Grand corruption and government change: an analysis of partisan favoritism in public procurement

Incoming governments sometimes abuse their power to manipulate the allocation of government contracts so as to buy loyalty from cronies. While scandals suggest such practices are relatively widespread, the extent of such partisan favoritism is difficult to measure and the conditions under which it flourishes under-theorized. Drawing on theory regarding the role of institutions as constraints on corruption, we identify three spheres of political influence over government contracting and show how elites can manipulate two of those spheres to increase their opportunities to influence the procurement process and minimize external accountability, facilitating the corrupt allocation of contracts to partisan allies. Using an innovative big data methodology, we then identify the effects of a change in government on procurement markets in two countries, Hungary and the United Kingdom, which differ in terms of political influence over these institutions. We find that politically-favored companies secure 50–60% of the central government contracting market in Hungary but only 10% in the UK

Detached house

Předmětem této bakalářské práce je dřevostavba dvoupatrového, nepodsklepeného rodinného domu. Stavební pozemek se nachází v Brně. Rodinný dům je navržen s ohledem na okolní výstavbu a danou lokalitu. Objekt bude sloužit pro bydlení pětičlenné rodiny. Dům je téměř obdelníkového půdorysu. Hlavní vstup a vjezd do objektu je v úrovni 1NP. Svislé stěny jsou tvořeny dřevěným rámem s tepelnou izolací opláštěné z obou stran dřevoštěpkovými a sádrokartonovými deskami. Stropní konstrukce je z dřevěných trámů s vloženou izolací. Rodinný dům tvoří dvě šikmé jednoplášťové střešní plochy pultové střechy. Projekt byl zpracován pomocí počítačového programu Nemetschek Allplan.The subject of this thesis is two-storey wooden basement house. The building plot is located in Brno. The House is designed with the view of surrounding buildings and the location. The House will be used for living of a family of five members. The plan view of the House is almost rectangular. The main entrance and the driveway to the House is at 1st floor level. The vertical walls are formed by a wooden frame with thermal insulation sheathed on both sides of wood chip boards and plasterboards. The ceiling structure is made of wooden beams with embedded insulation. The detached house is covered with two sloping shed roofs. The project was prepared by a computer program called Nemetschek Allplan..

ComPPI: a cellular compartment-specific database for protein-protein interaction network analysis

Here we present ComPPI, a cellular compartment-specific database of proteins and their interactions enabling an extensive, compartmentalized protein-protein interaction network analysis (URL: http://ComPPI.LinkGroup.hu). ComPPI enables the user to filter biologically unlikely interactions, where the two interacting proteins have no common subcellular localizations and to predict novel properties, such as compartment-specific biological functions. ComPPI is an integrated database covering four species (S. cerevisiae, C. elegans, D. melanogaster and H. sapiens). The compilation of nine protein-protein interaction and eight subcellular localization data sets had four curation steps including a manually built, comprehensive hierarchical structure of >1600 subcellular localizations. ComPPI provides confidence scores for protein subcellular localizations and protein-protein interactions. ComPPI has user-friendly search options for individual proteins giving their subcellular localization, their interactions and the likelihood of their interactions considering the subcellular localization of their interacting partners. Download options of search results, whole-proteomes, organelle-specific interactomes and subcellular localization data are available on its website. Due to its novel features, ComPPI is useful for the analysis of experimental results in biochemistry and molecular biology, as well as for proteome-wide studies in bioinformatics and network science helping cellular biology, medicine and drug design

HSF1Base: A Comprehensive Database of HSF1 (Heat Shock Factor 1) Target Genes

HSF1 (heat shock factor 1) is an evolutionarily conserved master transcriptional regulator of the heat shock response (HSR) in eukaryotic cells. In response to high temperatures, HSF1 upregulates genes encoding molecular chaperones, also called heat shock proteins, which assist the refolding or degradation of damaged intracellular proteins. Accumulating evidence reveals however that HSF1 participates in several other physiological and pathological processes such as differentiation, immune response, and multidrug resistance, as well as in ageing, neurodegenerative demise, and cancer. To address how HSF1 controls these processes one should systematically analyze its target genes. Here we present a novel database called HSF1Base (hsf1base.org) that contains a nearly comprehensive list of HSF1 target genes identified so far. The list was obtained by manually curating publications on individual HSF1 targets and analyzing relevant high throughput transcriptomic and chromatin immunoprecipitation data derived from the literature and the Yeastract database. To support the biological relevance of HSF1 targets identified by high throughput methods, we performed an enrichment analysis of (potential) HSF1 targets across different tissues/cell types and organisms. We found that general HSF1 functions (targets are expressed in all tissues/cell types) are mostly related to cellular proteostasis. Furthermore, HSF1 targets that are conserved across various animal taxa operate mostly in cellular stress pathways (e.g., autophagy), chromatin remodeling, ribosome biogenesis, and ageing. Together, these data highlight diverse roles for HSF1, expanding far beyond the HSR

Controlling corruption in development aid: new evidence from contract-level data

Following scandals about corruption in foreign aid, and in a political climate that increasingly questions the legitimacy of development assistance, donors are under pressure to better control how their funds are spent. However, there is little evidence on precisely how to control corruption in development aid. This article assesses under which conditions donor regulations are successful in controlling corruption in aid spent by national governments through procurement tenders. The article analyses data on donor-funded procurement contracts in 100+ countries in 1998–2008 and uses ‘single bid submitted in a competitive tender’ as a corruption risk indicator. Applying a contract-level propensity score matching and regression analysis, it finds that an intervention which increases donor oversight and widens access to tenders is effective in reducing corruption risks: lowering single bidding on competitive markets by 3.6–4.3 percentage points. This effect is greater in countries with low-state capacity

NRF2-ome: An integrated web resource to discover protein interaction and regulatory networks of NRF2

NRF2 is the master transcriptional regulator of oxidative and xenobiotic stress responses. NRF2 has important roles in carcinogenesis, inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases. We developed an online resource, NRF2-ome, to provide an integrated and systems-level database for NRF2. The database contains manually curated and predicted interactions of NRF2 as well as data from external interaction databases. We integrated NRF2 interactome with NRF2 target genes, NRF2 regulating TFs, and miRNAs. We connected NRF2-ome to signaling pathways to allow mapping upstream NRF2 regulatory components that could directly or indirectly influence NRF2 activity totaling 35,967 protein-protein and signaling interactions. The user-friendly website allows researchers without computational background to search, browse, and download the database. The database can be downloaded in SQL, CSV, BioPAX, SBML, PSI-MI, and in a Cytoscape CYS file formats. We illustrated the applicability of the website by suggesting a posttranscriptional negative feedback of NRF2 by MAFG protein and raised the possibility of a connection between NRF2 and the JAK/STAT pathway through STAT1 and STAT3. NRF2-ome can also be used as an evaluation tool to help researchers and drug developers to understand the hidden regulatory mechanisms in the complex network of NRF2. © 2013 Dénes Türei et al

Signalogs: Orthology-Based Identification of Novel Signaling Pathway Components in Three Metazoans

BACKGROUND: Uncovering novel components of signal transduction pathways and their interactions within species is a central task in current biological research. Orthology alignment and functional genomics approaches allow the effective identification of signaling proteins by cross-species data integration. Recently, functional annotation of orthologs was transferred across organisms to predict novel roles for proteins. Despite the wide use of these methods, annotation of complete signaling pathways has not yet been transferred systematically between species. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we introduce the concept of 'signalog' to describe potential novel signaling function of a protein on the basis of the known signaling role(s) of its ortholog(s). To identify signalogs on genomic scale, we systematically transferred signaling pathway annotations among three animal species, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and humans. Using orthology data from InParanoid and signaling pathway information from the SignaLink database, we predict 88 worm, 92 fly, and 73 human novel signaling components. Furthermore, we developed an on-line tool and an interactive orthology network viewer to allow users to predict and visualize components of orthologous pathways. We verified the novelty of the predicted signalogs by literature search and comparison to known pathway annotations. In C. elegans, 6 out of the predicted novel Notch pathway members were validated experimentally. Our approach predicts signaling roles for 19 human orthodisease proteins and 5 known drug targets, and suggests 14 novel drug target candidates. CONCLUSIONS: Orthology-based pathway membership prediction between species enables the identification of novel signaling pathway components that we referred to as signalogs. Signalogs can be used to build a comprehensive signaling network in a given species. Such networks may increase the biomedical utilization of C. elegans and D. melanogaster. In humans, signalogs may identify novel drug targets and new signaling mechanisms for approved drugs