The Timing of Daily Demand for Goods and Services – Multivariate Probit Estimates and Microsimulation Results for an Aged Population with German Time Use Diary Data

Though consumption research provides a broad spectrum of theoretical and empirical founded results, studies based on a daily focus are missing. Knowledge about the individual timing of daily demand for goods and services, opens – beyond a genuine contribution to consumption research – interesting societal and macro economic as well as individual personal and firm perspectives: it is important for an efficient timely coordination of supply and demand in the timing perspective as well as for a targeted economic, social and societal policy for a better support of the every day coordination of life. Last not least, the individual daily public and private living situations will be visible, which are of particular importance for the social togetherness in family and society. Our study contributes to the timing of daily consumption for goods and services with an empirical founded microanalysis on the basis of more than 37.000 individual time use diaries of the nationwide Time Budget Survey of the German Federal Statistical Office 2001/02. We describe the individual timing of daily demand for goods and services for important socio-demographic groups like for women and men, the economic situation with income poverty and daily working hour arrangements. The multivariate microeconometric explanation of the daily demand for goods and services is based on a latent utility maximizing approach over a day. We estimate an eight equation Multivariate/Simultaneous Probit Model, which allows the decision for multiple consumption activities in more than one time period a day. The estimates quantify effects on the timing of daily demand by individual socio-economic variables, which encompasses, personal, household, regional characteristics as well as daily working hour arrangements within a flexible labour market. The question about individual effects of an aged society on the timing of daily demand for goods and services is analyzed with our microsimulation model ServSim and a population forecast for 2020 by the German Federal Statistical Office. Main result: There are significant differences in explaining the timing of daily demand for goods compared to services on the one hand and in particular for different daily time periods. The conclusion: without the timing aspects an important and significant dimension for understanding individual consumption behaviour and their impacts on other individual living conditions would be missing

The glycosylated cell surface protein Rpf2, containing a resuscitation-promoting factor motif, is involved in intercellular communication of Corynebacterium glutamicum

Hartmann M, Barsch A, Niehaus K, Pühler A, Tauch A, Kalinowski J. The glycosylated cell surface protein Rpf2, containing a resuscitation-promoting factor motif, is involved in intercellular communication of Corynebacterium glutamicum. ARCHIVES OF MICROBIOLOGY. 2004;182(4):299-312.The genome of Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 contains two genes, rpf1 and rpf2, encoding proteins with similarities to the essential resuscitation-promoting factor (Rpf) of Micrococcus luteus. Both the Rpf1 (20.4 kDa) and Rpf2 (40.3 kDa) proteins share the so-called Rpf motif, a highly conserved protein domain of approximately 70 amino acids, which is also present in Rpf-like proteins of other gram-positive bacteria with a high G+C content of the chromosomal DNA. Purification of the C. glutamicum Rpf2 protein from concentrated supernatants, SDS-PAGE and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry identified modified Rpf2 variants with increased or reduced mobility when compared with the calculated size of Rpf2. A Western blot-based enzyme immunoassay demonstrated glycosylation of the Rpf2 variants with higher molecular masses. Galactose and mannose were identified as two components of the oligosaccharide portion of the Rpf2 glycoprotein by capillary gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The Rpf2 protein was localized on the surface of C. glutamicum with the use of immuno-fluorescence microscopy. C. glutamicum strains with defined deletions in the rpf1 or rpf2 gene or simultaneous deletions in both rpf genes were constructed, indicating that the rpf genes are neither individually nor collectively essential for C. glutamicum. The C. glutamicum rpf double mutant displayed slower growth and a prolonged lag phase after transfer of long-stored cells into fresh medium. The addition of supernatant from exponentially growing cultures of the rpf double mutant, the wild type or C. glutamicum strains with increased expression of the rpf1 or rpf2 gene significantly reduced the lag phase of long-stored wild-type and rpf single mutant strains, but addition of purified His-tagged Rpf1 or Rpf2 did not. In contrast, the lag phase of the C. glutamicum rpf double mutant was not affected upon addition of these culture supernatants

Mutations in the very low-density lipoprotein receptor VLDLR cause cerebellar hypoplasia and quadrupedal locomotion in humans

Quadrupedal gait in humans, also known as Unertan syndrome, is a rare phenotype associated with dysarthric speech, mental retardation, and varying degrees of cerebrocerebellar hypoplasia. Four large consanguineous kindreds from Turkey manifest this phenotype. In two families (A and D), shared homozygosity among affected relatives mapped the trait to a 1.3-Mb region of chromosome 9p24. This genomic region includes the VLDLR gene, which encodes the very low-density lipoprotein receptor, a component of the reelin signaling pathway involved in neuroblast migration in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. Sequence analysis of VLDLR revealed nonsense mutation R257X in family A and single-nucleotide deletion c2339delT in family D. Both these mutations are predicted to lead to truncated proteins lacking transmembrane and signaling domains. In two other families (B and C), the phenotype is not linked to chromosome 9p. Our data indicate that mutations in VLDLR impair cerebrocerebellar function, conferring in these families a dramatic influence on gait, and that hereditary disorders associated with quadrupedal gait in humans are genetically heterogeneous