Collapsed bipolar glycolipids at the air/water interface: Effect of the stereochemistry on the stretched/bent conformations.

International audienceThis article describes a comparative study of several bipolar lipids derived from tetraether structures. The sole structural difference between the main two glycolipids is a unique stereochemical variation on a cyclopentyl ring placed in the middle of the lipids. We discuss the comparative results obtained at the air/water interface on the basis of tensiometry and ellipsometry. Langmuir-Blodgett depositions during lipid film compressions and decompressions were also analyzed by AFM. The lactosylated tetraether (bipolar) lipid structures involved the formation of highly stable multilayers, which are still present at 10mNm(-1) during decompression. This study suggests also that the stereochemistry of a central cyclopentyl ring dramatically drives the conformation of the corresponding bipolar lipids. Both isomers (trans and cis) adopt a U-shaped (bent) conformation at the air/water interface but the trans cyclopentyl ring induces a much more frustration within this type of conformation. Consequently, this bipolar lipid (trans-tetraether) undergoes a flip of one polar head-group (lactosyl) leading to a stretched conformation during collapse

TDAE Strategy in the Benzoxazolone Series: Synthesis and Reactivity of a New Benzoxazolinonic Anion

International audienceWe describe an original pathway to produce new 5-substituted 3-methyl-6-nitro-benzoxazolones by the reaction of aromatic carbonyl and α-carbonyl ester derivatives with a benzoxazolinonic anion formed exclusively via the TDAE strategy

Dynamics and dispensability of variant-specific histone H1 Lys-26/Ser-27 and Thr-165 post-translational modifications

Jean-Michel Terme et al.In mammals, the linker histone H1, involved in DNA packaging into chromatin, is represented by a family of variants. H1 tails undergo post-translational modifications (PTMs) that can be detected by mass spectrometry. We developed antibodies to analyze several of these as yet unexplored PTMs including the combination of H1.4 K26 acetylation or trimethylation and S27 phosphorylation. H1.2-T165 phosphorylation was detected at S and G2/M phases of the cell cycle and was dispensable for chromatin binding and cell proliferation; while the H1.4-K26 residue was essential for proper cell cycle progression. We conclude that histone H1 PTMs are dynamic over the cell cycle and that the recognition of modified lysines may be affected by phosphorylation of adjacent residues. © 2014 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) and European Regional Development Fund (Grant BFU2011-23057 to A.J., and Grant BFU2008-00460 to P.S.), and by the Regional Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya; Grant 2009-SGR-1222 to A.J.). J.-M.T. received a JAE-Doc contract from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)-MICINN; R.M. a TA contract from CSIC-MICINN; and L.M.-A. an FPU predoctoral fellowship from MICINNPeer Reviewe

What Prevents the Philippines from Undertaking Tax Reform? A Story of the Unravelling State

tax policy, tax administration, political economy, policy reform, PhilippinesOne of the crucial areas of government policy responsible for the weak development performance of the Philippines is tax policy and administration. By 2011, the tax to GDP ratio had fallen to a meagre 12.3 per cent, 4.6 percentage points below the pre-1997 level and around 7 points below the regional average. The absence of tax reform reflects a set of inter-related factors. First, long periods of political and economic stability have meant that crises have not provided the opportunity for reform that they allowed, for instance, in Latin America. Second, the highest level of income inequality in East Asia has resulted in state capture by the elite, which in turn perpetuates and increases income differences. Third, Filipinos exhibit a marked preference for the state to deliver private over public goods as a modern and legal version of patronage. Fourth, the middle classes, on whose shoulders the tax burden largely falls, aware of the state’s inability to tax the wealthy and the relatively poor quality of public services, opt out of state services and provide privately for education, health and even security. Fifth, the disempowerment of the poor keeps them quiescent, not putting pressure on the state to cater to their needs. Promising avenues for change include: a) academia and development partners to take a more active role in analysing and disseminating the reasons for the poor performance of the Philippine economy; b) stronger leadership by churches in encouraging integrity and pro-poor attitudes, behaviour, institutions and policies; and c) a coalition of all interested stakeholders for a more developmental, clean and pro-poor government, including committed civil servants and politicians, civil society organisations, academia, media, church groups and private sector representatives.DfID, NORAD

Private sector involvement in water services

Private sector involvement in water service

La perception de l'islam par les élites françaises (1830-1914)

Perceiving means to receive an information, to take it into account, to compare this information with the data from our memory, to process it according to our ways of thinking and then to pull from the image thus formed a consequence, that is to say: an act. To approach the perception of Islam by the French elites between 1830 and 1914, we initially, in our first book, made a compilation of presentations that "scholarship" elites - historians, writers, religious, linguists, philologists, artists - made of Islam; of the data they could receive from their memory, since we talked about Islam since Peter the Venerable; and of these ways of thinking that characterized the era by studying the evolution of the meaning of concepts like civilization, race, and political economy. We then, in a second book attempted to understand how and why the thus formed image had resulted in the colonization of Islamic lands by politicians, their advisors, their supporters, officers, industrialists, investors and administrators. Finally, in a third book, we tried to follow to this day the judgements that are made about these orientalist works. It seems to us that the process of an image, deliberately, and from the beginning, truncated by men convinced that early techniques of natural science could be applied to human sciences has led to a misunderstanding of both worlds.Percevoir signifie recevoir une information, la prendre en compte, la confronter aux données de notre mémoire et la traiter selon nos modes de raisonnement puis tirer de l’image ainsi formée une conséquence c’est-à-dire un acte. Pour approcher la perception de l’islam par les élites françaises entre 1830 et 1914 nous avons donc dans un premier Livre fait une compilation des présentations que les élites dites « d’érudition » : historiens, écrivains, religieux, linguistes, philologues, artistes, faisaient de l’islam ; des données qu’ils pouvaient recevoir de leur mémoire puisque l’on glosait sur l’islam depuis Pierre le Vénérable ; et des modes de raisonnement qui caractérisaient l’époque en étudiant l’évolution du sens des concepts de civilisation, de race, d’économie politique. Nous avons ensuite, dans un deuxième Livre essayé de comprendre comment et pourquoi l’image ainsi formée avait abouti à la colonisation de terres islamiques par des hommes politiques, leurs conseillers, leurs soutiens, des officiers, des industriels, des financiers, et des administrateurs. Enfin, dans un troisième Livre, nous avons tenté de suivre jusqu’à nos jours les jugements portés sur ces travaux orientalistes. Il nous semble que le traitement d’une image, au départ volontairement tronquée, par des hommes persuadés que les techniques - balbutiantes - des sciences de la nature pouvaient être appliquées aux sciences humaines a conduit à une incompréhension de deux mondes