mRNA cap guanine-N7 methyltransferase (RNMT) catalyzes the S-adenosyl-dependent methylation of the 5’ cap on mRNA at the N-7 position of guanosine. RNA guanine-N7 methyltransferase activating subunit (RAM) allosterically binds to RNMT, which enhances its methyltransferase activity. RAM is phosphorylated at Ser36; however, how this post-translational modification impacts its interaction with RNMT is still unclear. Ser36 of RAM is positioned within a positively charged binding pocket of RNMT, indicating that phosphorylation would improve the binding affinity between these two proteins. Using protein semi-synthesis, we discovered that the first 45 amino acids of RAM is sufficient for full binding to RNMT, and that phosphorylation of Ser36 does increase the binding affinity around six-fold. / 2026-02-28T00:00:00Z

No description available.

Assessing the prevalence and factors associated with loneliness in newcomer parents with young children in Hamilton, Ontario. / This study was a secondary analysis of a convenient sample to assess the prevalence of loneliness among newcomers with young children in Hamilton, Ontario (N=173), using the UCLA Loneliness Scale to categorize experiences of loneliness. Descriptive statistics, including central tendency measures, frequencies, and measures of dispersion, were used to understand the diversity of the newcomer population. Participants had a mean age of 35.4 years (SD = 6.35), with ages ranging from 19 to 54. Most were female (58%) and had been in Canada for an average of 19 months (SD = 17.94). The average UCLA Loneliness Scale score was 51.64 (SD = 5.6), indicating moderate to moderately high loneliness, with no participants scoring in the low or high categories of the UCLA loneliness scale. This study also assessed the association between loneliness (UCLA scale) and depression (CES-D scale). The CES-D depression score (M = 18.7, SD = 7.71) suggested mild to moderate depressive symptoms. A correlation analysis showed a positive association between loneliness and depression. A linear regression analysis confirmed the association and was reversed to use depression as predictor of loneliness. A multiple linear regression analysis identified immigration status and region of origin as significant predictors of loneliness, while gender, marital status, education, and income were not. These findings highlight the significant loneliness experienced by newcomer parents and emphasize the need for targeted interventions to support their social integration and mental well-being. The findings suggest that it may be important to consider immigration status and region of origin in future expanded studies of loneliness among newcomer families with young children. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This study aims to explore the prevalence of loneliness in a sample of newcomers with young children in Hamilton, Ontario, and see if there are common factors associated with loneliness. Loneliness is a mental health concern that may have negative impact on mental health and physical wellbeing of those affected. Understanding what factors contribute to loneliness could help create a model that predicts it. This model could be used for larger groups of newcomer families, helping to identify when interventions are needed before loneliness becomes more severe. Ultimately, understanding the prevalence and variables associated with loneliness can help community services and healthcare providers assess the need and implementation of focused intervention, to combat loneliness.

Yes

Les normes privées intéressent le droit international à un double titre : se développant en marge du système interétatique classique, elles constituent l’un des visages d’une régulation privée transnationale émergente et soulèvent la question théorique de leur statut en droit international. Par ailleurs, leurs effets sur le commerce international (et particulièrement le fait qu’elles constituent un obstacle aux exportations des PED vers les marchés occidentaux), conduisent à s’interroger sur l’opportunité et les modalités de leur réglementation par le droit international des échanges. En dépit de leur diversité empirique qui rend difficile toute tentative de systématisation et de qualification juridique, nous considérons que la qualité des produits, qui constitue le fondement téléologique commun des normes privées, permet d’en justifier l’unité théorique et de les considérer comme un phénomène juridique à part entière. Nous démontrerons que les normes privées sont l’une des manifestations d’un droit transnational se développant en parallèle du droit interétatique « classique » et qu’elles jouissent par conséquent d’un statut juridique propre. De ce fait, leurs rapports avec la branche du droit international qu’elles intéressent le plus directement, le droit international des échanges, ne peuvent se limiter à l’approche classique de réglementation (ou approche « répressive », en ce qu’elle a pour seul but d’en limiter les effets restrictifs pour le commerce) mais doivent se concevoir dans une optique de coordination. / The recent proliferation of private standards is not only of growing interest to economists who seek to evaluate its impact on trade flows; it is also relevant to international law, particularly to international economic law, in a double perspective. First, from the perspective of legal theory, the legal status of private standards has still to be determined. Second, from an empirical standpoint, private standards have the potential to negatively impact the access of developing countries to the markets of developed countries. This raises the question of the opportunity and modalities of submitting them to the disciplines of the WTO Agreements. This study demonstrates that private standards are one of the expressions of broader ‘transnational law’, a body of law that has been developing in parallel to ‘traditional’ state-centered international law. This implies that international law cannot merely consider private standards as an object to be disciplined; rather, the traditional ‘repressive’ approach should be rejected in favor of a more collaborative approach stressing the interrelations between the two bodies of norms as well as possible forms of coordination.

in English The topic of this thesis is the regulation of employees' right to transnational information and consultation within Community-scale undertakings or Community-scale Groups of undertakings. Firstly, the right to information and consultation at the national level and the forms of employees' representation in the Czech Republic are introduced. Then the thesis explains the respective European directives and describes relevant cases of the Court of Justice of the EU, followed by a detailed analysis of the Czech legislation in the Labour Code. The next chapter focuses on the German transposition of this regulation. Eventually, the last chapter is a research on the operation of active European Works Councils in practice in the European Union and in the Czech Republic. The purpose of the thesis is to provide a comprehensive overview of the regulation of information and consultation procedures at transnational level and to introduce its operation in practice.

在高等教育全球化背景下，学生国际流动发展日益成熟，大规模的高等教育机构与课程项目的国际流动日益增加。越来越多的学生在本国接受教育而由设在另一国家的教育机构颁发学位，这类高等教育项目、课程和教育服务被称为"跨国高等教育（transnational higher education，THE）"。在中国大陆情境下，主要表现为"中外合作办学（Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools，CFCRS）"。在普通高校与海外留学之外，中外合作办学逐渐成为中国大陆学生的第三种高等教育选择。 / 本研究尝试从社会资本理论视角考察中国大陆学生跨国高等教育选择的影响因素。研究者于2014年10月至11月在三所具有独立法人资格的中外合作办学高校和一所普通公办高校开展问卷调查，共回收有效问卷1349份，包括中外合作办学学生714份，普通公办高校学生635份。研究综合运用了描述性统计、差异性检验、一般线性回归、Logistic 回归方法分析背景变量、社会资本变量对学生选择中外合作办学的影响。主要研究结论如下： / 第一，关于背景因素对选校的影响。相对于居住在"县城或村镇"、居住在"省会城市"和"一般城市"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于父亲从事"基层职业"，父亲从事"专业技术"、"行政管理"或"个体经商"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于"5万以下"，家庭年收入"20万以上"的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。相对于家庭财富较少的学生，家庭财富较多的学生选择中外合作办学的概率更高。尤其是居住在省会城市和父亲从事"个体经商"，对学生选择中外合作办学的影响最大。 / 第二，在控制背景变量后，社会资本对选校的影响。经Logistic 回归分析发现，社会资本对学生选择中外合作办学具有非常大的影响。具体而言，家长对子女海外升学期望越强、家庭择校参与越多，学生选择中外合作办学的概率越大；学生希望去海外升学、去海外或省会城市就业，选择中外合作办学的概率越大；学生对学校国际元素的重视程度越高，选择中外合作办学的概率越大；而学生对中学信息源的重视程度越高，选择中外合作办学的概率越小。其中，学生本身海外升学期望对学生选择中外合作办学影响最大。 / 第三，作为社会资本的重要组成部分，本研究深入探讨了信息来源与信息内涵。关于信息来源，经主成分分析得出三个维度：亲友信息源、中学信息源及网络媒体信息源。经差异检验得出，与普通公办高校学生相比，选择中外合作办学的学生更看重亲友信息源，同时也更多采用亲友信息源和网络媒体信息源，尤其更多采用海外亲友、海外同学与网络社群作为获取信息的渠道。 / 关于信息内涵，经主成分分析得出四个维度：学术资源、国际元素、经济支持及生活环境四个方面的学校特质。从学生对信息内涵的"重视程度"来看，经差异检验得出，选择中外合作办学的学生比普通公办高校学生更为看重学术资源与国际元素。进一步分析中外合作办学学生对20项信息内涵重要性排名发现，"教师的学术专业水平"与"提升自身学术能力"并列第一位，第三位是"有希望报读的专业"，第四位是"大学声誉与学术地位"，这四项均属学术资源维度；第五位是"国际化的教学理念"，属国际元素维度。另一方面，从学生感知的信息内涵"实践程度"来看，在学术资源、国际元素、经济支持与生活环境四个维度上，中外合作办学均高于普通公办高校。但是，中外合作办学本身进行纵向比较发现，学校提供的学术资源实际状况显著低于学生预期，尤其是学术资源方面的"教师的学术专业水平"与学生预期落差最大，这正是中外合作办学需要改进的地方。 / 基于上述发现，本研究在"理论层面"有以下启示：首先，本研究将内聚式与桥梁式社会资本应用到探讨中外合作办学选择，发现家长与学生的期望与家庭择校参与作为内聚式社会资本，均对选择中外合作办学产生积极影响；而择校网络与学生的海外参与作为桥梁社会资本，并未如预期对选择中外合作办学产生直接影响。其次，本研究建构的"信息策略"在考察信息渠道的同时，借助信息内涵探讨学生选校时所关注的学校特质。另外，研究在"政策实践层面"有以下启示：首先，鉴于学生非常重视教师的学术专业水平，中外合作办学机构应努力提升教师队伍专业水平，健全教师聘任、培训及管理制度。其次，鉴于学生对国际元素尤为看重，中外合作办学亦应突出国际化办学特色，明确生源定位。再次，考虑到学生对大学声誉与学术地位的重视以及中学信息源尚未充分发挥宣传作用，中外合作办学亦应加强中外知名大学合作，树立良好办学声誉；同时增加信息宣传渠道，让更多学生、家长、中学教师等群体有机会客观深入了解中外合作办学理念与资源优势，理性做出升学选择。 / In the context of globalization of higher education, the international mobility of students has been fully developed. The international mobility of large-scale higher education programs and institutions is also increasing rapidly. More and more learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based. All these types of higher education study programs, or sets of courses of study, or educational services are regarded as transnational higher education (THE). In mainland China, transnational higher education is mainly embodied as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools (CFCRS), which is an alternative higher education choice for mainland students besides general schools in China and the overseas schools. / This study aims to examine the factors affecting the mainland student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities from the social capital perspective. The study is based on an empirical survey conducted in three cooperative universities and one public university in October and November, 2014. A total of 1349 questionnaires were collected with 714 from Chinese-foreign cooperative universities and 635 from general public university. A variety of statistical analysis methods are applied to address the research questions, including descriptive statistical analysis, T-test, linear regressions, and logistic regressions. The main findings include: / First, compared with the students residing in suburb, the students residing in provincial capital or general city are more inclined to choose Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. Compared with the students whose father works in elementary occupation, the students whose father works as a professional, manager or businessman are more inclined to choose cooperative universities. Compared with the students whose family annual income is less than 50,000 CNY, the students whose family annual income is more than 200,000 CNY is more inclined to choose cooperative universities. Compared with the students with relatively less home possession, the students with more home possession tend to choose cooperative universities. Especially, the residence in provincial capital and father’s occupation as a businessman have significant impact on student choice of cooperative universities. / Second, when background variables have been statistically controlled for, social capital still has significant impact on student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. Specifically, the higher the parental expectation for children’s overseas study and the more the parental involvement in school choice, the more the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. Students who expect to study abroad, or expect to work abroad or in provincial capital, are more inclined to choose cooperative universities. The more highly the school characteristic of international element is valued, the more the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. However, the more highly the information channel of high school is valued, the less the students are inclined to choose cooperative universities. Among these factors, students’ self-expectation for study abroad affects the most. / Third, as an important form of social capital, "information channel" and "information content" are explored further. On one hand, results from principal components analysis indicated three dimensions of information channel, namely "relatives and friends", "high school", and "internet and media". Further analysis suggested that compared with public university students, Chinese-foreign cooperative university students valued the channel of relatives and friends more highly, and were more likely to get information from "relatives and friends", and "internet and media", especially from their relatives and friends abroad, peers abroad and cyber networks. / On the other hand, results from principal components analysis also identified four dimensions of information content, namely "academic resources", "international elements", "financial support" and "environment and life experience". Among these four aspects of information content, "academic resources" and "international elements" were much more valued by cooperative university students. Further analysis on the 20 items of information content indicated that for cooperative university students, the top five most important school characteristics were in order, "professional teacher", "academic improvement", "favorite major" and "school reputation and academic status", which were part of "academic resources", and the last was "international education philosophy", which was part of "international elements". Besides, cooperative university students perceived significantly better than general public university students about what the school provided for them on whichever dimension of the information content. Nevertheless, for cooperative university students, "academic resources" was the major aspect on which they perceived significant discrepancy in what they valued and what were provided, especially on the item of "professional teacher". This provides insights for Chinese-foreign cooperative university to improve in the future. / Based on the above results, on the theoretical level, the study first employed the concept of bonding and bridging social capital into the higher education choice. It is found that parent and student expectation and parental involvement in school choice, as bonding social capital, all positively affect the mainland student choice of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities. However, as bridging social capital, neither target school network nor overseas engagement affects the student choice as predicted. Second, the concept of information strategies was constructed to explore the school characteristics. It is composed of information channel (where a student gets the information on school characteristics) and information content (what school characteristics are highly valued when a student make a school choice). On the practical level, the study shows that first, students place importance on professional teachers. Chinese-foreign cooperative universities should enhance teacher professionalism and quality through improving the systems of teacher recruitment, training and management. Second, as the international elements were highly valued by students, cooperative universities should keep their internationalized school characteristics, at the same time clarify their student market positioning. Third, in order to develop the school reputation and academic status, cooperative universities should facilitate the cooperation between domestic and international famous universities. In addition, since high school as information channel has not yet been positively effective, cooperative universities should boost the access to information for students, parents and high school teachers, etc., to better understand their educational philosophy and resource advantages and to make a rational school choice. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 陳麗媛. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-166). / Abstracts also in English. / Chen Liyuan.

Maintaining the essential features of local democracy, representation and contestation, my theory allows for the representation of the interest of subpopulations in the global community by actors such as nongovernmental organization and intergovernmental organizations. I will begin by outlining what features are necessary for a theory’s consideration as democratic in nature. Then, relying upon democracy in a broad sense, it will be my aim to demonstrate that the right to democracy is universal human right. The following stage will provide the backing, by way of the moral progress of human rights, that the right to democracy is expressible by “importantly affected” subgroups in the global arena. The final stage of my conceptual defense will focus on the validation of representatives who have no institutional connection with the populations they represent. With such established, the paper will proceed into a practical defense, discussing how claims made by actors can be accepted or rejected by represented subpopulations. It will then become necessary to demonstrate that the paternalistic claims made by representatives are incorporable into a democratic theory without forgoing the essence of democracy. To show this is feasible, methods of appealing paternalistic claims by way of international human rights courts will be explained. Finally, possibilities to mediate general feasibility issues will be explored.

Au cours des cinquante dernières années, les communautés turques et marocaines sont devenues les deux groupes diasporiques les plus importants en Europe occidentale, notamment en Allemagne et en France. Les États d’origine de ces populations ont développé de nombreuses politiques envers leurs ressortissants à l’étranger, parmi lesquelles l’islam occupe un lieu privilégié. Depuis des décennies, les instances étatiques officielles chargées de la gouvernance du religieux en Turquie et au Maroc, à savoir la Présidence des Affaires Religieuses (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) et le Ministère des Habous et des Affaires Islamiques (MHAI), soutiennent des groupes musulmans en France et en Allemagne par le biais de divers moyens, allant de l’envoi d’imams à des financements de mosquées.Comment et pourquoi la Turquie et le Maroc réussissent-ils à gouverner l’islam au-delà de leurs frontières nationales, et quelles en sont les conséquences pour le développement des champs religieux musulmans de France et d’Allemagne ? Cette étude conclut qu’à la différence de la France et de l’Allemagne, la Turquie et le Maroc conçoivent la gouvernance du religieux comme un domaine distinct de la politique publique, et ce même à l’étranger. Grâce à la coopération diplomatique et à la convergence d’intérêts interétatiques, ces deux États ont étendu leur rayonnement dans le champ religieux transnational. Ceci se manifeste par le soutien d’un modèle d’autorité religieuse légale-rationnelle et une forme d’islam national, afin de renforcer la position des instances de gouvernance du religieux des États d’origine ainsi que les frontières ethno-nationales dans les champs religieux musulmans à l’étranger. / Over the last fifty years, Turks and Moroccans have come to form the two largest diaspora groups in Western Europe, with the largest numbers in Germany and France respectively. The states of origin of these populations have developed a wide variety of policies aimed at their citizens abroad, amongst which Islam has figured prominently. For decades, the official institutions of state religious governance in Turkey and Morocco, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) and the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, have actively engaged in providing support to Muslim groups in France and Germany, from sending imams to directly financing mosques and the associations that run them. This doctoral thesis seeks to respond to the following questions: how and why are Turkey and Morocco able to govern Islam outside of their national boundaries, and what are the consequences for the development of Muslim fields in France and Germany? Based on over one hundred interviews carried out with diplomats, state religious officials, and non-state religious actors in all four countries, this study argues that in contrast to France and Germany, the Turkish and Moroccan states consider religious governance as a distinct domain of public policy. Thanks to diplomatic cooperation and converging interstate interests, both home states have been able to expand their religious activities within transnational Muslim fields. In particular, Turkey and Morocco seek to promote a legal-rational model of religious authority and a national form of Islam, ultimately reinforcing both the position of home state religious institutions and ethno-national boundaries in religious fields abroad.

Toutefois, l’interaction entre la terre, le territoire et la production globale n’a pas fait l’objet d’une attention importante dans la discipline juridique, y compris par les auteurs qui s’intéressent à la création et la production de valeur dans le capitalisme des chaînes globales d’approvisionnement. Historiquement, le territoire a été central dans la construction des États, comme dans les distinctions sociales et les distributions de pouvoirs qui caractérisent chaque communauté. Pour cettes raisons, j’ai écris cette thèse dans la perspective d’exposer le rôle que le droit tient dans la détermination des modes selon lesquels la terre et le territoire sont intégrés dans le capitalisme transnational, et tout particulièrement lorsqu’il s’agit de les transformer en source de valeur qui peut être appropriée. Dans le premier chapitre, la directive européenne sur l’énergie renouvelable, les traités bilatéraux d’investissement et les accords d’investissement sont présentés comme des structures juridiques qui n’opèrent que superficiellement à différents niveaux juridiques et dans différentes géographies. Le chapitre II se concentre dès lors sur le rôle que les cours « étrangères » ont pris dans la définition de la forme et des mécanismes de production à l’étranger. En adoptant une approche alliant le droit international privé et une analyse globale de la chaîne juridique, le chapitre examine l’Alien Tort Statute (ATS) comme un espace juridictionnel privilégié pour le contentieux en responsabilité. Enfin, le chapitre III s’attelle à montrer la complexité des chaînes globales de production afin de penser les formes redistributives que peut prendre l’intervention juridique. En particulier, le cas de la chaîne du « blood sugar », dont l’origine se trouve au Cambodge est utilisé comme un laboratoire pour une réflexion théorique. Celle-ci part par la reconnaissance que les changements de forme et de géographie de la production peuvent être obtenus par la redéfinition de structures juridiques qui ne sont pas directement en lien avec la situation examinée. Ainsi, les enclosures et évictions sont liés aux abus locaux ainsi qu’aux décisions de l’OMC, aux prêts accordés par des banques australiennes, à l’interprétation du droit de la responsabilité donné par les cours du Royaume-Uni ainsi qu’à une multitude d’autres facteurs juridiques. / Historically, land has been central to the construction of states, along with social distinctions and attributions of power that characterize each community. With different modalities and in different contexts, occupations, treaties and enclosures have shaped the political and legal structure of nations, including who owned the right to exclude and the territorial limits of authority. However, the interrelation between land, territory and global production has received little attention from legal scholars who are interested in the generation and distribution of value in contemporary supply chain capitalism.For the reasons mentioned above, I wrote this dissertation with the objective of exposing the role that law has in determining how land and territory are integrated in transnational capitalism, particularly when it comes to transforming them into sources of value that can be appropriated. According to the 'critical legal chain approach' that I explain in my work, law is not only a connector that allows intra-chain coordination between different hubs of the network but also a central element in the construction, reproduction and existence of each node of the chain and of the whole system of production. As a consequence, law deals with the allocation of bargaining power among the different actors at the micro-level (state, capital, labor) and is involved in the distribution of value and resources at the macro-level (throughout the chain). In Chapter I, the European Renewable Energy Directive, Bilateral Investment Treaties and investment agreements are presented as legal structures that are only superficially operating at different legal levels and in different geographies.Chapter II focuses on the role that 'foreign' courts have in defining the form and mechanisms of production elsewhere in the world. Adopting a combination of Private International Law and Global Value Chains analysis, the Chapter engages with the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) as a privileged jurisdictional space for transnational tort adjudication.Chapter III harnesses the complexity of global chains of production to think about alternative forms of redistributive legal intervention. In particular, the case of the 'blood sugar' chain originating in Cambodia is utilized as laboratory for a theoretical reflection that starts from the recognition that changes in the form and geographies of production can be obtained through the redefinition of legal structures not immediately related with the issue under investigation.