Fraudulent Contracting of Work: Sham Companies (Austria, Estonia and Italy)

[Excerpt] Among the fraudulent contracting of work practices, one of the most difficult to identify is the creation of sham companies (usually, in another country). Sham companies are essentially new entities created to disguise the real employer. Creating a company, even abroad, is – of course – legal and may well be institutionally and economically advisable. However, when the only purpose of its creation is to benefit from more favourable regulations relating to labour and tax (and not to develop an activity in the country), then questions should be asked about the ‘genuine’ nature of the company. The Eurofound study Exploring the fraudulent contracting of work in the European Union emphasises that the term ‘sham contracting’ or ‘sham companies’ embraces a diversity of fraudulent practices, embedded in different institutional contexts (Eurofound, 2016a).1 Fraudulent practices are perpetrated for different purposes, the most important of which are to avoid paying, or to save, employment-related taxes and social security contributions, and to evade employers’ liability towards employees. Beyond some recent analysis of ‘letter-box’ companies,2 there is not much research into sham contracting or sham companies. In addition, EU legislation has not played any role in this respect. Sham companies share the common goal of disguising the real employer. This can be achieved through different mechanisms such as: the creation of companies without assets, generally within subcontracting chains commercial or civil law contracts between companies where employees are misrepresented as contractors or company owners workers’ cooperatives, where workers lack actual control over the organisation’s decisions

Study on the spatial planning of the secondary station

During the Chinese Eastern Railway construction (1897-1903), a large amount of areas attached to railway station-located areas had been constructed and developed constantly, which therefore facilities the emergence of new type morphology of cluster arising from the railway in northeast China. And the towns’ morphology of this period had had the profound influence on the subsequent the towns’ development in northeast China. In this research, the author himself went to St. Petersburg in Russia and to check and collect files in Russian National History Archives, from which a large amount of basic files about city construction during the period of the construction of Chinese Eastern Railway have been generated; then, based on the above materials (ages and number), the research period (construction of Chinese Eastern Railway 1897-1903) , objects (railway stations along the main lines of Chinese Eastern Railway:) and sample (Station Hailar and Suifenhe )are determined; Thirdly, the historic planning drawings and towns’ construction for two stations are translated to extract the planning information ,earlier city construction, social economy development , location features, land layout, texture of street profile, street transport, buildings’ texture, landscape greening and other basic elements of towns’ morphology. Two towns are compared to conclude the typical structural pattern and morphology. Ultimately, Russian style station in Suifenhe City is taken to conduct field research and empirical analysis and explicit the conservation content of historic features as well as propose the conservation ides depending on the principles of completeness and authenticity. After hundreds of years, the Russian style stations during the Chinese Eastern Railway have developed into to the commercial centers, which dominate in the modern city. Although the features of earlier Russian style stations have been broken, these centers still demonstrate strong sense of environment and landscape as Russian style colonial city. This research intends to explore the planning content of earlier stations to restores the planning elements of earlier cities with the ultimate aim to reveal the historical landscape of the towns, which is greatly significant to the conservation of urban historical features

Deep sequencing reveals important roles of microRNAs in response to drought and salinity stress in cotton

Drought and salinity are two major environmental factors adversely affecting plant growth and productivity. However, the regulatory mechanism is unknown. In this study, the potential roles of small regulatory microRNAs (miRNAs) in cotton response to those stresses were investigated. Using next-generation deep sequencing, a total of 337 miRNAs with precursors were identified, comprising 289 known miRNAs and 48 novel miRNAs. Of these miRNAs, 155 miRNAs were expressed differentially. Target prediction, Gene Ontology (GO)-based functional classification, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)-based functional enrichment show that these miRNAs might play roles in response to salinity and drought stresses through targeting a series of stress-related genes. Degradome sequencing analysis showed that at least 55 predicted target genes were further validated to be regulated by 60 miRNAs. CitationRank-based literature mining was employed to determinhe the importance of genes related to drought and salinity stress. The NAC, MYB, and MAPK families were ranked top under the context of drought and salinity, indicating their important roles for the plant to combat drought and salinity stress. According to target prediction, a series of cotton miRNAs are associated with these top-ranked genes, including miR164, miR172, miR396, miR1520, miR6158, ghr-n24, ghr-n56, and ghr-n59. Interestingly, 163 cotton miRNAs were also identified to target 210 genes that are important in fibre development. These results will contribute to cotton stress-resistant breeding as well as understanding fibre development

Lactobacillus rhamnosus confers protection against colorectal cancer in rats

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect and mechanism of action of Lactobacillus rhamnosus against colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: A total of 40 healthy female Sprague Dawley rats weighing 100 – 140 g (mean weight = 120 ± 20 g) were used for this study. The rats were randomly assigned to four groups of 10 rats each: normal control group, L. rhamnosus group; 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) group and treatment group. Rats in L. rhamnosus group were inoculated with L. rhamnosus (1 x 108 CFU/mL) orally for 20 weeks, while rats in DMH group received 35 mg DMH/kg /week intraperitoneally for 10 weeks for induction of CRC. Treatment group rats received 35 mg DMH/kg bwt intraperitoneally for 10 weeks for induction of CRC, and were treated with L. rhamnosus (1 x 108 CFU/mL) orally for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks, the rats were euthanized using ether anesthesia. Expressions of inflammatory, angiogenesis and proapoptotic genes were determined using Western blotting and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: Treatment with L. rhamnosus significantly reduced the incidence of CRC in the rats (p < 0.05). The incidence of multiple tumors in the treatment group was also significantly reduced, when compared to DMH group (p < 0.05). The protein expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kB), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), bcl-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor α (VEGF-α) were significantly upregulated in DMH group, when compared with normal control group (p < 0.05). However, treatment with L. rhamnosus significantly down-regulated the expressions of these proteins (p < 0.05). DMH treatment also significantly upregulated the expressions of iNOS, TNF-α, VEGF-α, NF-kB, β-catenin and bax genes (p < 0.05). However, L. rhamnosus significantly reversed the effects of DMH on the expression levels of these genes (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These results show that L. rhamnosus prevents CRC via suppression of expressions of inflammatory and angiogenesis genes, and upregulation of apoptotic gene expression

Single-Locus and Multi-Locus Genome-Wide Association Studies in the Genetic Dissection of Fiber Quality Traits in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

A major breeding target in Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is to improve the fiber quality. To address this issue, 169 diverse accessions, genotyped by 53,848 high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and phenotyped in four environments, were used to conduct genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for fiber quality traits using three single-locus and three multi-locus models. As a result, 342 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) controlling fiber quality traits were detected. Of the 342 QTNs, 84 were simultaneously detected in at least two environments or by at least two models, which include 29 for fiber length, 22 for fiber strength, 11 for fiber micronaire, 12 for fiber uniformity, and 10 for fiber elongation. Meanwhile, nine QTNs with 10% greater sizes (R2) were simultaneously detected in at least two environments and between single- and multi-locus models, which include TM80185 (D13) for fiber length, TM1386 (A1) and TM14462 (A6) for fiber strength, TM18616 (A7), TM54735 (D3), and TM79518 (D12) for fiber micronaire, TM77489 (D12) and TM81448 (D13) for fiber uniformity, and TM47772 (D1) for fiber elongation. This indicates the possibility of marker-assisted selection in future breeding programs. Among 455 genes within the linkage disequilibrium regions of the nine QTNs, 113 are potential candidate genes and four are promising candidate genes. These findings reveal the genetic control underlying fiber quality traits and provide insights into possible genetic improvements in Upland cotton fiber quality

Lack of K-Dependent Oxidative Stress in Cotton Roots Following Coronatine-Induced ROS Accumulation

Coronatine [COR] is a novel type of plant growth regulator with similarities in structure and property to jasmonate. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between increased root vitality induced by 10nM COR and reactive oxygen species scavenging under potassium (K)-replete (2.5mM) and K-deficient (0.05mM) conditions in hydroponic cultured cotton seedlings. K-replete and K-deficient conditions increased root vitality by 2.7- and 3.5-fold, respectively. COR treatment significantly decreased lipid peroxidation in cotton seedlings determined by reduction in MDA levels. These results suggest that COR improves the functioning of both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. Under K-replete and K-deficient conditions, COR significantly increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD (only for K-repletion), CAT, GPX, and APX comparing; COR also significantly increased DPPH-radical scavenging activity. However, COR led to 1.6- and 1.7-fold increases in superoxide anion (O2•-) concentrations, and 5.7- and 2.1-fold increases in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels, respectively. Additionally, COR intensified the DAB staining of H2O2 and the NBT staining of O2•-. Therefore, our results reveal that COR-induced ROS accumulation stimulates the activities of most antioxidant enzymes but does not induce oxidative stress in cotton roots

Proteome quantification of cotton xylem sap suggests the mechanisms of potassium-deficiency-induced changes in plant resistance to environmental stresses

Proteomics was employed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of apoplastic response to potassium(K)-deficiency in cotton. Low K (LK) treatment significantly decreased the K and protein contents of xylem sap. Totally, 258 peptides were qualitatively identified in the xylem sap of cotton seedlings, of which, 90.31% were secreted proteins. Compared to the normal K (NK), LK significantly decreased the expression of most environmental-stress-related proteins and resulted in a lack of protein isoforms in the characterized proteins. For example, the contents of 21 Class Ш peroxidase isoforms under the LK were 6 to 44% of those under the NK and 11 its isoforms were lacking under the LK treatment; the contents of 3 chitinase isoforms under LK were 11–27% of those under the NK and 2 its isoforms were absent under LK. In addition, stress signaling and recognizing proteins were significantly down-regulated or disappeared under the LK. In contrast, the LK resulted in at least 2-fold increases of only one peroxidase, one protease inhibitor, one non-specific lipid-transfer protein and histone H4 and in the appearance of H2A. Therefore, K deficiency decreased plant tolerance to environmental stresses, probably due to the significant and pronounced decrease or disappearance of a myriad of stress-related proteins

Cognitive effect following a blended (face to face and videoconference-delivered) format mindfulness training

While evidence supports the feasibility of online mindfulness training (MT), the effect of this approach on cognition remains unclear. The present study investigated changes in cognition following a newly developed 6-week videoconference-delivered MT program on cognitive function in two groups. The first group (n = 17) had two baseline assessments prior to MT [3 weeks after group two (n = 15)] to allow for evaluation of practice and learning effects. Four participants from each group were excluded from the final analysis due to missing data. Following MT, there was an improvement in switching of attention, working memory, executive function, and social cognition, but some of these effects were not easily accounted for by learning or practice effects. No significant changes were found on tasks measuring sustained attention, cognitive flexibility and inhibition, information processing, and sensory-motor function. Our findings suggest that domain-specific cognition might be enhanced by a brief videoconference-delivered MT, and larger, controlled studies to delineate the effects of online MT on subdomains of cognition are needed

The RNA landscape of Dunaliella salina in response to short-term salt stress

Using the halotolerant green microalgae Dunaliella salina as a model organism has special merits, such as a wide range of salt tolerance, unicellular organism, and simple life cycle and growth conditions. These unique characteristics make it suitable for salt stress study. In order to provide an overview of the response of Dunaliella salina to salt stress and hopefully to reveal evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of photosynthetic organisms in response to salt stress, the transcriptomes and the genome of the algae were sequenced by the second and the third-generation sequencing technologies, then the transcriptomes under salt stress were compared to the transcriptomes under non-salt stress with the newly sequenced genome as the reference genome. The major cellular biological processes that being regulated in response to salt stress, include transcription, protein synthesis, protein degradation, protein folding, protein modification, protein transport, cellular component organization, cell redox homeostasis, DNA repair, glycerol synthesis, energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, and ion homeostasis. This study gives a comprehensive overview of how Dunaliella salina responses to salt stress at transcriptomic level, especially characterized by the nearly ubiquitous up-regulation of the genes involving in protein folding, DNA repair, and cell redox homeostasis, which may confer the algae important mechanisms to survive under salt stress. The three fundamental biological processes, which face huge challenges under salt stress, are ignored by most scientists and are worth further deep study to provide useful information for breeding economic important plants competent in tolerating salt stress, other than only depending on the commonly acknowledged osmotic balance and ion homeostasis