bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A novel microextraction by packed sorbent–gas chromatography procedure for the simultaneous analysis of antiepileptic drugs in human plasma and urine
Authors: Rani Susheela , Malik Ashok Kumar
Published: September 2012

A simple, accurate, and sensitive microextraction by packed sorbent–gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of four antiepileptic drugs; oxcarbazepine, carbamazepine, phenytoin, and alprazolam in human plasma and urine as a tool for drug monitoring. Caffeine was used as internal standards for the electron ionization mode. An original pretreatment procedure on biological samples, based on microextraction in packed syringe using C18 as packing material gave high extraction yields (69.92–99.38%), satisfactory precision (RSD < 4.7%) and good selectivity. Linearity was found in the 0.1–500 ng/mL range for these drugs with limits of detection (LODs) between 0.0018 and 0.0036 ng/mL. Therefore, the method has been found to be suitable for the therapeutic drug monitoring of patients treated with oxcarbazepine, carbamazepine, phenytoin, and alprazolam. After validation, the method was successfully applied to some plasma samples from patients undergoing therapy with one or more of these drugs. A comparison of the detection limit with similar methods indicates high sensitivity of the present method over the earlier reported methods. The present method is applied for the analysis of these drugs in the real urine and plasma samples of the epileptic patients.
The role of high‐dose‐rate and pulsed‐dose‐rate brachytherapy in the management of recurrent or residual stomal tumor after total laryngectomy
Authors: Bartochowska Anna , Skowronek Janusz , Wierzbicka Małgorzata , Leszczyńska Małgorzata , Szyfter Witold
Published: September 2012

Objectives/Hypothesis:

The main purpose of the study was to assess the role and efficacy of high‐dose‐rate (HDRBT) and pulsed‐dose‐rate (PDRBT) brachytherapy in the palliative treatment of recurrent or residual stomal tumor after total laryngectomy.

Study Design:

We aimed at presenting a series of 22 consecutive patients treated in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of Poznań University of Medical Sciences, and in the Brachytherapy Department of Greater Poland Cancer Center.

Methods:

In 16 patients PDRBT was used and in six patients HDRBT was used. In three patients, BT procedures were performed in combination with simultaneous chemotherapy. Two patients were additionally treated with interstitial hyperthermia. In 16 patients, surgical cytoreduction of the tumor preceded the catheters placement. In six patients, a second course of BT was performed due to neck metastases. All patients were regularly followed up within 6 months. Local control, complications, and survival were assessed.

Results:

Complete and partial remissions 6 months after finishing the treatment were achieved in four (20%) patients, while survival rates 24 months after BT were estimated for 22%. Severe late complications occurred in two (9%) patients.

Conclusions:

The results of our study show that HDRBT and PDRBT are feasible in previously irradiated patients with recurrent or residual stomal tumor after total laryngectomy. They provide acceptable toxicity and good palliative effect. Laryngoscope, 2013
Syntheses and characterization of functionalized polynorbornene dicarboximides for flexible substrates
Authors: Park Shinkyu , Choi Myeon‐Cheon , Cho Hun Jeong , Shin Won‐Jeong , Jang Won Bong , Chae Gee Sung , Ha Chang‐Sik
Published: September 2012

In this study, we synthesized polynorbornene (PNB) dicarboximides substituted by monochlorophenyl group (PMCPhNDI) and dichlorophenyl group (PDCPhNDI) via ring‐opening polymerization using a ruthenium catalyst and investigated their thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. We also discussed the performance and application of the functionalized PNB dicarboximide films as flexible substrates for organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs). The polymer films exhibited good optical transparency with an average transmittance of around 97% in the visible light region and good thermal stability with a 5% degradation temperature of >440°C. The polymers were applied for flexible displays, which were coated on indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films using a radio‐frequency planar magnetron sputtering system with changing the deposition substrate temperatures. A flexible OLED that was fabricated on the ITO‐grown polymer substrates exhibited a performance as comparable to the corresponding ITO‐grown glass substrates. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Proteome‐base biomarkers in diabetes mellitus: Progress on biofluids' protein profiling using mass spectrometry
Authors: Isabel Padrão Ana , Ferreira Rita , Vitorino Rui , Amado Francisco
Published: September 2012

The worldwide number of individuals suffering from diabetes mellitus (DM) has been projected to rise from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030. Identification of specific biomarkers for prediction and monitoring of DM is needed not only for the adequate screening diagnosis but also to assist the design of interventions to prevent or delay progression of this pathology and its attendant complications. Proteomic methods based on MS hold special promise for the identification of novel biomarkers that might form the foundation for new clinical tests, but to date, their contribution has been somehow unfruitful. Indeed, from more than 300 proteins found differently modulated in body fluids from diabetic patients, approximately 50 were validated with other approaches like ELISA or Western blotting and the clinical trials are being initiated to employ biofluids’ proteomics (specifically urinary proteomics) in clinical decision. This review provides an overview of MS‐based applications in the identification of potential biomarkers for DM, emphasizing the methodological challenges involved.
The effect of background wind on mesoscale circulations above variable soil moisture in the Sahel
Authors: Dixon N. S. , Parker D. J. , Taylor C. M. , Garcia‐Carreras L. , Harris P. P. , Marsham J. H. , Polcher J. , Woolley A.
Published: September 2012

Observational data are presented from several low‐level flights carried out during the afternoon over areas of the Sahel that had been previously wetted by rain. The measurements are used to quantify the response of boundary‐layer circulations to surface heterogeneity over a range of ambient conditions. Satellite observations of surface temperature anomalies show that soil moisture is significantly correlated with the surface heterogeneity in a majority of flights. By analysing the flight data in frequency space, consistently high levels of coherence are found between surface and flight‐level measurements at length‐scales around 25 km, indicating the presence of mesoscale circulations induced by the surface variability. The circulations are detectable in all of the nine flights where the mean sensible heat flux is high enough and they persist in a range of background wind speeds up to 5 m s−1. Further analysis confirms that the spatial phase‐difference between surface and flight‐level variables increases with the strength of the mean wind along the flight track. The boundary‐layer thermal anomalies and circulations are advected downstream by the mean wind, and lead to convergent uplift on the order of 0.25 m s−1 at the 25 km scale. These results compare well with those from a cloud‐resolving model and are broadly consistent with an analytical, linear model of a heated boundary layer. By demonstrating the significance of soil moisture in driving the circulations, the study shows that soil moisture is a likely cause of the negative precipitation feedback seen in recent remote sensing studies over the region. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
Evaluation of solute diffusion tortuosity factor models for variously saturated soils
Authors: Chou Hsinyi , Wu Laosheng , Zeng Lingzao , Chang Andrew
Published: September 2012

Solute diffusion flux in soil is described by Fick's law along with a tortuosity factor to account for the tortuous and reduced diffusive pathway blocked by soil particles. Predictive models based on empirical or conceptual relationships with other more commonly measured soil attributes have been proposed to replace the time‐consuming and multifarious laboratory measurements. However, these models have not been systematically tested and evaluated with soils of different textures under comparable conditions. This study determined solute diffusion coefficients and calculated tortuosity factors of a sand, a sandy clay loam, and a clay at various degrees of water saturation, and used the experimental data to test the predictive capabilities of these models. All the test models can fit the experimental data reasonably well as evidenced by low root mean square errors (RMSEs). When the proposed (fixed) parameter values were used, the widely accepted Millington and Quirk tortuosity model resulted in highest RMSEs for all three test soils. In terms of model efficiency as described by Akaike weight, however, the tortuosity factors of the sand and sandy clay loam soils are best represented by a quadratic function of volumetric soil water content (with the largest Akaike weights), while the combined parallel‐series conceptual model assuming different configurations of film and pore water is the best for the clay soil. The Olesen power function tortuosity model has the second largest Akaike weights for the sand and sandy clay loam soils, while the So and Nye linear model has the second largest Akaike weight for the clay soil. The two‐region linear model of log (tortuosity factor) versus soil water content uses a similar framework to the conceptual model, and it can satisfactorily fit to the experimental data well (low RMSEs), but with low Akaike weights due to the large number of parameters in the model. Adaption of the findings from this study may substantially improve solute diffusion modeling in unsaturated porous media.
Fraction of natural area as main predictor of net CO2 emissions from cities
Authors: Nordbo Annika , Järvi Leena , Haapanala Sami , Wood Curtis R. , Vesala Timo
Published: September 2012

Cities account for most anthropogenic greenhouse‐gas emissions, CO2 being most important. We evaluate the net urban contribution to CO2emissions by performing a meta‐analysis of all available 14 annual CO2budget studies. The studies are based on direct flux measurements using the eddy‐covariance technique which excludes all strong point sources. We show that the fraction of natural area is the strongest predictor of urban CO2 budgets, and this fraction can be used as a robust proxy for net urban CO2emissions. Up‐scaling, based on that proxy and satellite mapping of the fraction of natural area, identifies urban hotspots of CO2emissions; and extraction of 56 individual cities corroborates their inventory‐based estimates. Furthermore, cities are estimated as carbon‐neutral when the natural fraction is about 80%. This fresh view on the importance of cities in climate change treats cities as urban ecosystems: incorporating natural areas like vegetation.
Tense Marking and Spontaneous Speech Measures in Spanish Specific Language Impairment: A Discriminant Function Analysis
Authors: Grinstead John , Baron Alisa , Vega-Mendoza Mariana , De la Mora Juliana , Cantú-Sánchez Myriam , Flores Blanca
Published: September 2012

Purpose

To test the proposal that the tense deficit that has been demonstrated for children with specific language impairment (SLI) in other languages is also found in child Spanish and that low performance on tense-related measures can distinguish Spanish-speaking children with SLI from those without.

Method

The authors evaluated evidence from existing spontaneous production, elicited production, and grammaticality judgment studies of finiteness in child Spanish. They measured the relationship of 7 spontaneous speech measures with previous receptive and expressive measures of finiteness and performed a discriminant function analysis, using tense as the target variable, to classify monolingual child Spanish (n= 55) as representing SLI or as typically developing (TD).

Results

Spontaneous speech measures correlated with the results of previous receptive and expressive measures of child Spanish that show a tense deficit. The SLI group was shown to have statistically lower scores than the TD group on 6 of 7 spontaneous speech measures. Multiple discriminant functions, including tense measures by themselves and in combination with spontaneous speech measures, were shown to provide fair to good sensitivity and specificity in the classification of children as having SLI vs. TD.

Conclusion

The findings support the contention that the tense-marking deficit is a plausible clinical marker of SLI for Spanish-speaking children.
Intra-uterine growth retardation affects birthweight and postnatal development in pigs, impairing muscle accretion, duodenal mucosa morphology and carcass traits
Authors: Alvarenga A. L. N. , Chiarini-Garcia H. , Cardeal P. C. , Moreira L. P. , Foxcroft G. R. , Fontes D. O. , Almeida F. R. C. L.
Published: September 2012

The present study investigated the occurrence of intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) in newborn (n = 40) and 150-day-old (n = 240) pigs of different birthweight ranges (high, HW: 1.8–2.2 kg; low, LW: 0.8–1.2 kg) from higher-parity commercial sows and its impact on their subsequent development and carcass traits in a Brazilian commercial production system. HW newborn pigs had heavier organs than LW pigs (P < 0.01), and all brain : organ weight ratios were higher (P < 0.01) in LW compared with HW offspring, providing strong evidence of IUGR in the LW piglets. HW pigs had higher bodyweights and average daily gain (ADG) in all phases of production (P < 0.05), but ADG in the finisher phase was similar in both groups. Additionally, LW newborn and 150-day-old pigs showed a lower percentage of muscle fibres and a higher percentage of connective tissue in the semitendinosus muscle, greater fibre number per mm2 and a lower height of the duodenal mucosa (P < 0.05). On the other hand, HW pigs had higher hot carcass weight, meat content in the carcass and yield of ham, shoulder and belly (P < 0.01). Hence, lower-birthweight piglets may suffer from IUGR, which impairs their growth performance, muscle accretion, duodenal mucosa morphology and carcass traits.
Debating Difference
Authors: Bajpai Rochana
Published: September 2012

This book is about group rights and liberal democracy in India. It presents the first systematic account of the structure of public reasoning over group rights in India. It critiques both liberal and post-colonial narratives and constructs a framework that combines their insights for an empirical study of the norms of group rights in the country. It suggests that public reason is to be found not just in the thought of extraordinary individuals, but also in more routine practices of debate. The debates considered in this book involve policies of group-differentiated rights in India, mainly since independence in 1947. In India, special treatment of Muslims and lower castes, in the Shah Bano and Mandal cases, posed urgent dilemmas and was the topic of intense debate. Could special treatment for particular groups be reconciled with liberal democratic commitments to equal individual rights? Would the greater recognition of religion and caste in public policy mean the end of the Nehruvian nationalist project of ultimately transcending ethnicity, of building political community across social difference? For tackling the difficult dilemmas of group rights, was politics a problem or a part of the solution? The book’s interest in these questions coincided fortuitously with the emergence of liberal theories on group rights in the 1990s, which provided the initial intellectual shape to this inquiry. It elaborates the conceptual frame and its application to understanding key policy and power shifts in post-colonial India.
The Little Republic
Authors: Harvey Karen
Published: September 2012

The relationship between men and the domestic in eighteenth-century Britain has, until now, been obscure. The Little Republic rescues the engagement of men with the house from this obscurity, better equipping historians to understand masculinity, the domestic environment and domestic patriarchy. This book reconstructs men’s experiences of the house, examining the authority that accrued to mundane and everyday household practices and employing men’s own concepts to understand what men thought and felt about their domestic lives. This book explores the distinctive relationship between the domestic environment and masculinity, and finds that ‘home’ is too narrow a concept for an understanding of eighteenth-century domestic experience. Focussing instead on the ‘house’, Harvey foregrounds a different domestic culture in which men and masculinity were central. Men acted within the domestic environment as general managers, accountants, consumers and as keepers of the family history in paper and ink. The book explores a model of domestic patriarchy based on a widely-shared discourse of ‘oeconomy’ – the practice of managing the economic and moral resources of the household for the maintenance of good order. ‘Oeconomy’ was a meaningful way of defining masculinity and established the house a key component of a manly identity and in practising ‘oeconomy’, men established their household authority through small acts of power. The book shows how the public identity of men depended upon the roles they performed within doors, straddling the divide of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the house.
Accountability and Ethics
Authors: Mégret Frédéric
Published: September 2012

This chapter conceptualizes and analyses the understudied question of accountability and ethics of international prosecutors. Ethics refer to the set of standards and principles that characterize ‘right conduct’ in the exercise of a profession. Accountability can be seen as both a process (and the procedures that go with it), or an end-state, a quality (that of being accountable). The core of accountability is that one can be called upon to answer for one's behaviour and decisions. How one is made to answer in the context of international prosecutions is the object of the chapter.
Epilepsy and the study of spatial memory using virtual reality
Authors: Bohbot Véronique D. , Dahmani Louisa
Published: September 2012

This chapter describes the use of virtual reality (VR) in the assessment of spatial memory in patients with epilepsy. VR has been an extremely useful resource for the study of the role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in spatial memory and cognitive mapping in patients with epilepsy. While several studies show that the right and left MTLs are specialized in the learning and memory of spatial and verbal information, respectively, recent VR studies in patients with unilateral MTL resections show that, in fact, both the right and left medial temporal lobes are essential. A recent fMRI study conducted with epilepsy patients showed that patients with right-sided MTL lesions have significant activity in the left hippocampus during a virtual navigation task, whereas patients with left-sided lesions have significant activity in the right hippocampus. Studies like these suggest that both the right and left hippocampus contribute to spatial memory and navigation.
Don't Feed Your Movements When You Shift Your Objects
Authors: Bošković Željko
Published: September 2012

The chapter provides a new argument for Chomsky’s (2008) parallel movement hypothesis, which eliminates traditional A-A’ movement feeding relations, based on quantifier float in Icelandic object shift constructions, and shows that the mechanism in question provides a tool for teasing apart different analyses of Icelandic object shift. In particular, it provides an argument that the landing site of Icelandic object shift is higher than SpecvP/SpecAgroP.
TARGETING CO-BELLIGERENTS
Authors: Ohlin Jens David
Published: September 2012

This chapter investigates the tension between national security and civil liberties through a distinctive conceptual framework: what linking principle can be used to connect the targeted individual with the collective group that represents the security threat? The chapter is organized as follows. Section II explains and defends this methodology by demonstrating that no account of targeted killing — whether sounding in jus in bello or jus ad bellum — can be complete without making explicit reference to a linking principle. Section III then proceeds to catalogue five major linking principles — taken from different domains of law including the use of force, international humanitarian law, and criminal law — that could potentially serve that function: direct participation, co-belligerency, membership, control, and complicity/conspiracy. Section IV concludes with a comparative evaluation of the linking principles that exposes their strengths and weaknesses.
THE PRIVILEGE OF BELLIGERENCY AND FORMAL DECLARATIONS OF WAR
Authors: Meyer Richard V.
Published: September 2012

This chapter argues that the blurring of the lines between domestic law and morality on the one side, and the law and morality of war on the other, is artificial and based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the realm of combat. War, which is a much more definitive term than armed conflict, if it is to continue to exist in the human experience, must operate largely outside the realm of domestic criminal law and ordinary morality. The following changes to international law are proposed: With minor exceptions, privileged belligerency will be limited to the uniformed military, militias and populace (in the event of a levée en masse) of a state that has declared war publicly and officially. States may declare war against other states, non-state organizations, or individuals, provided these declarations comply with Articles 2(4) and 51 of the United Nations Charter. The International Court of Justice has the power to nullify declarations of war. To prove the need for these revisions, the chapter first explores the fundamental moral and legal differences between the ordinary human experience and armed combat. Next it briefly examines the confusing and problematic status quo versus the intended regime of war. Finally, it discusses the specifics of the above proposal, its merits and challenges.
TARGETED KILLINGS AND THE MORALITY OF HARD CHOICES
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: September 2012

This chapter approaches the question of the morality of targeted killing by developing a general theoretical framework for answering questions about what morality permits, forbids, and requires. The framework consists of three levels. At the first level is the consequentialist principle that one ought to choose that action from among the alternatives that will bring about the greatest net good in the world. This principle is decisive in determining the moral status of an action across a wide range of cases, but it can be preempted by principles that belong to the second level. At that level are the deontological principles that specify ‘strong permissions’, which allow an agent to choose an action that does not have the optimal consequences, and ‘strict obligations’, which require the agent to perform an action that does not have the optimal consequences. The right of self-defence is a strong permission, and the prohibition on deliberately killing one innocent person in order to save, say, three other innocents is a strict obligation. Normally, such permissions and obligations are decisive when they apply to a case, but at the third level of the framework is a principle that overrides those permissions and obligations in cases in which catastrophic consequences would otherwise ensue. Using this framework, a decision tree is constructed that shows at what point in the deliberation process, and how consequentialist and deontological considerations are to figure in a decision about the moral permissibility of an action.
The Subjective Dangers of Projects of World Community
Authors: Koskenniemi Martti
Published: September 2012

One should be careful with those who speak in the name of humanity and try to impose any particular blueprint on the world. Proposals for the legal-institutional architectures for the government of the whole world and other designs may seem appealing when stated in the abstract. However, their concrete realization always involves some distribution of power, and with it, some privileging of preferences and values. Claims to humanity are always infected by the particularity of the speaker, the world of his or her experience, culture and profession, knowledge and ignorance. This chapter argues that a realistic utopia can only begin with the critique of present institutions — the United Nations, the World Bank, the Kyoto Protocol, the operations of large multinational companies, the structures of public law and private ordering that decide on the distribution of material and spiritual values today. It is a mindset and an attitude that seeks to highlight the contingency and contestability of global institutions and their distributionary consequences.
Whether Universal Values can Prevail over Bilateralism and Reciprocity
Authors: Paulus Andreas
Published: September 2012

As long as the world order is based on a decentralized legal system, reciprocity remains one of the pillars of that order. However, community interests have emerged, which have some common features. Firstly, they do not (only) refer to individual interests or rights of certain states, but concern the community at large. Next, they are of sufficient importance so that it is not enough to leave their implementation to the usual interplay between states. Some, but not all of those interests also fulfil a third criterion. That is that they give rights to non-state actors that do not have the necessary international standing to see to enforcement themselves, such as interests related to the environment, the self-determination of peoples, or human rights. Community interests normally tend to implement universal values protected in international rules of jus cogens. At present, there is no reason why community interests should not be protected by the traditional means of reciprocity. However, in the last resort it is international institutions that have to take up collective concerns. This is the reason why the need for the bilateralization of community interests is the greatest in areas of international law that are not sufficiently institutionalized, such as environmental protection or human rights.
Are we Moving towards Constitutionalization of the World Community?
Authors: Peters Anne
Published: September 2012

In the past twenty years international law has evolved quite dramatically. Many aspects of this evolution can be described and interpreted as constitutionalization in the sense of an evolution from an international order based on some organizing principles such as state sovereignty, consensualism, non-use of force to an international legal order which acknowledges and has creatively appropriated principles and values of domestic constitutionalism. Constitutionalization is a matter of degree. It is an ongoing but not linear process, and is often disrupted. It is not all-encompassing, but is accompanied by antagonist trends. The constitutionalization process of international law is mainly driven by academics and to some extent by international courts, not by governments and treaty-makers. Nevertheless, the constitutionalist discourse has the merit of uncovering the structural deficiencies of current international law and assessing them in a new light. This chapter points to a set of failings of the present ‘constitutionalization’ of international law and suggest ways of moving forward towards a more ‘constitutionalized’ international society.
Managing Abidance by Standards for the Protection of the Environment
Authors: Viñuales Jorge E.
Published: September 2012

There are two core ideas underpinning international environmental law, namely ‘prevention’ and ‘balance’. The idea of prevention is enshrined in an array of principles such as those of no-harm, prevention, precaution, cooperation, prior informed consent, and environmental impact assessment which, in turn, can be found at the basis of many multilateral environmental agreements. The basic message carried by these principles is that environmental damage may be irreversible. Therefore, it is of vital importance to foster compliance with environmental standards, through monitoring and other means, rather than to determine responsibility through an adjudication mechanism once damage has occurred. The main focus of a judicious reformer should be on strengthening the means to monitor, facilitate, and manage compliance, as well as to carve out sufficient space for environmental considerations to be taken into account in specialized adjudication mechanisms. Four principal avenues are suggested for action to enhance compliance with environmental standards.
Prospects for Humanitarian Uses of Force
Authors: Tams Christian J.
Published: September 2012

How to strike a balance between the desire to restrict the availability of force and the need to protect human rights depends on the relative importance that a normative system accords to each of these values. The international legal system has adopted a rather differentiated approach that distinguishes between institutional and private uses of force, privileges certain values over others, and lives with grey areas of legal uncertainty. The international community has accepted that force can be used in two cases. To rescue nationals abroad and to provide military assistance to end colonial domination. International law does not recognize a right of states to forcible humanitarian intervention. Prospects for the future include, within the UN system, the organization might be able to make more frequent and more effective use of its existing competences; in addition, Council practice may help to develop agreed standards governing the auto-interpretation of equivocal mandates. Outside the UN system, the most likely scenario is that the international community will continue to reject humanitarian interventions while at the same time tolerating breaches in exceptional circumstances.
Fragmentation and Utopia: Towards an Equitable Integration of Finance, Trade, and Sustainable Development
Authors: Howse Robert
Published: September 2012

The aspiration to equity, providing to each his or her due, is inseparable from the utopian idea. We can help to achieve more equitable outcomes through better appreciating of the elements of equity implicit or sometimes explicit in the existing rules of international law, interpreting and applying them together with or in light of other norms of international law, such as those entrenched in the UN Human Rights Covenants. The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on exchange actions and balance-of-payments justifications for trade restrictions clearly reflect a conception of equity that takes into account the particular needs and situations of developing countries. A realistic utopia implies fully recognizing that equitable considerations are not narrow exceptions to technocratic governance of finance, or merely a form of aspirational rhetoric or soft law, but are central to the task of an international financial system embedded in the general project of international law. In the way that WTO dispute-settlement organs have interpreted the provisions in question, especially as they relate to developing countries, equity understood as differential treatment has too often been marginalized or even dismissed.
The Need Reasonably to Expand National Criminal Jurisdiction over International Crimes
Authors: Gaeta Paola
Published: September 2012

This chapter discusses the question of the extraterritorial expansion of criminal jurisdiction over international crimes. Since recourse to the territorial and active nationality principles is unlikely with respect to ‘core’ international crimes, the emerging culture of accountability for these crimes necessitates the expansion of domestic criminal jurisdiction on the basis of other principles. Whether and to what extent this is possible under international law ultimately depends on the approach one takes in relation to the notion of sovereignty and the competences of sovereign states under international law. For the repression of international crimes, customary international law allows extraterritorial jurisdiction on the basis of the passive personality and the protective principles. As for universal jurisdiction, controversy exists, inter alia, as to the need for a jurisdictional link to the forum state, in particular the presence of the suspect in the territory of the state. It is suggested that to put the exercise of universal jurisdiction in conformity to the principle of legality the presence of the suspect should be at least a requirement for the exercise of adjudicatory/enforcement jurisdiction. In addition, the judge exercising universal jurisdiction should be allowed to apply substantive criminal law which is most favourable to the accused among those of the forum state, the state of nationality, and the territorial state to fill the lacunae of international criminal law particularly in relation to penalties.
4 The composition of incremental change
Authors: Kennedy Christopher
Published: September 2012

Focusing on the analysis of degree achievements, Kennedy and Levin (2008) suggest that it is possible to provide a unified analysis of verbs of variable telicity in which aspect is determined by a function that measures the degree to which an object changes relative to some scalar dimension over the course of an event, which they refer to as a measure of change chapter. This chapter shows how this analysis can be extended to incremental theme verbs. In particular, The chapter demonstrates that the measure of change function in incremental predicates comes not from the verb, but from an independently necessary component of the incremental theme argument, and that the resulting scalar semantics is one in which the referential properties of this determine telicity in exactly the same way as the scalar properties of an adjectival root in degree achievements.
Frontiers of Pleasure
Authors: Peponi Anastasia-Erasmia
Published: September 2012

This book calls into question a number of influential modern notions regarding aesthetics by going back to the very beginnings of aesthetic thought in Greece and raising critical issues about Greek conceptions of how one responds to the beautiful. The analysis centers on a dominant aspect of beauty—the aural—associated with a highly influential sector of culture that comprised both poetry and instrumental music, the “activity of the Muses” named mousikê. The main argument relies on a series of close-grained readings of literary and philosophical texts, from Homer and Plato to Kant, Joyce, and Proust. Through detailed attention to such scenes as Odysseus’s encounter with the Sirens and Hermes’s playing of his newly invented lyre for his brother Apollo, the book demonstrates that the most telling moments in the conceptualization of the aesthetic are found in the Greeks’ debates and struggles over intense models of auditory pleasure. Despite a recent rebirth of interest in aesthetics, extensive discussion of this key cluster of topics has been lacking. Unlike current tendencies to treat poetry as an early, imperfect mode of meditating upon such issues, the author claims that Greek poetry and philosophy employed equally complex, albeit different, ways of articulating notions of aesthetic response. As a whole, the book discusses alternative modes of understanding aesthetics in its entirety.
Holy War in Judaism
Authors: Firestone Reuven
Published: September 2012

Holy war, defined for this study as war authorized or even commanded by God, is a fundamental part of biblical religion and a core institution of the Hebrew Bible. Jews of antiquity engaged in wars considered to be divinely sanctioned, but after crushing defeats against the Roman Empire this kind of response to communal threat became so self-destructive that Jewish leaders devised a means of removing holy war from the repertoire of Jewish political actions. The result was the tendering of two interpretive instruments, normative for nearly two thousand years, which would prevent Jewish zealots from declaring holy war and thus endangering the community. The exegesis was possible within a particular historical context, but times change. The transformations brought about by modernity required Jews to re-examine the traditional rabbinic prohibition against war in the light of the times. Within a hundred years the traditional safeguards were effectively removed for the majority of religious Jews that continued to take Jewish traditional exegesis seriously. This full process, from removing holy war from possibility to reviving holy war as a paradigm for action, is the topic of this study.
The New Jew
Authors: Firestone Reuven
Published: September 2012

Those active in the Zionist movement to colonize and develop the Land of Israel were determined to develop a new and modern Jewish culture that would serve as a corrective to the image of the Diaspora Jew as weak, pale, timid and afraid. The new Zionist Jew would be strong, confident and effective, and the very act of developing the Land of Israel would in turn develop the Jewish psyche and person. As one slogan put it, “we have come to build [the Land] and be built up by [building] it.” This very assertiveness contributed to the tension with the local Arab population, which resented the arrival of confident newcomers who wished to radically change the environment of Palestine. Thus began a conflict that would break out periodically and increasingly into violence directed against the Jewish newcomers. The Jews were determined to demonstrate that they were not typical “Diaspora Jews” who could be pushed around, so they escalated the tensions through their aggressive response. Thus a movement that did not consider itself violent or militant became increasingly so as the years progressed.
Hyperediting of human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 and simian T-cell leukemia virus type 3 by the dsRNA adenosine deaminase ADAR-1
Authors: Ko Nga Ling , Birlouez Emmanuel , Wain-Hobson Simon , Mahieux Renaud , Vartanian Jean-Pierre
Published: September 2012

RNA editing mediated by adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs) converts adenosine (A) to inosine (I) residues in dsRNA templates. While ADAR-1-mediated editing was essentially described for RNA viruses, the present work addresses the issue for two δ-retroviruses, human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 and simian T-cell leukemia virus type 3 (HTLV-2 and STLV-3). We examined whether ADAR-1 could edit HTLV-2 and STLV-3 virus genomes in cell culture andin vivo. Using a highly sensitive PCR-based method, referred to as 3DI-PCR, we showed that ADAR-1 could hypermutate adenosine residues in HTLV-2. STLV-3 hypermutation was obtained without using 3DI-PCR, suggesting a higher mutation frequency for this virus. Detailed analysis of the dinucleotide editing context showed preferences for 5′ ArA and 5′ UrA. In conclusion, the present observations demonstrate that ADAR-1 massively edits HTLV-2 and STLV-3 retrovirusesin vitro, but probably remains a rare phenomenonin vivo.
HIV/AIDS information and changing sexual behaviour among undergraduate students in Tanzania
Authors: Florence Mosha Neema , Manda Paul
Published: September 2012

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the level of HIV/AIDS information among undergraduate students at two university colleges in Tanzania, and its role in changing risky sexual behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 151 undergraduate students from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College and Moshi University College of Cooperative and Business Studies were surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

Findings

Of respondents 86 per cent were aware of the pandemic and its modes of transmission. The main sources of information were books, journals, magazines, television, internet, DVD/CD, radio and research reports. A total of 32 per cent reported having tested for HIV/AIDS; 40 per cent use condoms during sexual intercourse. Among condom users 63 per cent used them consistently. Factors hindering the use of HIV/AIDS information include the time spent on studies, the unavailability of the information, and the religious, cultural and family background of respondents.

Research limitations/implications

In a country with over 30 university and university colleges, generalization is not possible on the basis of research restricted to a small number.

Practical implications

Universities should establish partnerships and networks with various stakeholders to ensure access to HIV/AIDS information and to share experiences.

Originality/value

The level of HIV/AIDS information among Tanzanian undergraduates is under‐investigated. This paper helps to fill some of the gaps in the research.
The Arab uprising 2011: new media in the hands of a new generation in North Africa
Authors: Abdelhay Nawaf
Published: September 2012

Purpose

This aim of this paper is to relate the spread of new information and communications technology in Arab countries to the mobilization of young Tunisians and Egyptians in the uprisings of 2011.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on the literature to discuss the opportunities the new social media tools brought to Arab societies, in terms of their potential to enable new forms of communication and develop new public spheres. It provides an overview of the relationship between the new media, a new generation and the uprising for democracy and political changes in North Africa.

Findings

The conclusion is that the spread and use of new information and communications technologies is having an enormous impact on societal and political changes in North Africa.

Originality/value

Based on the uprisings in parts of North Africa, the paper examines the use of the internet and mobile phones as tools for building democracy and bringing change. Evidence shows that social media played a major role in bringing down long‐standing dictatorships. The new media challenged government imposed media controls and provided activists with new tools for organising demonstrations, sending updates to journalists, bloggers and other activists, and encouraging media coverage.
Design for automatic end‐of‐life processes
Authors: Sundin Erik , Elo Kristofer , Mien Lee Hui
Published: September 2012

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how manufacturers can develop automatic end‐of‐life processes facilitated by product design methods, e.g. design for disassembly, recycling and remanufacturing. Also to illustrate this kind of product and end‐of‐life process development while maintaining economic and environmental values. Here, the cases of toner cartridges and liquid crystal displays are the focus.

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology for this paper began with a literature study within the fields of design for automatic recycling and remanufacturing. It also includes the research performed at two different industrial companies using automation in their end‐of‐life processes. These companies were visited and interviewed several times, in order to understand their processes and what current problems they have in automation and product design.

Findings

Design implications on the end‐of‐life have been explored, and in particular, three general product trends are in conflict with automatic disassembly: products are getting more complex and more heterogeneous; products are getting sleeker; and products are using more proprietary joints. In addition, the three industrial cases describe different problems in industry and how they can be tackled. Although many manufacturers have adapted the design principles of DFM and DFE, there is still much to improve when it comes to designing for the product's end‐of‐life processes. These kinds of adaptations should increase in importance over time as more and more products and components are remanufactured and/or material recycled. These kinds of adaptations will also encourage an increase of products passing through more resource efficient end‐of‐life options.

Practical implications

Manufacturers reading what design problems other companies are experiencing and what solutions can be found would facilitate their own businesses and willingness to start their own and/or improve their existing manufacturing business. This could then be in shape developing products for end‐of‐life processes which also would encourage them to start their own end‐of‐life process facilities.

Social implications

From a societal perspective, an increase in remanufactured products being placed on the market can increase the awareness and confidence of the consumers in non‐new products made from non‐virgin materials. This will increase the market for second‐life products and bring about economics of scale, which in turn will alleviate the problem of depletion of resources.

Originality/value

Most previous research in this area treats the different end‐of‐life processes separately; material recycling and product remanufacturing are but two examples. However, in this paper the focus is more on the overall view of end‐of‐life processes, along with examples of more specific and detailed end‐of‐life processes, such as disassembly and cleaning.
Strategic flexibility in open innovation – designing business models for open source software
Authors: Rajala Risto , Westerlund Mika , Möller Kristian
Published: September 2012

Purpose

This paper seeks to explore how market orientation facilitates the strategic flexibility of business models grounded in open innovation. The authors suggest that the new paradigm of open innovation may impact a firm's adaptability and responsiveness under conditions of environmental flux. However, extending innovation capacity by opening the innovation process poses major challenges for firms. The aims of this study are to explore the characteristics of open innovation activity and to contemplate the role of strategic flexibility in the design of business models based upon open innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws upon a qualitative research approach through a longitudinal case study in the field of open source software (OSS). The empirical case illustrates how an OSS firm utilizes signals in its environment to flexibly alter its business model.

Findings

A business model that embodies open innovation raises dilemmas between open and closed innovation paradigms. However, the authors' case highlights that an ambidextrous approach that combines market orientation with the principles of open innovation increases profitability, shortens time to market through effective market access, and enhances innovation capability.

Research limitations/implications

The results have profound implications for industrial marketers, managers, management consultants and business educators. They can use the insights gleaned from this research to guide the development of business models that involve open innovation. The results indicate that firms involved in open innovation need reactive strategic flexibility to cope with the environmental diversity and variability. However, this study analyzes a single case in the field of OSS and one should be cautious when generalizing the findings.

Originality/value

This paper improves the understanding of the relationship between flexibility and market orientation. It combines two areas that have previously been discussed separately, i.e. market orientation and open innovation.