Service quality provided to non-European high net worth individuals (HNWIS) by banks, legal and accounting offices in Cyprus

Service quality leads to customers’ satisfaction and gives a competitive advantage to the firms/organisations against their rivals. Furthermore, service quality by firms in a country gives a competitive advantage to the country against rival countries as well. The global financial crisis has affected Cyprus too. The National Strategy plan for economy recovery is included as a main point the attracting of direct foreign investments by nonEuropean High Net Worth Individuals in the island. Banks, Accounting and Legal offices in Cyprus cooperate together in providing full services to them for their corporate and wealth management needs. The aim of this research is to investigate if Banks, Legal and Accounting firms in Cyprus concern about providing a high level of service quality to non-EU HNWIs and examines the ways of implementation based on the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model.It also researches the impact of different ethnicities on service quality expectations and illustrates how this matter is treated by the firms examined. The study also investigates the priority of importance of the different service quality dimensions and emits new service quality dimensions found important for this industry in Cyprus. After studying different service quality models and different ways of research through literature review and academic resources, this research adopted a qualitative methodology. It was conducted through face-to face semistructured interviews with the managers of ten firms and organisations involved. The conclusions of the study confirm that Banks, Legal and Accounting offices in Cyprus do concern about offering high level of service quality to non-EU HNWIs however the whole infrastructure of the industry has been built mostly on Russian speaking customers’ needs. The firms are performing well in the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and ethnicity matters are taken into consideration with a different approach treatment. Responsiveness is found to be the most important dimension after reliability based again on Russians’ demand for quick service while flexibility and transparency emitted to be new important dimensions apart of pricing.peer-reviewe

Premature Activation of the SLX4 Complex by Vpr Promotes G2/M Arrest and Escape from Innate Immune Sensing

SummaryThe HIV auxiliary protein Vpr potently blocks the cell cycle at the G2/M transition. Here, we show that G2/M arrest results from untimely activation of the structure-specific endonuclease (SSE) regulator SLX4 complex (SLX4com) by Vpr, a process that requires VPRBP-DDB1-CUL4 E3-ligase complex. Direct interaction of Vpr with SLX4 induced the recruitment of VPRBP and kinase-active PLK1, enhancing the cleavage of DNA by SLX4-associated MUS81-EME1 endonucleases. G2/M arrest-deficient Vpr alleles failed to interact with SLX4 or to induce recruitment of MUS81 and PLK1. Furthermore, knockdown of SLX4, MUS81, or EME1 inhibited Vpr-induced G2/M arrest. In addition, we show that the SLX4com is involved in suppressing spontaneous and HIV-1-mediated induction of type 1 interferon and establishment of antiviral responses. Thus, our work not only reveals the identity of the cellular factors required for Vpr-mediated G2/M arrest but also identifies the SLX4com as a regulator of innate immunity

Illness Perceptions of COVID-19 in Europe: Predictors, Impacts and Temporal Evolution

Objective: Illness perceptions (IP) are important predictors of emotional and behavioral responses in many diseases. The current study aims to investigate the COVID-19-related IP throughout Europe. The specific goals are to understand the temporal development, identify predictors (within demographics and contact with COVID-19) and examine the impacts of IP on perceived stress and preventive behaviors. Methods: This was a time-series-cross-section study of 7,032 participants from 16 European countries using multilevel modeling from April to June 2020. IP were measured with the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Temporal patterns were observed considering the date of participation and the date recoded to account the epidemiological evolution of each country. The outcomes considered were perceived stress and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Results: There were significant trends, over time, for several IP, suggesting a small decrease in negativity in the perception of COVID-19 in the community. Age, gender, and education level related to some, but not all, IP. Considering the self-regulation model, perceptions consistently predicted general stress and were less consistently related to preventive behaviors. Country showed no effect in the predictive model, suggesting that national differences may have little relevance for IP, in this context. Conclusion: The present study provides a comprehensive picture of COVID-19 IP in Europe in an early stage of the pandemic. The results shed light on the process of IP formation with implications for health-related outcomes and their evolution

The BLM helicase is a new therapeutic target in multiple myeloma involved in replication stress survival and drug resistance

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematologic cancer characterized by accumulation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. To date, no definitive cure exists for MM and resistance to current treatments is one of the major challenges of this disease. The DNA helicase BLM, whose depletion or mutation causes the cancer-prone Bloom’s syndrome (BS), is a central factor of DNA damage repair by homologous recombination (HR) and genomic stability maintenance. Using independent cohorts of MM patients, we identified that high expression of BLM is associated with a poor outcome with a significant enrichment in replication stress signature. We provide evidence that chemical inhibition of BLM by the small molecule ML216 in HMCLs (human myeloma cell lines) leads to cell cycle arrest and increases apoptosis, likely by accumulation of DNA damage. BLM inhibition synergizes with the alkylating agent melphalan to efficiently inhibit growth and promote cell death in HMCLs. Moreover, ML216 treatment re-sensitizes melphalan-resistant cell lines to this conventional therapeutic agent. Altogether, these data suggest that inhibition of BLM in combination with DNA damaging agents could be of therapeutic interest in the treatment of MM, especially in those patients with high BLM expression and/or resistance to melphalan

Rescue of replication failure by Fanconi anaemia proteins

Chromosomal aberrations are often associated with incomplete genome duplication, for instance at common fragile sites, or as a consequence of chemical alterations in the DNA template that block replication forks. Studies of the cancer-prone disease Fanconi anaemia (FA) have provided important insights into the resolution of replication problems. The repair of interstrand DNA crosslinks induced by chemotherapy drugs is coupled with DNA replication and controlled by FA proteins. We discuss here the recent discovery of new FA-associated proteins and the development of new tractable repair systems that have dramatically improved our understanding of crosslink repair. We focus also on how FA proteins protect against replication failure in the context of fragile sites and on the identification of reactive metabolites that account for the development of Fanconi anaemia symptoms

A tumor suppressive DNA translocase named FANCM

International audienceFANCM is named after Fanconi anemia (FA) complement group M. The clinical symptoms of FA include congenital abnormalities, pancytopenia, and cancer proneness. However, recent studies reveal that biallelic inactivation of FANCM does not cause the constellation of FA symptoms, but predisposes patients to cancer and infertility. FANCM is a tumor suppressor gene that encodes a conserved and structure-specific DNA translocase. It controls the outcome of homologous recombination and facilitates DNA replication across a variety of natural and chemically induced obstacles. This review details our current understanding of FANCM as a facilitator of the cellular functions of caretaker proteins, including FA, Bloom syndrome, and Ataxia telangiectasia and RAD3-related proteins, which collectively ensure the maintenance of chromosome stability during DNA replication

The remarkable effect of oxygen on the N2 selectivity of water catalytic denitrification by hydrogen

Presented at 9th Panhellenic Symposium on Catalysis, 2006, Lefkada, Greece, OctoberThe selective catalytic reduction of nitrates (NO3-) in pure water toward N2 formation by the use of gaseous H2 and in the presence of O2 (air) at 1 atm total pressure and 25 Β°C has been investigated over Pdβ ’Cu supported on various mixed metal oxides, x wt % MOx/Ξ³-Al2O3 (MOx = CeO2, SrO, Mn2O3, Cr2O3, Y2O3, and TiO2). It is demonstrated for the first time that a remarkable improvement in N2 reaction selectivity (by 80 percentage units) can be achieved when oxygen is present in the reducing feed gas stream. In particular, significantly lower reaction selectivities toward NH4+ and NO2- can be obtained, whereas the rate of NO3- conversion is not significantly affected. Moreover, it was shown that the same effect is obtained over the Pdβ ’Cu-supported catalysts irrespective to the chemical composition of support and the initial concentration of nitrates in water used. The Pdβ ’Cu clusters supported on 4.8 wt%TiO2/Ξ³-Al2O3 resulted in a solid with the best catalytic behavior compared with the rest of supports examined, both in the presence and in the absence of oxygen in the reducing feed gas stream. DRIFTS studies performed following catalytic reduction by H2 of NO3- in water revealed that the presence of TiO2 in the Pdβ ’Cu/TiO2β ’Al2O3 system enhanced the reactivity of adsorbed bidentate nitrate species toward H2. Nitrosyl species adsorbed on the alumina and titania support surfaces are considered as active intermediate species of the selective catalytic reduction of NO3- by H2 in water. Pdβ ’Cu/TiO2β ’Al2O3 appears to be the most selective catalyst ever reported in the literature for the reduction of nitrates present in pure water into N2 by a reducing gas mixture of H2/air