral e outro com foco no comportamento dos alunos, destacando alguns pontos espec?ficos para conduzir a observa??o, tais como: regras, intera??es entre pares e entre professora e alunos, realiza??o das atividades e estrat?gias de autorregula??o da aprendizagem; 2) entrevistas com foco na percep??o da professora sobre o projeto, seu desenvolvimento em classe e as aprendizagens observadas por ela. A an?lise dos dados qualitativos foi realizada a partir da perspectiva da an?lise de conte?do, a partir de dois eixos: A intera??o e participa??o das crian?as nas atividades do projeto ?As travessuras do Amarelo?; Postura, fala e comportamentos que evidenciam quest?es morais e cognitivas. O eixo 1 abarcou tr?s categorias: Ajuda social; Organiza??o e transforma??o; Aten??o; e o eixo 2 cinco categorias: Iniciativa para resolver situa??es por meio do di?logo; Estudo; PLEA durante as atividades do projeto; Manifesta??o de opini?es e sentimentos; Comportamento na aus?ncia da professora V. Os resultados indicaram: a) mudan?as de comportamento que, embora discretas, s?o ind?cios de que os alunos estavam se apropriando das estrat?gias de autorregula??o, a partir do desenvolvimento do projeto ?As travessuras do Amarelo?; b) mudan?as principalmente com rela??o a organiza??o geral dos alunos e autonomia na resolu??o de conflitos. Com esta pesquisa, espera-se contribuir com a discuss?o sobre autorregula??o na Educa??o B?sica no ?mbito da forma??o de professores e destacar a import?ncia da aprendizagem significativa, aut?noma e feliz do aluno.

Sialylation is an important carbohydrate modification of glycoconjugates, which introduces sialic acids (SA). The relatively large nine-carbon, negatively charged sugars are typically located at the termini of carbohydrate chains. SA's are often required for functionally important molecular and cellular interactions including virus-host interactions, tumor progression and malignancy, immune system development and function, and nervous system development and function. However, the study of sialylation in vertebrates, including man, encounters serious obstacles associated with the complexity of vertebrates' biology and limitations of available experimental approaches. Drosophila is a useful model system with many advantages including quick generation time, a large number of progeny, simplified glycosylation and neurophysiology, and ease of genetic manipulations. The primary focus of this thesis is on the functions of Drosophila melanogaster CMP sialic acid synthetase (DmCSAS) and sialyltransferase (DSiaT) in the central nervous system (CNS). A combination of genetic, immunostaining, and neurobiology approaches were used to characterize the functions of DmCSAS and DSiaT in Drosophila. This investigation revealed the expression of DmCSAS and suggested that it plays an important role in a specialized and developmentally regulated process in the nervous system of Drosophila. Further experiments examined sub-cellular localization of DmCSAS revealing that this protein has a complex mostly Golgi-associated distribution within the cell in vivo. I discovered a novel link between Drosophila sialylation and circadian rhythm regulation. I also characterized the electrophysiological phenotypes of DmCSAS mutants and compared them to the corresponding defects associated with DSiaT mutations. My experiments also revealed that the relationship between DmCSAS and DSiaT are more complex than originally thought; these genes may have independent functions while also participating in the same pathway. Taken together, these results elucidate the sialylation pathway in Drosophila and shed more light on the role of sialylation in the nervous system. My experiments provide a unique evolutionary perspective on the sialylation pathway in animals and suggest that the neural function of SA in Drosophila can be conserved in vertebrates, including humans.

Streptomyceten weisen einen komplexen Lebenszyklus auf, dessen Verlauf durch den sekundären Botenstoff Bis-(3´- 5´)-zyklisches dimeres Guanosinmonophosphat (c-di-GMP) und die c-di-GMP-Effektorproteine BldD und RsiG reguliert wird. Der Auf- bzw. Abbau von c-di-GMP wird von Diguanylatzyklasen (DGC) mit GGDEF-Domänen bzw. Phosphodiesterasen (PDE) mit EAL- oder HD-GYP-Domänen katalysiert. In S. venezuelae, einem Modellorganismus der Streptomyceten, konnten zehn potenziell c-di-GMP metabolisierende Enzyme identifiziert werden, von welchen mit RmdA und RmdB zwei GGDEF-EAL-Tandem-Proteine im Fokus dieser Arbeit stehen. Die chromosomale Deletion der für RmdA und RmdB kodierenden Gene führt zu einer ausgeprägten Verzögerung der Entwicklung in S. venezuelae. Mit Hilfe chromosomaler Mutationen konnten die EAL-Motive der EAL-Domänen als essenziell für die in vivo Funktion beider Proteine identifiziert werden. Beide Proteine zeigen in vitro PDE-Aktivität und RmdA konnte als bifunktionales Enzym charakterisiert werden, da es in vitro auch DGC-Aktivität aufweist. Mittels Nukleotidextraktionen konnte RmdB als Haupt-PDE in S. venezuelae identifiziert werden, welche über den gesamten Entwicklungsverlauf für den Abbau von c-di-GMP verantwortlich ist. Aber auch RmdA hat während des Übergangs von der vegetativen zur reproduktiven Wachstumsphase Einfluss auf die globale zelluläre c-di-GMP Konzentration. Durchgeführte Transkriptomanalysen und qRT-PCR-Experimente ergaben, dass in den Deletionsmutanten die Expression einiger wichtiger entwicklungsspezifischer Gene im Vergleich zum Wildtyp herunterreguliert ist. Dies ist vermutlich auf die erhöhten c-di-GMP Konzentrationen in den Deletionsmutanten zurückzuführen, wodurch die Aktivität der c-di-GMP-Effektorproteine BldD und RsiG beeinflusst wird und die verzögerte Entwicklung der Deletionsmutanten erklärt werden kann. Weiterhin konnte gezeigt werden, dass RmdB mit dem Sigmafaktor der Sporulation, WhiG, interagieren kann. / Streptomycetes show a complex life cycle. The transition between the different developmental stages is regulated by the secondary messenger bis- (3´- 5´) -cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) and the c-di-GMP effector proteins BldD and RsiG. c-di-GMP is synthesized by diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) with GGDEF domains, and its degradation is catalyzed by phosphodiesterases (PDE) with EAL or HD-GYP domains. In S. venezuelae, the Streptomyces strain which was used as a model organism in this work, there are ten potentially c-di-GMP metabolizing enzymes, of which two GGDEF-EAL tandem proteins, RmdA and RmdB, are the focus of this work. The deletion of the genes coding for RmdA and RmdB leads to a pronounced developmental delay in S. venezuelae. With the help of chromosomal mutations, the EAL motif was identified as essential for the in vivo function of RmdA and RmdB. Furthermore, both proteins were characterized in vitro as active PDEs and RmdA as a bifunctional enzyme, which also showed DGC activity. RmdB was identified as the master PDE in S. venezuelae by means of nucleotide extraction and is responsible for the hydrolysis of c-di-GMP over the course of development investigated. Also RmdA has an influence on the global cellular c-di-GMP concentration during the transition from the vegetative to the reproductive growth phase. A transcriptome analysis, qRT-PCR experiments and related follow-up experiments showed that the deletion of rmdA and rmdB leads to a differential expression of genes which code for important development-specific factors and regulators. This is presumably due to the increased c-di-GMP concentrations in the deletion mutants, with the c-di-GMP effector proteins BldD and RsiG delaying the transition to the next growth phase. Furthermore, it could be shown that RmdB can interact with the sigma factor of sporulation, WhiG.