Effects of the EU-Enlargement on Income Convergence in the Eastern Border Regions

This paper analyses the effect of the EU enlargement process on income convergence among regions in the EU and in the Eastern neighbourhood of the EU. The data used is NUTS II regions in the EU and Oblasts' of Russia over the period 1996-2004. The estimation techniques used take into account both regional and spatial heterogeneity. The main findings are that the regional income differences are reduced within EU15. The income convergence within the EU is mainly driven by reductions in the differences across countries rather than by a reduction in regional differences within countries. When differences in initial conditions in the regions are controlled for by fixed regional effects there are strong evidences of convergence among regions in all studied country groups.Income convergence, European integration, Border effects

The transition from out-of-plane to in-plane kinking due to off-axis loading

A comprehensive test campaign has been performed on coupon level to gain fundamental understanding of compressive failure in unidirectional NCF composites for aerospace applications. A subset of this study is focusing on the effect of off-axis loading, where a number of laminates have been tested with fibres oriented in off-axis angles in the interval 0-20\ub0 in steps of 5\ub0. Our hypothesis is that 0\ub0 laminates fail by kinking out-of-plane and as the off-axis angle is increased, there is a shift to in-plane kinking as the in-plane shear component increases. The contribution from this shear component on kinking will have little effect on the compressive strength until in-plane kinking becomes "dominant" over out-of-plane kinking. Preliminary results indicate a transition from out-of-plane to in-plane governed kinking to occur at an off-axis angle between 10\ub0 and 15\ub0

Effect of specimen width on strength in off-axis compression tests

Compression tests have been performed according to ASTM D6641 to check whether 12 mm is a sufficient width for off-axis tests of a unidirectional Non Crimp Fabric (NCF) reinforced carbon-fibre composite. Various off-axis angles are tested in a larger context and it is important to establish a representative material volume. The test matrix consists of two different widths for two off-axis cases, 15° and 20° with a total sample size of 24. A two-sample T-test is performed for each off-axis angle to check if there is a statistically significant difference of the compressive strength between specimens with different widths. The null hypothesis, that there is no difference between the mean values is tested with a double-tailed test on a 5 % significance level. Neither of the cases may be rejected, i.e. there is no statistically significant difference on the 5 % level. The 15° off-axis case returns a p-value of 7.4 % and the 20° off-axis case gives a p-value of 21.3 %. It can be concluded that the effect is small and not statistically significant. It means that remaining off-axis testing in the larger context can proceed with the nominal width of 12 mm

Socialt kapital och politiskt deltagande : En studie av hur föreningsengagemang och sociala kontakter påverkar valdeltagandet bland invandrare i Finland

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.I undersökningen har teorin om socialt kapital knutits till valdeltagande. Teorin har testats bland ryska, estniska, somaliska och vietnamesiska invandrare i Finland. I undersökningen har socialt kapital operationaliserats genom föreningsengagemang och sociala kontakter. Undersökningen är kvantitativ och den centrala analysmetoden är regressionsanalys. Teorin om socialt kapital har ansetts vara speciellt givande i invandrarstudier eftersom den binder samman politiskt deltagande med sociala strukturer och frågor om uteslutning och diskriminering. Tidigare forskning har antytt att socialt kapital kan utgöra en social resurs som bidrar till ett aktivare politiskt deltagande. Inom teorin om socialt kapital har det dock varit en omdebatterad fråga huruvida alla typer av sociala kontakter är gynnsamma för individen och för samhället. Detta har vanligen diskuterats utifrån begreppen övergripande och sammanbindande socialt kapital. Beträffande invandrartematiken har frågan handlat om huruvida invandrarföreningar och sociala gemenskaper bland invandrare generellt gynnar den strukturella integrationen eller fjärmar invandrare från mottagarsamhället. Frågan handlar mer övergripande om huruvida staten borde understöda en mångkulturell politik. Dessutom har det inom teorin funnits en oklarhet i huruvida det är det sociala deltagandets karaktär eller omfattningen som är betydelsefull då man studerar politisk aktivitet. Resultaten bekräftar hypotesen om det sociala kapitalets betydelse för det politiska deltagandet i och med att det på individnivå finns ett samband mellan socialt deltagande och valdeltagande. Bland de invandrare som engagerar sig i föreningsaktiviteter och som har aktiva sociala kontakter är valdeltagandet högre än bland dem som inte deltar. Analysen stöder även den mångkulturella hypotesen om att invandrarföreningar är gynnsamma i och med att de invandrare som är aktiva inom invandrarföreningar röstar flitigare än de som inte medverkar i motsvarande aktiviteter. Ett anmärkningsvärt fynd är att omfattningen av det sociala engagemanget, och inte karaktären av de sociala kontakterna, är den centrala determinanten för att förklara valdeltagandet. På basen av tidigare forskningsresultat kan man med vissa reservationer anta att resultaten här även kan generaliseras utöver valdeltagande till politiskt deltagande i allmänhet. Centrala källor: Coleman, J. (1990), Fennema, M. & J. Tillie (1999), R. Putnam (1993); R. Putnam (2000); Teorell, J. (2003)

Complex conformational dynamics of the heart failure‐associated pre‐mirna‐377 hairpin revealed by single‐molecule optical tweezers

pre‐miRNA‐377 is a hairpin‐shaped regulatory RNA associated with heart failure. Here, we use single‐molecule optical tweezers to unzip pre‐miRNA‐377 and study its stability and dy-namics. We show that magnesium ions have a strong stabilizing effect, and that sodium ions stabi-lize the hairpin more than potassium ions. The hairpin unfolds in a single step, regardless of buffer composition. Interestingly, hairpin folding occurs either in a single step (type 1) or through the formation of intermediates, in multiple steps (type 2) or gradually (type 3). Type 3 occurs only in the presence of both sodium and magnesium, while type 1 and 2 take place in all buffers, with type 1 being the most prevalent. By reducing the size of the native hairpin loop from fourteen to four nu-cleotides, we demonstrate that the folding heterogeneity originates from the large size of the hairpin loop. Further, while efficient pre‐miRNA‐377 binders are lacking, we demonstrate that the recently developed C2 ligand displays bimodal activity: it enhances the mechanical stability of the pre-miRNA‐377 hairpin and perturbs its folding. The knowledge regarding pre‐miRNA stability and dynamics that we provide is important in understanding its regulatory function and how it can be modulated to achieve a therapeutic effect, e.g., in heart failure treatment

Mechanical characterization of base analogue modified nucleic acids by force spectroscopy

We use mechanical unfolding of single DNA hairpins with modified bases to accurately assess intra- and intermolecular forces in nucleic acids. As expected, the modification stabilizes the hybridized hairpin, but we also observe intriguing stacking interactions in the unfolded hairpin. Our study highlights the benefit of using base-modified nucleic acids in force-spectroscopy

Interbase-FRET binding assay for pre-microRNAs

The aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRs) has been linked to several human diseases. A promising approach for targeting these anomalies is the use of small-molecule inhibitors of miR biogenesis. These inhibitors have the potential to (i) dissect miR mechanisms of action, (ii) discover new drug targets, and (iii) function as new therapeutic agents. Here, we designed Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-labeled oligoribonucleotides of the precursor of the oncogenic miR-21 (pre-miR-21) and used them together with a set of aminoglycosides to develop an interbase-FRET assay to detect ligand binding to pre-miRs. Our interbase-FRET assay accurately reports structural changes of the RNA oligonucleotide induced by ligand binding. We demonstrate its application in a rapid, qualitative drug candidate screen by assessing the relative binding affinity between 12 aminoglycoside antibiotics and pre-miR-21. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) were used to validate our new FRET method, and the accuracy of our FRET assay was shown to be similar to the established techniques. With its advantages over SPR and ITC owing to its high sensitivity, small sample size, straightforward technique and the possibility for high-throughput expansion, we envision that our solution-based method can be applied in pre-miRNA-target binding studies

HnRNPK maintains single strand RNA through controlling double-strand RNA in mammalian cells

Although antisense transcription is a widespread event in the mammalian genome, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) formation between sense and antisense transcripts is very rare and mechanisms that control dsRNA remain unknown. By characterizing the FGF-2 regulated transcriptome in normal and cancer cells, we identified sense and antisense transcripts IER3 and IER3-AS1 that play a critical role in FGF-2 controlled oncogenic pathways. We show that IER3 and IER3-AS1 regulate each other\u27s transcription through HnRNPK-mediated post-transcriptional regulation. HnRNPK controls the mRNA stability and colocalization of IER3 and IER3-AS1. HnRNPK interaction with IER3 and IER3-AS1 determines their oncogenic functions by maintaining them in a single-stranded form. hnRNPK depletion neutralizes their oncogenic functions through promoting dsRNA formation and cytoplasmic accumulation. Intriguingly, hnRNPK loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments reveal its role in maintaining global single- and double-stranded RNA. Thus, our data unveil the critical role of HnRNPK in maintaining single-stranded RNAs and their physiological functions by blocking RNA-RNA interactions