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Signalling and genetic networks underlie most biological processes and are often complex, containing many highly connected components. Modelling these networks can provide insight into mechanisms but is challenging given that rate parameters are often not well defined. Boolean modelling, in which components can only take on a binary value with connections encoded by logic equations, is able to circumvent some of these challenges, and has emerged as a viable tool to probe these complex networks. In this review, we will give an overview of Boolean modelling, with a specific emphasis on its use in plant biology. We review how Boolean modelling can be used to describe biological networks and then discuss examples of its applications in plant genetics and plant signalling.
Expression levels of genes (RT-qPCR) related to Ca and P homeostasis (transporters and claudins (CLDN)) were determined in porcine jejunal and colonic mucosa. Forty growing pigs (BW 30·4 (sem 1·3) kg) received a low and high Ca content (2·0 and 9·6 g/kg, respectively) diet with or without microbial phytase (500 FTU/kg) for 21 d. Dietary Ca intake enhanced serum Ca and alkaline phosphatase concentration and reduced P, 1,25(OH)2D3, and parathyroid hormone concentration. Jejunal transient receptor potential vanilloid 5 (TRPV5) mRNA expression was decreased (32%) with phytase inclusion only, while colonic TRPV5 mRNA was reduced by dietary Ca (34%) and phytase (44%). Both jejunal and colonic TRPV6 mRNA expression was reduced (30%) with microbial phytase. Calbindin-D9k mRNA expression was lower in colonic but not jejunal mucosa with high dietary Ca (59%) and microbial phytase (37%). None of the mRNAs encoding the Na–P cotransporters (NaPi-IIc, PiT-1, PiT-2) were affected. Jejunal, but not colonic expression of the phosphate transporter XPR1, was slightly downregulated with dietary Ca. Dietary Ca downregulated colonic CLDN-4 (20%) and CLDN-10 (40%) expression while CLDN-7 was reduced by phytase inclusion in pigs fed low dietary Ca. Expression of colonic CLDN-12 tended to be increased by phytase. In jejunal mucosa, dietary Ca increased CLDN-2 expression (48%) and decreased CLDN-10 (49%) expression, while phytase slightly upregulated CLDN-12 expression. In conclusion, compared with a Ca-deficient phytase-free diet, high dietary Ca and phytase intake in pigs downregulate jejunal and colonic genes related to transcellular Ca absorption and upregulate Ca pore-forming claudins.
Over the last two decades, international humanitarian law (IHL) has seen a stalling with regard to States’ willingness to adopt treaties or to be formally involved in the development of IHL. This raises the question of whether holding on to the doctrine of sources as laid down in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice is the only way to meaningfully further develop IHL. Indeed, in recent years IHL instruments have often dispensed with certain formalities that are traditionally linked to (the formal sources of) international law; this phenomenon is also called “informal international law-making” (IIL). The present contribution will analyze IIL as an alternative way forward in light of the current “deadlock” caused by States’ unwillingness to conclude new IHL treaties or to recognize customary IHL. In this article, we will investigate and assess the opportunities, shortcomings and pitfalls offered by informality by looking into examples of IIL within IHL. More concretely, we will look into State practice in relation to (1) the Safe Schools Declaration, (2) the Tallinn Manual and Tallinn Manual 2.0, and (3) the Montreux Document. Most importantly, our findings will assess whether IIL can overcome one of its alleged main disadvantages: its lack of effectiveness.
This chapter captures the substance and range of the EU’s toolbox in tackling democratic backsliding in its Member States. It also discusses the limitations of these tools. The chapter shows how deterioration of democracy and the rule of law have had significant consequences in the migration context. It goes on to evaluate the EU’s toolbox against democratic decay in a migration context and discusses how the EU is currently bringing new initiatives forward to strengthen its democracy and legitimacy. The chapter concludes with a number of suggestions de lege lata and de lege ferenda on how the EU’s toolbox could become more effective.
Sixty growing male pigs were used to test the hypothesis that high dietary Ca content reduces P absorption to a greater extent in microbial phytase-supplemented diets via reducing inositol phosphate (IP) degradation and enhancing P precipitation. Pigs were equally allotted over diets with three Ca contents 2·0, 5·8 and 9·6 g/kg with or without microbial phytase (0 v. 500 FTU/kg) in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement. Faeces and urine were collected at the end of the 21-d experimental period. Subsequently, pigs were euthanised and digesta quantitatively collected from different gastrointestinal tract (GIT) segments. Increasing dietary Ca content reduced apparent P digestibility in all GIT segments posterior to the stomach (P < 0·001), with greater effect in phytase-supplemented diets in the distal small intestine (Pinteraction = 0·007) and total tract (Pinteraction = 0·023). Nonetheless, increasing dietary Ca to 5·8 g/kg enhanced P retention, but only in phytase-supplemented diets. Ileal IP6 degradation increased with phytase (P < 0·001) but decreased with increasing dietary Ca content (P = 0·014). Proportion of IP esters in total IP (∑IP) indicated that IP6/∑IP was increased while IP4/∑IP and IP3/∑IP were reduced with increasing dietary Ca content and also with a greater impact in phytase-supplemented diets (Pinteraction = 0·025, 0·018 and 0·009, respectively). In all GIT segments, P solubility was increased with phytase (P < 0·001) and tended to be reduced with dietary Ca content (P < 0·096). Measurements in GIT segments showed that increasing dietary Ca content reduced apparent P digestibility via reducing IP degradation and enhancing P precipitation, with a greater impact in phytase-supplemented diets due to reduced IP degradation.
This paper, written by Gineke Wiggers, Suzan Verberne, Gerrit-Jan Zwenne and Wouter Van Loon, addresses the concept of ‘relevance’ in relation to legal information retrieval (IR). They investigate whether the conceptual framework of relevance in legal IR, as described by Van Opijnen and Santos in their paper published in 2017, can be confirmed in practice.1 The research is conducted with a user questionnaire in which users of a legal IR system had to choose which of two results they would like to see ranked higher for a query and were asked to provide a reason for their choice. To avoid questions with an obvious answer and extract as much information as possible about the reasoning process, the search results were chosen to differ on relevance factors from the literature, where one result scores high on one factor, and the other on another factor. The questionnaire had eleven pairs of search results. A total of 43 legal professionals participated consisting of 14 legal information specialists, 6 legal scholars and 23 legal practitioners. The results confirmed the existence of domain relevance as described in the theoretical framework by Van Opijnen and Santos as published in 2017.2 Based on the factors mentioned by the respondents, the authors of this paper concluded that document type, recency, level of depth, legal hierarchy, authority, usability and whether a document is annotated are factors of domain relevance that are largely independent of the task context. The authors also investigated whether different sub-groups of users of legal IR systems (legal information specialists who are searching for others, legal scholars and also for legal practitioners) differ in terms of the factors they consider in judging the relevance of legal documents outside of a task context. Using a PERMANOVA there was found to be no significant difference in the factors reported by these groups. At this moment there is no reason to treat these sub-groups differently in legal IR systems.
This chapter examines the system of dispute settlement that is applicable to the Protocol. This system presents a rather unique combination of, on the one hand, the continued jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and, on the other hand, an arbitration procedure. As has been rightly observed, these are two very different enforcement mechanisms. The former relies on an existing supranational court which monitors respect for the EU legal order, works together with national courts, and allows some measure of access to individuals. The role of the CJEU is controversial: its case law and jurisdiction were political drivers of the proponents of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. The latter (arbitration), in contrast, represents a much more traditional public international law method that is new and available only to the parties of the WA.
Healthcare services, such as cochlear implants and subsequent rehabilitation, aim to increase valuable activities and opportunities of those affected. Their impact may be inferred from the extent that they protect or restore capability, which reflects the real freedoms that people have to be or do things they have reason to value. Capability emerges from the dynamic interaction between available resources, individual, social, and environmental conversion factors, and functionings. This model sets the informational requirements of the capability approach.
Methods
On the basis of interviews with thirty-three hearing impaired children and thirty hearing peers, information on capability elements (values, resources, conversion factors, and functionings) was collected. Qualitative results were triangulated with standardized clinical audiological and psycholinguistic quantitative measures.
Results
Hearing impaired children and their hearing peers concurred in terms of the doings and beings they valued, but differed in terms of conversion factors to realize capability. Parents of hearing impaired children played a more upfront role, hearing impairment predominated many areas of life, and communicating through hearing aids required more energy than was usually acknowledged by the people around them.
Conclusions
The capability approach offers opportunities not only to assess impact of technology on dimensions that are important to patients, but also to better understand the mechanisms that are involved in value generation.
There is evidence to suggest that patients delayed seeking urgent medical care during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A delay in health-seeking behavior could increase the disease severity of patients in the prehospital setting. The combination of COVID-19-related missions and augmented disease severity in the prehospital environment could result in an increase in the number and severity of physician-staffed prehospital interventions, potentially putting a strain on this highly specialized service.
Study Objective:
The aim was to investigate if the COVID-19 pandemic influences the frequency of physician-staffed prehospital interventions, prehospital mortality, illness severity during prehospital interventions, and the distribution in the prehospital diagnoses.
Methods:
A retrospective, multicenter cohort study was conducted on prehospital charts from March 14, 2020 through April 30, 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, in an urban area. Recorded data included demographics, prehospital diagnosis, physiological parameters, mortality, and COVID-status. A modified National Health Service (NHS) National Early Warning Score (NEWS) was calculated for each intervention to assess for disease severity. Data were analyzed with univariate and descriptive statistics.
Results:
There was a 31% decrease in physician-staffed prehospital interventions during the period under investigation in 2020 as compared to 2019 (2019: 644 missions and 2020: 446 missions), with an increase in prehospital mortality (OR = 0.646; 95% CI, 0.435 – 0.959). During the study period, there was a marked decrease in the low and medium NEWS groups, respectively, with an OR of 1.366 (95% CI, 1.036 – 1.802) and 1.376 (0.987 – 1.920). A small increase was seen in the high NEWS group, with an OR of 0.804 (95% CI, 0.566 – 1.140); 2019: 80 (13.67%) and 2020: 69 (16.46%). With an overall decrease in cases in all diagnostic categories, a significant increase was observed for respiratory illness (31%; P = .004) and cardiac arrest (54%; P < .001), combined with a significant decrease for intoxications (-58%; P = .007). Due to the national test strategy at that time, a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result was available in only 125 (30%) patients, of which 20 (16%) were positive.
Conclusion:
The frequency of physician-staffed prehospital interventions decreased significantly. There was a marked reduction in interventions for lower illness severity and an increase in higher illness severity and mortality. Further investigation is needed to fully understand the reasons for these changes.
The European Union (EU or Union) has the ambition to be an important actor in the global order. Pursuant to Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), it is set to “work for a high degree of cooperation in all fields of international relations” and “promote an international system based on stronger multilateral cooperation and good global governance.” More specifically, as TEU Article 3(5) stipulates, “[i]n its relations with the wider world,” the EU is tasked to “contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.”
The corporate responsibility to respect human rights was formally introduced in 2011 with the unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the UN Human Rights Council. It is grounded in social expectations and forms part of the companies' “social license to operate.” This paper argues that this responsibility is progressively turning into a legal duty for lead companies to respect human rights in those types of value chains which are characterized by a high level of control by a lead company over its business partners. Our argument rests on two recent legal developments. Firstly, the article analyzes the judicialization of the corporate responsibility to respect in the case law on parent company liability in various jurisdictions, which, we argue, is highly likely to have some implications in relation to certain types of value chains so as to trigger the liability of lead companies for the human rights harms arising out of the activities of entities over which they exercise sufficient control. Secondly, the article delves into the legislative developments which increasingly require lead companies to exercise due diligence so as to prevent and address adverse human rights impacts in their own activities and global value chains.
While international criminal law contains intricate rules regarding aiding and abetting, this specific body of law fails to elaborate on the ways in which one may aid or abet. This chapter first provides an overview of the relevant legal rules and the international case law regarding aiding and abetting. Next these rules are applied to funders of wars who provide financial support to a party to an armed conflict, in order to evaluate whether these funders can be held accountable as aiders and abettors. While individuals may be held responsible at the international level as aiders and abettors, companies themselves currently cannot. However, numerous individual States have enacted legislation to enable their domestic courts to determine corporate criminal liability in certain cases. This chapter therefore enquires whether domestic judicial systems can contribute effectively to the achievement of accountability when faced with cases involving companies having aided and abetted the principal perpetrator of an international crime.
This study aimed to examine: (1) patient–proxy agreement on executive functioning (EF) of patients with primary brain tumors, (2) the relationships between patient- and proxy-report with performance-based measures of EF, and (3) the potential influence of performance-based measures on the level of agreement.
Methods:
Meningioma and low-grade glioma patients and their informal caregivers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-A) 3 months after surgery. The two index scores of the BRIEF-A, Behavioral Regulation and Metacognition, were evaluated. Mean scores of patients and proxies were compared with normative values and with each other. Patient–proxy agreement was evaluated with Lin’s concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) and Bland–Altman plots. Pearson correlation coefficients between reported EF and performance-based measures of EF were calculated. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the potential influence of test performance on differences in dyadic reports.
Results:
A total of 47 dyads were included. Patients reported significantly more problems on the Metacognition Index compared to norms, and also in comparison with their proxies. Effect sizes indicated small differences. Moderate to substantial agreement was observed between patients and proxies, with CCCs of 0.57 and 0.61 for Metacognition and Behavioral Regulation, respectively. Correlations between reported EF and test performance ranged between −0.37 and 0.10. Dyadic agreement was not significantly influenced by test performance.
Conclusions:
Patient–proxy agreement was found to be moderate. No clear associations were found between reported EF and test performance. Future studies should further explore the existing and new methods to assess everyday EF in brain tumor patients.
By
Axel Marx, Deputy Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven.,
Claire Bright, European University Institute in Florence,
Nina Pineau, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB),
Jan Wouters, University Centre of Excellence
the right of access to a remedy for victims of corporate human rights abuses, enshrined in the third pillar of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, can be achieved through judicial and non-judicial mechanisms. this contribution aims to add to research in this field by focusing on the use of European Union (EU) Member States’ judicial mechanisms in claims involving human rights violations by EU-based companies in third countries. the contribution presents a mapping of all relevant legal proceedings brought before the courts of EU Member States. the mapping is based on a screening of specialised websites, existing mappings from other studies and a consultation of academic experts. On the basis of these sources the contribution makes an inventory of existing cases and provides key information on the company involved, the EU Member States in which the case takes place, the nature of the violation and the outcome. the contribution discusses the main implications of the findings in terms of the use of judicial instruments, the companies targeted, their outcomes and distribution across the EU.
INTRODUCTION
Unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) constitute the first authoritative global standard on business and human rights. the UNGPs are built on the ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework and introduce three pillars in which action needs to be taken. the first pillar focuses on the State's duty to protect against human rights abuses, the second on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the third on the victims ‘right of access to effective remedy where their human rights have been harmed. the UNGPs specify that the latter can be achieved through judicial and nonjudicial mechanisms. this contribution complements research on the use and effectiveness of EU Member States’ judicial mechanisms to hold companies to account for human rights abuses in third countries. this focus on third countries is becoming increasingly relevant in a world economy characterised by a massive increase in trade in goods and service and a changed nature of trade.
Edited by
Takao Suami, Waseda University, Japan,Anne Peters, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Germany,Dimitri Vanoverbeke, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium,Mattias Kumm, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
In chapter 16, Axel Marx and Jan Wouters take as a point of departure that while there is no lack of constitutional norms in international law, it is far more challenging to ensure their effective implementation. Their main thesis is that private governance schemes can act to enforce fundamental rules of public international law efficiently. In a globalised world, the monopoly of rule-making and enforcement no longer lies with sovereign states alone. An increasing number of private actors play a role. Indeed, a significant body of literature describes private actors’ role in transnational rule-making and enforcement. These private initiatives establish transnational mechanisms that enforce international law and global constitutional norms. Their enforcement of existing public international law makes them especially relevant for this volume. A focus on non-state actors enriches our understanding of how constitutionalisation processes might work ‘beyond the state’, since these actors enforce international norms, even when the norms are contested or rejected by sovereign states. Marx and Wouters substantiate this argument by focusing on a specific type of private actor, ‘voluntary sustainability standards’.
Through the observations and the analysis of maser polarization it is possible to measure the magnetic field in several astrophysical environments (e.g., star-forming regions, evolved stars). In particular from the linearly and circularly polarized emissions we can determine the orientation and the strength of the magnetic field, respectively. In these proceedings the implications, on observed data, of the new estimation of the Landé g-factors for the CH3OH maser are presented. Furthermore, some example of the most recent results achieved in observing the polarized maser emission from several maser species will also be reported.
Maser observations of both linearly and circularly polarized emission have provided unique information on the magnetic field in the densest parts of star forming regions, where non-maser magnetic field tracers are scarce. While linear polarization observations provide morphological constraints, magnetic field strengths are determined by measuring the Zeeman splitting in circularly polarized emission. Methanol is of special interest as it is one of the most abundant maser species and its different transitions probe unique areas around the protostar. However, its precise Zeeman-parameters are unknown. Experimental efforts to determine these Zeeman-parameters have failed. Here we present quantum-chemical calculations of the Zeeman-parameters of methanol, along with calculations of the hyperfine structure that are necessary to interpret the Zeeman effect in methanol. We use this model in re-analyzing methanol maser polarization observations. We discuss different mechanisms for hyperfine-state preference in the pumping of torsion-rotation transitions involved in the maser-action.
This article explores the idea that the USDOC imposed anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese shrimp producers despite the fact that the surge of shrimp imports giving rise to the duties may have come from elsewhere in the developing world. We argue that Vietnam's shrimp exporters may have been subject to anti-dumping duties because Vietnam has ‘non-market economy’ (NME) status in the United States. This makes it possible to levy higher duties against Vietnamese firms. We make the point that it was particularly inappropriate to impose anti-dumping duties against the Vietnamese shrimp industry because this industry shows clear indications of being perfectly competitive, whereby firms cannot dump. This in turn raises the question of how the USDOC was able to construct a dumping case where apparently none could have existed. Use of the ‘zeroing’ methodology, in conjunction with Vietnam's NME status, turns out to be central to the answer. The broader issue is that anti-dumping duties are overused where safeguards would be more efficient. The analysis is relevant for the current controversy over China's NME status with a number of its trading partners.