Explaining telecoms and electricity internationalization in the European Union: a political economy perspective

One consequence of the liberalization of certain services in the European Union was that a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity rapidly transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. However, the precise relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization is contested. This article tests three persuasive arguments derived from the political economy literature on this relationship. The first claims that those incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalise most. The second asserts the opposite: incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance their aggressive internationalisation. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using correlation and cluster analysis of the sample of all major EU telecoms and electricity incumbent Multinationals evidence is found in favour of the third hypothesis. Internationalization as a response to liberalization took diverse forms in terms of timing and extent and this is best explained using a country, sector and firm logic

Structural features and functional activities of benzimidazoles as NOD2 antagonists

NOD1 and NOD2 are pattern recognition receptors that have important roles in innate immune responses. Although their overactivation has been linked to a number of diseases, NOD2 in particular remains a virtually unexploited target in this respect, with only one structural class of antagonist reported. To gain insight into the structure-activity relationships of NOD2 antagonists, a series of novel analogs was designed and synthesized, and then screened for antagonist activity versus NOD2, and counter-screened versus NOD1. Compounds 32 and 38 were identified as potent and moderately selective NOD2 antagonists, and 33 and 42 as dual NOD1/NOD2 antagonists, with balanced activities against both targets in the low micromolar range. These data enable in-depth exploration of their structure-activity relationships and provide deeper understanding of the structural features required for NOD2 antagonism

Phagocytosis and killing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by Trichomonas vaginalis

Type 2 and 4 transparent and opaque Neisseria gonorrhoeae demonstrated a logarithmic loss of viability with a half life of approximately 10-30 min when incubated in the presence of Trichomonas vaginalis. Although this effect was observed in the absence of serum for most types of gonococci tested, it was consistently enhanced by the addition of human serum. Only for type 4 transparent gonococci did this process show an absolute serum requirement. Cytochalasin B inhibited the loss of viability. The nonphagocytic cattle parasite Tritrichomonas foetus did not ingest or kill N. gonorrhoeae. Electron microscopy revealed phagocytic uptake and degradation of N. gonorrhoeae in T. vaginalis, indicating that the loss of viability of N. gonorrhoeae was the result of phagocytosis followed by intracellular killing of gonococci by T. vaginalis