The project finance model in the supply of residential and commercial premises

A supply of dwellings greater than the demand, a reduction in the availability of housing loans and increased credit risk, caused, inter alia, by the financial crisis: these are the basic features of today’s residential property and commercial premises markets in Croatia today. Built but unsold housing units have exposed private investors, who have organised the supply of units within the balance sheet of their firms, to significant risk of underinvestment. The materialisation of this risk is most manifested in the impossibility of funding the core business because of loans that they have agreed on for the construction of dwelling units meant for sale on the market. The paper then proposes a model that, if it were applied, could insure investors to a greater extent against the risk of underinvestment. The supply of dwelling units with protected rentals by the local public sector organised in the traditional manner, i.e. according to a model in which the local public sector figures in the role of investor, distributes the burden of development costs onto the future generations as well. However, practice has shown that traditional models inequitably expose future generations to the risk of a reduction in the quality of this kind of public service. From this point of view the proposed model transfers to the future generation not only the costs but also the obligations to secure equal qualities of public service in such a way that the private investor long-term assumes the risk of the availability of public building. The problem in this kind of organisation of the supply of a public service is double taxation via VAT, changes in the law concerning which are accordingly proposed.project financing, housing construction

Transcription of satellite DNAs in insects

Chromatin condensation is an important regulatory mechanism of gene silencing as well as gene activation for the hundreds of functional protein genes harbored in heterochromatic regions of different insect species. Being the major heterochromatin constituents, satellite DNAs serve important roles in heterochromatin regulation in insect in general. Their expression occurs in all developmental stages, being the highest during embryogenesis. Satellite DNA transcrips range from small RNAs, corresponding in size to siRNA, and piwiRNAs, to large, a few Kb long RNAs. The long transcripts are preferentially nonpolyadenylated and remain in the nucleus. The actively regulated expression of satDNAs by cis or trans elements as well as by environmental stress, rather than constitutive transcription, speaks in favour of their involvement in differentiation, development, and environmental response

Autophagy in motor neuron disease: Key pathogenetic mechanisms and therapeutic targets

Autophagy is a lysosome-dependant intracellular degradation process that eliminates long-lived proteins as well as damaged organelles from the cytoplasm. An increasing body of evidence suggests that dysregulation of this system plays a pivotal role in the etiology and/or progression of neurodegenerative diseases including motor neuron disorders. Herein, we review the latest findings that highlight the involvement of autophagy in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the potential role of this pathway as a target of therapeutic purposes. Autophagy promotes the removal of toxic, cytoplasmic aggregate-prone pathogenetic proteins, enhances cell survival, and modulates inflammation. The existence of several drugs targeting this pathway can facilitate the translation of basic research to clinical trials for ALS and other motor neuron diseases

The Impact of Cytoplasmic Inheritance on Sperm Quality in Fleckvieh Bulls

Detrimental impact of certain mitogenome mutations on sperm quality traits, and consequently on male fertility is well documented in humans. With a quantitative genetic mixed model, we analysed the impact of cytoplasmic effects, maternal lineages treated as random effect, on sperm quality traits in 554 Austrian Fleckvieh bulls. We have observed that 2% of the phenotypic variance for transformed total number of spermatozoa is due to cytoplasmic (maternal lineage) effects. Regarding percent of viable live spermatozoa, no cytoplasmic effects were detected. However, the observed effects still need to be further evaluated from three perspectives, the analysis of the mitogenome polymorphism effects and the impact of the mitogenome effects on the realised fertility as well as on the whole production economically

Impact du contenu en eau sur la capacité de rétention simulée du manteau neigeux de la calotte du Groenland

peer reviewedLes eaux de fonte générées en surface de la calotte du Groenland peuvent s’infiltrer en profondeur au sein du manteau neigeux et y être retenues. Récemment, des épisodes de fonte ont pu être observés dans des zones élevées de la calotte où tout au long d’une année, aucune fonte n’apparaît généralement avec un manteau neigeux constitué de neige fraîche et poreuse à son sommet, nommé firn. Pour simuler le bilan de masse en surface (SMB) futur de la calotte, cette rétention doit être prise en compte. Le modèle climatique régional MAR a été utilisé pour la réalisation de simulations jusqu’en 2300 afin d’en attester la sensibilité au paramètre de contenu en eau dans le manteau neigeux. Les résultats montrent qu’en fonction de la valeur initiale donnée à ce paramètre, le ruissellement simulé en surface varie fortement, cela étant majoritairement dû à une rétroaction d’albédo. Néanmoins, à ces altitudes, même sur le long terme, la capacité de rétention du manteau neigeux limite l’apport de ces plus hautes zones vers les marges de la calotte