Timeshare Technologies Factors, Business Conditions and Results of Development in Russia’s Travel Industry

: The article deals with timeshare informal nature, detects recreation system business features, problems and prospects of its development in terms of global travel industry development

Major Tourists’ Security Concerns in France at the Present Stage of Travel Business Development

France is the first most popular tourist destination in the international tourism. The article gives another look on France: homeless illegal immigrants, raids on synagogues, inappropriate conduct of migrants from North Africa. Besides, the article gives some recommendations on less troubled areas of France

Changing behavioral patterns : what education can do for tourism

Mestrado em Turismo, Inovação e Desenvolvimento na Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do CasteloAinda não houve um projeto de investigação sobre o impacto de poluição pessoal em turismo, mesmo assim alguns países como Malásia e Indonésia e outros reportam que a falta de limpeza estar a causar um impacto negativo no crescimento do turismo. Este projeto propõe-se a realizar e descobrir oportunidades de influenciar hábitos comuns de poluição na população, que afetam negativamente o desenvolvimento do turismo na Azerbaijão. Um outro objetivo importante é usar instrumentos de média social para realizar o projeto, nomeadamente, endereçar o público alvo, para envolve-lo ativamente no projeto e angariar dados. Uma investigação intensiva foi realizado para começar a perceber os hábitos de poluição de população. Inquérito foi realizado para angariar dados empíricos para o projeto. Um grupo em Facebook foi criado para o público alvo poder contribuir com ideias/histórias para a produção de uma "estória" (vídeo). Um segundo inquérito foi realizado para avaliar o impacto da história. O resultado imediato mais importante de projeto é de que os jovens importamse com a poluição pessoal e estão dispostos para tomar medidas para desenvolver o turismo. Um outro resultado é de que os instrumentos de média social são uma plataforma favorável para a realização de projetos, como este, uma vez que envolvem e empenham o seu público alvo.. Em conclusão, este projeto é um ponte de partida que, com esperança, vai preparar o terreno para mais investigações neste campo. Como o provérbio diz “pequenos pingos fazem o oceano”.There has been no research up to day on the impact of personal pollution on tourism, though some countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and others reported on the negative impact the lack of cleanliness is having on the tourism growth. This project has been conducted to find out the opportunities on how to impact the personal pollution habits of the population of Azerbaijan to develop tourism rather than changing them. Another important objective is taking advantage of the social media tools to carry out the project, namely reaching the target population, getting them engaged in the project, having them contribute, and online data collection. Intensive desktop research has been conducted to gain an insight into the personal pollution habits of the population. Survey has been conducted to collect the empirical data for the project. Facebook group has been created to get the target population engaged in the project through contributing ideas/stories for video. Second survey has been conducted to measure the effectiveness of the chosen story and conclusions have been drawn. The most important finding of the project is that the youths do care about the personal pollution and are willing to take actions to fight it to develop tourism. The results of the project also conclude that social media tools are a great platform to carry out projects, to reach and to impact the targeted audience. In conclusion, this project is a little drop which is hopefully going to give rise to the further research/projects into the field. As proverb says “Little drops make an ocean

Cell-penetrating peptide conjugates of peptide nucleic acids (PNA) as inhibitors of HIV-1 Tat-dependent trans-activation in cells

The trans-activation response (TAR) RNA stem–loop that occurs at the 5′ end of HIV RNA transcripts is an important antiviral target and is the site of interaction of the HIV-1 Tat protein together with host cellular factors. Oligonucleotides and their analogues targeted to TAR are potential antiviral candidates. We have investigated a range of cell penetrating peptide (CPP) conjugates of a 16mer peptide nucleic acid (PNA) analogue targeted to the apical stem–loop of TAR and show that disulfide-linked PNA conjugates of two types of CPP (Transportan or a novel chimeric peptide R(6)-Penetratin) exhibit dose-dependent inhibition of Tat-dependent trans-activation in a HeLa cell assay when incubated for 24 h. Activity is reached within 6 h if the lysosomotropic reagent chloroquine is co-administered. Fluorescein-labelled stably-linked conjugates of Tat, Transportan or Transportan TP10 with PNA were inactive when delivered alone, but attained trans-activation inhibition in the presence of chloroquine. Confocal microscopy showed that such fluorescently labelled CPP–PNA conjugates were sequestered in endosomal or membrane-bound compartments of HeLa cells, which varied in appearance depending on the CPP type. Co-administration of chloroquine was seen in some cases to release fluorescence from such compartments into the nucleus, but with different patterns depending on the CPP. The results show that CPP–PNA conjugates of different types can inhibit Tat-dependent trans-activation in HeLa cells and have potential for development as antiviral agents. Endosomal or membrane release is a major factor limiting nuclear delivery and trans-activation inhibition

Synthesis, cellular uptake and HIV-1 Tat-dependent trans-activation inhibition activity of oligonucleotide analogues disulphide-conjugated to cell-penetrating peptides

Oligonucleotides composed of 2′-O-methyl and locked nucleic acid residues complementary to HIV-1 trans-activation responsive element TAR block Tat-dependent trans-activation in a HeLa cell assay when delivered by cationic lipids. We describe an improved procedure for synthesis and purification under highly denaturing conditions of 5′-disulphide-linked conjugates of 3′-fluorescein labelled oligonucleotides with a range of cell-penetrating peptides and investigate their abilities to enter HeLa cells and block trans-activation. Free uptake of 12mer OMe/LNA oligonucleotide conjugates to Tat (48–58), Penetratin and R(9)F(2) was observed in cytosolic compartments of HeLa cells. Uptake of the Tat conjugate was enhanced by N-terminal addition of four Lys or Arg residues or a second Tat peptide. None of the conjugates entered the nucleus or inhibited trans-activation when freely delivered, but inhibition was obtained in the presence of cationic lipids. Nuclear exclusion was seen for free delivery of Tat (48–58), Penetratin and R(9) conjugates of 16mer phosphorothioate OMe oligonucleotide. Uptake into human fibroblast cytosolic compartments was seen for Tat, Penetratin, R(9)F(2) and Transportan conjugates. Large enhancements of HeLa cell uptake into cytosolic compartments were seen when free Tat peptide was added to Tat conjugate of 12mer OMe/LNA oligonucleotide or Penetratin peptide to Penetratin conjugate of the same oligonucleotide

A bi-functional siRNA construct induces RNA interference and also primes PCR amplification for its own quantification

RNA interference (RNAi) is a process of post-transcriptional gene silencing initiated by double-stranded RNAs, including short interfering RNA (siRNA). Silencing is sequence-specific and RNAi has rapidly become central to the study of gene function. RNAi also carries promise for selective silencing of viral and endogenous genes causal for disease. To detect the very low levels of siRNA effective for RNAi we modified the 3′ end of the sense strand of siRNA with a nuclease-resistant DNA hairpin. We show that the modified siRNA-DNA construct (termed ‘crook’ siRNA) functions as a primer for the PCR and describe a novel, yet simple PCR protocol for its quantification (amolar levels/cell). When transfected into mammalian cells, crook siRNA induces selective mRNA knock-down equivalent to its unmodified siRNA counterpart. This new bifunctional siRNA construct will enable future in vivo studies on the uptake, distribution and pharmacokinetics of siRNA, and is particularly important for the development of siRNA-based therapeutics. More generally, PCR-based detection of siRNA carries wide-ranging applications for RNAi reverse genetics

Steric antisense inhibition of AMPA receptor Q/R editing reveals tight coupling to intronic editing sites and splicing

Adenosine-to-Inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is a post-transcriptional mechanism, evolved to diversify the transcriptome in metazoa. In addition to wide-spread editing in non-coding regions protein recoding by RNA editing allows for fine tuning of protein function. Functional consequences are only known for some editing sites and the combinatorial effect between multiple sites (functional epistasis) is currently unclear. Similarly, the interplay between RNA editing and splicing, which impacts on post-transcriptional gene regulation, has not been resolved. Here, we describe a versatile antisense approach, which will aid resolving these open questions. We have developed and characterized morpholino oligos targeting the most efficiently edited site--the AMPA receptor GluA2 Q/R site. We show that inhibition of editing closely correlates with intronic editing efficiency, which is linked to splicing efficiency. In addition to providing a versatile tool our data underscore the unique efficiency of a physiologically pivotal editing site

Calculation of the ultracold neutron upscattering loss probability in fluid walled storage bottles using experimental measurements of the thermomechanical properties of Fomblin

We present experimental measurements of the properties of a liquid "Fomblin" surface obtained by the quasielastic scattering of laser light. The properties include the surface tension and viscosity as a function of temperature. The results are compared to the measurements of the bulk fluid properties. We then calculate the upscattering rate of ultracold neutrons (UCN) from thermally excited surface capillary waves on the liquid surface and compare the results to experimental measurements of the UCN lifetime in Fomblin fluid-walled UCN storage bottles, and show that the excess loss rate for UCN energies near the Fomblin potential can be explained. The rapid temperature dependence of the Fomblin storage lifetime is explained by our analysis.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures; 2nd version corrects several error