Tenant Empowerment Through Innovative Tenures: An Analysis of Woonbron–Maasoevers’ Client's Choice Programme

According to the recent Housing Memorandum (MVROM, 2000 MVROM 2000 Mensen-Wensen-Wonen: wonen in de 21e eeuw [What people want, where people live: housing in the 21st century] The Hague Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment  [Google Scholar] ), Dutch housing associations are expected to actively improve the control of tenants over their dwellings and their living environment and offer them more possibilities to choose their own type of tenure. Before the publication of the Memorandum, associations had already developed various innovative types of tenure, for example fixed rent contracts, tenant maintenance programmes and different forms of sale with discounts and risk-reducing conditions. With the introduction of these tenures, associations aim to contribute to their social objectives by improving tenants' satisfaction with their dwellings and to improve the market position of their stock as well. Our paper discusses innovative types of tenure that have been developed by the Dutch housing associations and their benefits and risks for tenant and landlord. We focus on the ‘Client's Choice’ programme that has been developed by the association WoonbronMaasoevers, which is recognised as a front-runner in offering households a wide range of choice in tenure and which is also illustrative of many of the benefits and risks of the innovative tenures.

We conclude that many of the innovative tenures, including the Client's Choice programme, can contribute to tenant empowerment and freedom of choice. However, low-income households will mostly have to keep relying on (social) rented housing and other forms of empowerment. For the landlord, the Client's Choice programme has the benefit of increasing cash flow, which can be used for (social) housing investments. However, there are also substantial financial risks, concerning the rate of sales, the development of market values and the potential costs of having to buy back all the dwellings at the end of their economic lifespan. Thus, the implementation of the Client's Choice programme on a large scale should be accompanied by measures to control or provide for these risks.     

A multi-angular mass spectrometric view at cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases: in vivo characterization and structure/function relationships

Mass spectrometry has evolved in recent years to a well-accepted and increasingly important complementary technique in molecular and structural biology. Here we review the many contributions mass spectrometry based studies have made in recent years in our understanding of the important cyclic nucleotide activated protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase G (PKG). We both describe the characterization of kinase isozymes, substrate phosphorylation, binding partners and post-translational modifications by proteomics based methodologies as well as their structural and functional properties as revealed by native mass spectrometry, H/D exchange MS and ion mobility. Combining all these mass spectrometry based data with other biophysical and biochemical data has been of great help to unravel the intricate regulation of kinase function in the cell in all its magnificent complexity.     

Coupled thermo-mechanical simulations of shot impacts: Effects of the temperature on the residual stress field due to shot-peening

Shot-peening is an industrial surface treatment used to improve fatigue life of mechanical components. This process generates a compressive residual stress field on the part's surface and offers a protection against crack initiation and propagation, corrosion, etc. Although the consequences of the process on fatigue life are well known, the physical influence of the relevant parameters is not fully understood. Few of the existing shot-peening models are thus able to reproduce the correct residual stress field obtained via the actual process. This paper presents a finite element simulation of an impact including thermo-mechanical effects to investigate the influence of temperature on the residual stress field obtained through shot-peening. The influence of parameters of the process such as velocity, radius and hardness of the shot has also been studied in relation with thermal effects. It is observed that the temperature can reach 200 °C in the material. Further, the temperature significantly affects the residual stress field for high shot velocities. It can be concluded that shot-peening is a complex combination of physical processes, including thermal effects, which should be taken into account to better master this manufacturing process.     

The Phase Behavior of γ-Oryzanol and β-Sitosterol in Edible Oil

The phase behavior of binary mixtures of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol and ternary mixtures of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol in sunflower oil was studied. Binary mixtures of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol show double‐eutectic behavior. Complex phase behavior with two intermediate mixed solid phases was derived from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) data, in which a compound that consists of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol molecules at a specific ratio can be formed. SAXS shows that the organization of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol in the mixed phases is different from the structure of tubules in ternary systems. Ternary mixtures including sunflower oil do not show a sudden structural transition from the compound to a tubule, but a gradual transition occurs as γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol are diluted in edible oil. The same behavior is observed when melting binary mixtures of γ‐oryzanol and β‐sitosterol at higher temperatures. This indicates the feasibility of having an organogelling agent in dynamic exchange between solid and liquid phase, which is an essential feature of triglyceride networks.     

Organogel-Based Emulsion Systems,Micro-Structural Features and Impact on In Vitro Digestion

Organogels based on edible oils and specific mixtures of phytosterols can serve as structured systems with a low saturated fat content. These low-SAFA organogels can be used also to create o/w emulsions. Little is known about the structures formed in these specific organogels and at the emulsion interface. We studied o/w organogels on different length scales to describe and understand their micro-structural features. Very basic processing conditions such as composition, temperature and storage time were taken into account. Two different types of structure were observed; at the smallest scale, long thin crystals are formed out of the oil phase into the continuous water phase. We propose that these are needle-like crystals. Next, tube-like structures are identified and can be visualized as tubular micelles. A model is proposed which fits the dimension (~7 nm) with the length scale of the molecular building blocks (TAGs and sterols). As edible fats from food products are enzymatically hydrolyzed in the gut prior to absorption, we also looked into the impact on the lipase reaction speed. Simple in vitro enzymatic hydrolysis experiments showed a slower enzymatic digestion. Organogel systems and emulsion made thereof have interesting food structuring properties with possible advantages in composition (low SAFA) and digestion speed. All authors were full time employees or trainee (MC) of Unilever during actual execution of this study.     

The position of the structurally autonomous kringle 2 domain influences the functional features of tissue-type plasminogen activator

Tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) is composed of structurallyautonomous domains. From the N-terminus of t-PA, a finger-likedomain (F), an epidermal growth factor-like domain (G), twokringle domains (Kl and K2) and a serine protease domain (P)can be discerned. The K2 domain of t-PA is known to be involvedin lysine binding, fibrin binding and fibrin-dependent plasminogenactivation. To study the functional autonomy of the K2 domainin t-PA we constructed, with the aid of a cassette t-PA gene[Rehberg et al. (1989) Protein Engng, 2,371–377], mutantt-PA genes coding for four molecules (FGK1K2P, FGK2K1P, GK1K2Pand GK2K1P) in which the K2 domain was placed in two differentpositions in t-PA. The DNAs of wild-type t-PA and the t-PA variantswere expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells and the recombinantproteins were purified by affinity chromatography.All moleculeswere expressed in their single-chain form and could be convertedto their two-chain form. With these molecules, lysine binding,fibrin binding and fibrin-dependent plasminogen activation werestudied. All variants showed affinity for lysyl-Sepharose andaminohexyl-Sepharose. Reversal of the K domains (FGK2K1P versusFGK2K1P and GK1K2P versus GK2K1P) resulted in a 23–47%weaker interaction to both lysyl-Sepharose and aminohexyl-Sepharose.Deleting the F domain (FGK1K2P versus GK1K2P and FGK2K1P versusGK2K1P) resulted in a 20–70% improvement of the interactionslysyl-Sepharose and aminohexyl-Sepharose. All variants boundto a forming fibrin clot. Reversal of the K domains (FGK1K2Pversus FGK2K1P) reduced fibrin binding. In the presence of thelysine analogue -amino caproic acid, only FGK1K2P bound to fibrin.All variants activated plasminogen. In the absence of fibrinogenCNBr fragments (mimic of fibrin), the reversal of the K domain(FGK2K1P) resulted in a 2-fold improved plasminogen activation.In the presence of a fibrin mimic, the plasminogen activationsof the F domain deletion analogues GK1K2P and GK2K1P were foundto be decreased 2- to 4-fold. From these results we concludedthat the function of t-PA in lysine binding, fibrin bindingand fibrin-dependent plasminogen activation is dependent onthe correct spatial orientation of the K2 domain within thet-PA molecule     

Evaluation of data analysis strategies for improved mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics

Here we describe a set of enhanced data processing and filtering methods to improve significance and coverage of phosphopeptide identifications by mass spectrometry. We demonstrate that for samples of limited complexity, spectra-based estimation of false discovery rates will lead to overprediction of confidently identified phosphorylated peptides due to a bias caused by multiple fragmentation of highly abundant peptide species. We further provide evidence that fragmentation of abundant peptides at the tails of their chromatographic peaks is a major source for false positive peptide matches and that overall confidence in phosphopeptide identifications can be improved by a chromatographic peak-based aggregation scheme, intensity rank-based neutral loss and optimized mass error filters. When replicate runs of a standard sample were performed using different fragmentation techniques on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer we observed improvements of 7-31% in phosphopeptide coverage depending on the fragmentation method and the desired false discovery rate.     

The Impact of Cultural Distance on Bilateral Arm��s Length Exports

• Prior studies have argued and regularly found that cultural distance is negatively related to bilateral export flows, which are the sum of arm??s length and intra-firm exports. However, these macro-level studies overlook the firm-level insights that arm??s length exports are a substitute for arm??s length affiliate sales, and that firms?? choices between these substitutes are influenced by cultural distance.
• Moreover, intra-firm exports are a complement to arm??s length affiliate sales and hence likely to respond in the same way to cultural distance as such sales. The inclusion of intra-firm exports in export flows has thus obscured the effect of cultural distance on aggregate arm??s length exports.
• We overcome these conceptual and methodological deficiencies by examining how cultural distance influences aggregate arm??s length exports, while simultaneously considering its impact on aggregate arm??s length affiliate sales. Drawing on several strands of firm-level international business (IB) research, we argue that while arm??s length affiliate sales are likely to decline with cultural distance, this is not necessarily the case with arm??s length exports, which may in fact increase with cultural distance.
• Analyzing a panel dataset of US foreign affiliate sales and US exports to unaffiliated parties, we find that cultural distance negatively affects arm??s length affiliate sales but positively affects arm??s length exports. Our study thus shows that the explicit consideration of firm-level entry mode choices helps us better understand and explain macro-level IB activity.

     

Monolithic silica-based capillary reversed-phase liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry for plant metabolomics

Application of C18 monolithic silica capillary columns in HPLC coupled to ion trap mass spectrometry detection was studied for probing the metabolome of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. It could be shown that the use of a long capillary column is an easy and effective approach to reduce ionization suppression by enhanced chromatographic resolution. Several hundred peaks could be detected using a 90-cm capillary column for LC separation and a noise reduction and automatic peak alignment software, which outperformed manual inspection or commercially available mass spectral deconvolution software.     

General microarray technique for immobilization and screening of natural glycans

We here present a printed covalent glycan microarray for protein-binding studies, using low-femtomole quantities of glycans. Glycans, either natural glycans, which were released from glycoproteins and glycolipids from natural sources, or synthetic glycans, were labeled with common fluorescent labels (e.g., 2-aminobenzamide or 2-aminobenzoic acid) by reductive amination and purified by HPLC. The purified glycoconjugates were covalently immobilized on commercial epoxide-activated glass slides via the secondary amine group that links the glycan moiety with the fluorescent tag. This immobilization procedure is generally applicable to reductively aminated glycans with different established fluorescent labels and allows the spatial arrangement of oligosaccharides. The microarray comprised a variety of natural glycans from various biological sources and synthetic glycans and provided informative binding fingerprints for the lectin concanavalin A as well as 14 monoclonal antibodies. Recognized glycans were characterized by tandem mass spectrometry revealing binding motifs. This natural glycan array allowed the characterization of the specificity of carbohydrate-binding proteins for oligosaccharide ligands from sparse biological sources. Moreover, it was applied for the characterization of the microarray glycans by using known carbohydrate-binding proteins.