Cardiomyocyte perinatal development is characterized by the transition from a hyperplastic to a hypertrophic growth. We hypothesize that genetic factors and processes in the cardiac perinatal transitional program can be identified by a systematic analysis of different stages in heart development. Microarray expression patterning of mRNAs and microRNAs uncovered a perinatal cardiogenomic switch between 5 and 7 days post-birth. Gene ontology analysis revealed cellular and metabolic processes as highly representative Biological Processes. Moreover, approximately 40% of known mice transcription factors are significantly (p<0.05) fluctuating between embryonic day 19 and 10 days post-birth. As the heart matures, cardiomyocytes progressively exit cell cycle with day 5 as a pivotal point. Hypertrophy entails cardiomyocyte binucleation which may be promoted by Protein Regulator of Cytokinesis (Prc1) and its interactors. Temporal cardiac transcription expression analysis provides insight into underlining effectors within the cardiac perinatal transitional program as well as cardiac pathology.

La tesi s’inicia amb la descripció del fenomen de la justícia transicional, diferenciant-ne la justícia retributiva, la institucional i la justícia transicional reparadora, encarregada d’implementar els mecanismes de reparació de les víctimes de l’anterior règim autoritari. Dins de la justícia transicional reparadora, s’analitzen les diferents mesures de reparació de les víctimes de la Guerra Civil espanyola, que han adoptat els governs democràtics després de la transició espanyola cap a la democràcia. D’entre aquestes mesures, destaca la regulació de pensions vitalícies a favor de mutilats i familiars de morts a la Guerra Civil, el reconeixement de drets a favor dels militars republicans, les ajudes pel temps de privació de llibertat, i la restitució de béns a favor de sindicals i partits polítics il•legalitzats durant el franquisme. També s’estudia l’anomenada Llei de la Memòria Històrica i es proposa una acció judicial en reclamació dels danys patits per la privació de llibertat. / The thesis begins with a description of the phenomenon of transitional justice, exploring the difference between retributive justice, institutional justice (lustrations) and reparative justice, which deals with the implementation of reparations of the victims of the previous authoritarian regime. Within the transitional reparative justice, we analyze different measures of reparation to the victims of the Spanish Civil War taken by the democratic governments after the Spanish transition to democracy. Among these measures, we can observe the regulation of annuities in favor of familiar mutilated and dead in the Civil War, the recognition of rights in favor of republican military, aid for the period of detention, and restitution to favor unions and political parties outlawed under Franco regime. We also study the so-called Law of Historical Memory and we propose legal action to claim for damages suffered by imprisonment.

Testimony flows from a story that originates long before the opportunity to be a witness about human atrocities occurs. And, ironically, testimony – the voice that is suppressed during times of state sanctioned terror – continues to flow long after the perpetrators fade from power. It is this ethereal and enduring paradox that raises the questions of what testimonial forms are, how they communicate, and whether they positively impact social justice as evidenced by enhanced communicative freedoms. The testimonial forms of this study are narratives about human rights atrocities which emerged from the 17-year military junta in Chile led by Augusto Pinochet. This project examines the development and uses of official and unofficial testimony surrounding times of transitional justice using a multi-modal analysis incorporating narrative and historical analysis, communication ethics, and critical theory which yields a meta-analysis of testimony and the context in which it functions. This research concludes that a life cycle of testimony exists that is organic and evolving. Furthermore, due to the unique circumstances of transitional justice periods, a theory of testimony ethics is called for to increase individual communicative freedoms that lead to enhanced social justice as well as to increase the success of truth commission communication processes.

Knowledge creation processes and the innovation systems through which it is transferred for the benefit of society are the economic driver of industrial economies in the globalized era, yet developing countries seeking to move through the transition from developing to developed status are struggling . A variety of theories and a range of speculations have been offered as to why some nations are more innovative than others, however little of this literature examines the theoretical and practical applicability of innovation models based on industrial societies for developing nations. This thesis examines a selection of theoretical innovation system models, analyzes their roots and assesses their applicability to transition economies where various pieces of the system present structural differences relative to developed nations. This thesis uses Mexico as a case study.<p> In the fifteen years since the 1994-95 collapse of Mexicos financial sector and the resulting economic crisis, the Mexican economy has made impressive progress towards macro-economic consolidation and stability. The OECD (2004) observes that the inflation rate has fallen from around 50% during the economic collapse of 1995 to about 4% in 2006. GDP growth has averaged 3.2% in the period from 1994 to 2008 (compared to the OECD average of 2.7%). As a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement, trade liberalization has allowed Mexico to consolidate its export base and to specialize in medium- and high-technology manufacturing. However, the industrial sector in Mexico still shows a slow pace in developing, adopting and investing in technology. The Mexican industrial sector is lead by multinational firms that have located in Mexico due to the cheap costs of labour, while most of the research and development performed by these firms takes place outside of Mexico. Mexicos policy for S&T seems to show a disconnect between the discourse and practice.<p> Indicators show that Mexico considerably lags in S&T development. S&T development has not contributed to facilitating the country's positioning as one of the top ten most competitive nations in the world. Rather, technology transfer outcomes in the country, relative to other transitional economies, manifest an increasing deceleration in Mexico's S&T competitiveness. This thesis contrasts the innovation system in which technology transfer processes navigate in Mexico to the leading literature on theoretical models of innovation. This process facilitates identifying crucial barriers and challenges of the Mexican system of innovation that need to be addressed in order to achieve a level of S&T development that would contribute to facilitating Mexico's transition to a developed economy.

Abstract: This is a qualitative studie about how devotees to the Guru Mata Amritananda Mayi relate to her and how that changes through time. The material has been collected through five interviews and through participant observation in ”Ammas” ashram Amritapuri in Kerala, south of India. The result showed that the devotees relate to Amma as a mother in some aspects and as a ”teacher” in other aspects, but they all have gained hundred percent trust for her. They all related to her different in the beginning as a devotee than after some years with her which shows that Amma could work as a transitionalobject for the devotees. The question about whether the devotees progress and cultivate”selfactivity” after this process could be answered with both yes and no. The devotees whom was interviewed seemed to have cultivated a lot more ”selfactivity” than the devotees that was observed during the time in the ashram and whom hadn't been following Amma as long time as the interviewees.

The present study investigated the possibility of heritage language loss in twenty students of Hispanic origin, selected from six second-grade classrooms in one elementary school of a large district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Ten students were enrolled in Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) classes and ten students were enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, during the academic year 2004-2005. Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) in English and Spanish were measured over a short-term progress monitoring period (i.e. sixteen consecutive weeks), and over a long-term follow-up period (i.e. nine and twelve months later, respectively). To answer the first research question on the amount and type of growth in English and Spanish ORF demonstrated by the students over time, two main types of analyses were conducted: a) time series analysis of group improvement trends, and b) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on individual student slope coefficients. Results from quantitative analyses revealed that both groups of students improved in English reading over time. However, when considering the long-term progress, the TBE group demonstrated a faster rate of improvement in English reading when compared to the ESL group and also to their own Spanish reading. As for the ESL group, the students reached a plateau of performance in Spanish, indicating, at best, minimal skills in the heritage language while continuing to progress in English. To answer the second research question, regarding parents’ beliefs on bilingualism and maintenance of the heritage language in their children, semistructured Parents’ Interviews (PI) with open-ended questions were conducted. Results from qualitative analyses revealed three major themes: Both sets of parents believed in the connection between the native language and increased life opportunities, the TBE parents affirmed the heritage language as symbol of their cultural identity, and the ESL parents acknowledged their children’s native language loss. Findings from this study suggest that students instructed in their native language in the early elementary years appear to have a better chance of maintaining their heritage language over time, when compared to students instructed solely in English.

BACKGROUND: An important characteristic of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the formation of tumors in multiple sites throughout the whole urinary tracts. Two theories explain the pathophysiologic mechanisms of multifocal tumors: (1) intraluminal seeding, it indicates the multiple tumors come from a single transformed malignant cell with secondary seeding or migration at different sites, and (2) the field cancerization, carcinogens affect the urothelium at multiple sites, leading to numerous mutation and independent growth of multifocal polyclonal tumors. Multifocal urothelial carcinomas could come from intraluminal seeding or from field cancerization. However, the data of clinical behaviors between the two different tumor types are lacking. METHODS: Bilateral synchronous and metachronous primary TCC of the upper urinary tracts were derived from field cancerization. Recurrent bladder cancers following upper-tract tumors mostly come from intraluminal seeding. The recurrence, progression, and prognosis of the two different tumors were analyzed. RESULTS: Bilateral upper-tract urothelial carcinomas derived from field cancerization were frequently associated with renal insufficiency, which were more invasive and had poor prognosis than bladder tumors derived from intraluminal seeding. CONCLUSION: The clinical behaviors of the multiple urothelial tumors derived from field cancerization and from intraluminal seeding should be different.

The main aim of this dissertation is to analyze the idea and practice of handing over the administration of a territory to the United Nations on a temporary basis in response to manage and settle the consequences of a dispute concerning the future status of that territory. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) are novel examples in this respect since they present both the opportunities offered and the challenges experienced by the international administrations and give clear guidelines for the future state-building engagements. Since the end of the Cold War, there emerged a definitive trend toward accepting a more interventionary role for the UN. Taking the changing nature of interventionism into account, within the scope of this dissertation, the foremost focus will be on the post-intervention period where peacebuilding and state-building processes take place in war-torn societies. Thereby, international transitional administrations which represent the most complex and comprehensive peace operations attempted by the United Nations will be the focal point of the study. Since such administrations assume some or all of the sovereign powers of an independent state, in a period when neo-interventionism and suspended or conditional sovereignty are debated, the degree of executive, legislative and judicial authority assumed by transitional administrations is worth to consider.

Universities have a significant role in society as they are generators of economic activity, as land developers, as neighbors and as property owners. Therefore it is a focal point in the community. Every university lives within a surrounding community. They have been creating their own relations with the neighborhoods. The space that the university confronts with the city is shaped according to the needs of the people from the university and the inhabitants of the area. Between the university and the city, every university creates their own interface in accordance with the location and the inhabitants of the area. While planning the city or the university the interface zone did not take into account. It has been behaved as a part of the city although it has been a neighbor with university. While designing the university there has been no attempt to design this zone or making decisions including this zone. Therefore this space creates its own character in time. As it is locating between the city and the university it has been carrying both the character of the university and the city. The main aim of this study is to examine the spatial formation of the interface of university and city in respect to the planning decisions and spatial features of the area by investigating the two different types of universities in their own contexts in Ankara / Ankara University and METU. In this context, the spatial character of interface area is defined by examining this space as a transitional area, boundary and threshold. Then universities and their historical developments are examined in urban space and the relations between these two domains are investigated through the selected universities in Europe and USA. Finally, the situation of the university in Turkey is handled and searched the formation of the interface areas around the campuses of the two selected universities in Ankara.

Within the broader scope of free movement of persons, free movement of workers is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the European Union (EU) law. It is one of most significant rights that are granted to the Union citizens and will be enjoyed by Turkish nationals after Turkey&rsquo / s accession the Union. In this regard, this study examines the free movement of Turkish workers in the EU within the framework of Turkey&rsquo / s EU accession process and two recent EU enlargements since 2004. Along with the legal scope of free movement of workers, transitional arrangements applied in two recent enlargements are analyzed as it could provide some foresights about such freedom with respect to Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership.