bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Policy of the EEC on Concentrative Joint Ventures
Authors: Nava D.S. 
Published: July 2009

The EEC Treaty contains no specific provisions for the control of concentrations. Only the competition rules. Articles 85 and 86 EEC, could be considered as possible legal instruments for regulating concentrations. The Commission has had to examine whether and to what extent these provisions could be used to this end.The Commission's view has been that Article 85 does not apply to operations resulting in structural change, as is the case of concentrations and concentrative joint ventures. Cooperative operations, such as cooperative joint ventures, on the other hand fall to be assessed under Article 85. The Philip Morris case has made this position uncertain. According to the extensive interpretation of this judgement Article 85 is now applicable to certain concentrations and thus to concentrative joint ventures.There is no such uncertainty regarding the role of Article 86 in controlling concentrative joint ventures, for the Court has established in the Continental Can case that concentrations can be caught by Article 86.With the adoption in 1989 of the Regulation on concentration control the Commission finally has a legal instrument specifically designed to regulate concentrations. However, only concentrations and concentrative joint ventures which comply with certain turnover thresholds (the so-called concentrations or concentrative joint ventures with a Community dimension) can be assessed by the Commission under the Regulation. This means that the provisions of the Regulation can not be applied to concentrative joint ventures beneath the threshold.Because of the difficulty in distinguishing concentrative operations from cooperative ones, the Commission published the Notice regarding the concentrative and cooperative operations under the Regulation on the control of concentrations.
Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict: In Search of a New Legal Perspective
Authors: Verwey Wil D. 
Published: July 2009

AbstractAccording to, e.g., some Western governments and the ICRC, existing rules of international law would provide adequate protection of the environment in times of armed conflict. However, a proper analysis of the existing rules, contained in relevant treaties and customary international law, suggests that this protection is currently far from adequate, in times of both international and non-international armed conflict. In order to ensure a better protection of the environment in times of armed conflict, a new approach is required which departs from the obvious necessity of a common recognition of the following three fundamental ideas: 1. the indivisibility of a healthy environment as an indispensable condition for the survival of present and future generations; 2. the necessity to disconnect the legal protection of the environment in times of armed conflict from its anthropocentric legal enclosure; and 3. the need to expand the protective scope of the relevant rules beyond the current level of merely prohibiting the known or expectable and the obsoleteness of the distinction between environment protection pursued by the law of peace and environment protection pursued by the law of armed conflict, as well as recognition of the environment as a common heritage (or at least a common concern) of mankind.
Minority Protection Within the Concept of Self-Determination
Authors: Schreuder Jean-Paul 
Published: July 2009

Astract:Does contemporary international law offer sufficient and effective means to prevent any future secession by national minorities? In order to answer this question, general international instruments concerning minority-protection, as well as more recent international instruments designed specifically for the protection of minorities, will be investigated. The role that a guaranteeing of collective and, in particular, political rights to national minorities have or can have in order to prevent future secession by national minorities, will be given special consideration. It will be concluded that, in the author's view, the above-mentioned question must be answered negatively, and that an extension of political and collective rights for national minorities is needed, in order to enable a prevention of future secessionist claims by national minorities.
The Danube: Damned or Dammed? The Dispute Between Hungary and Slovakia Concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project.
Authors: Hoenderkamp Erik 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThis article deals with the legal aspects of the dispute between Hungary and Slovakia concerning a joint project of locks and power-stations, which had to be constructed in the Danube at Gabc ikovo and Nagymaros. Rules of treaty-law, environ-mental protection, good faith, reprisal and contributory negligence will be applied to assess whether Hungary was entitled to terminate the treaty and whether Slovakia could lawfully construct a provisional solution. Furthermore the significance of the case and its submission to the International Court of Justice is addressed.
A Passage Through India (and Beyond) or A Case of Love Thy Neighbour?
Authors: Hare Christopher , Wong Jarrod 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThe geographical disadvantages faced by land-locked states place them in a particularly vulnerable position: unable to compete on equal trading terms with coastal neighbours, they are highly susceptible to all forms of economic and political ‘aggression’. Such measures produce more than the usual degree of ‘inconvenience’, but can so destabilise the state as to compromise its existence. Equity and the sanctity of ‘statehood’ require the protection of such states by furnishing them transit rights.Not only must international law recognise such rights as existing in one form or another, but must also provide adequate means of securing them. A society unwilling to redress natural imbalances and prepared to perpetuate an inherently unfair system is a society committed to conflict, rather than the maintenance of peace and security.
Predicting loneliness in old people living in the community
Authors: Paúl Constança , Ribeiro Oscar 
Published: July 2009

SummaryLoneliness and social isolation are two core concepts regarding social relationships in human life that are particularly relevant in old age. This article focuses on the prevalence of loneliness in a community sample of 1266 autonomous people aged 50 or more and on the structural circumstances (demographic social network and general health condition) that could better contribute to its experience. The prevalence of loneliness was 16.3% (n = 206) and a small number of people presented low social network (7%). Predictors of loneliness (explaining 29% of variance) were being widowed, perceiving own health as poor or very poor, and having psychological distress and cognitive impairment. The authors emphasize the importance of psychological distress as a predictor of loneliness and the need for social and psychological interventions to prevent its consequences in morbidity and mortality.
Maintaining independence after a fall
Authors: Spinks AB , Wasiak J 
Published: July 2009

SummaryFalls have a significant impact upon independent living ability in older people, with fall-related fractures one of the leading predictors of having to move into assisted living facilities. The loss of independence associated with a severe fall is often accompanied by a decline in physical, social, emotional and economic well-being. Rehabilitation programmes to restore functional ability following a fall have a greater chance of success if they adopt a multi-disciplinary approach and, if appropriate, are conducted in the patient's own home. Additional multi-component interventions that improve confidence and reduce the risk of subsequent falls may confer benefits by assisting individuals independently to perform activities of daily living.
The Alabama Insert
Authors: Dawkins Richard 
Published: July 2009

Creationists believe that the Biblical account of the creation of the universe is literally true. God brought into existence the Earth and all its life forms in just six days. According to creationists, this event took place less than ten thousand years ago (they base their calculation of the age of the universe on the number of generations listed in the Bible).Creationists have succeeded in persuading large swathes of the general public that their theory is at least as scientifically respectable as the Big Bang/evolution alternative. A recent Gallup poll indicated that about 45% of US citizens currently believe that God created human beings ‘pretty much in [their] present form at one time or another within the last 10,000 years’.Two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, have even passed ‘balanced treatment’ laws requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution in all state public schools. It was in Auburn, Alabama, shortly after that state required that a piece of paper be pasted into every biology school text book explaining why evolution is merely a ‘theory’ — and a highly questionable theory at that — that Richard Dawkins delivered the impromptu speech which forms the basis of the following.
Is it all relative?
Authors: Law Stephen 
Published: July 2009

According to relativists, people who speak simply of what's ‘true’ are naïve. ‘Whose truth?’ asks the relativist. ‘No claim is ever true, period. What's true is always true for someone. It's true relative to a particular person or culture. There's no such thing as the absolute truth on any issue.’This sort of relativism is certainly popular. For example, many claim that we are wrong to condemn cultures with moral codes different from our own: their moralities are no less valid. Similarly, some claim that while astrology and Feng Shui might be ‘false’ from a Western, scientific viewpoint, they are ‘true’ when viewed from alternative, New Age points of view. What's ‘true’ and what's ‘false’ ultimately depend on where one is standing.Is this sort of relativism about truth tenable?
Hunting metaphysical snarks
Authors: Best David 
Published: July 2009

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;They pursued it with forks and hope;They threatened its life with a railway share;They charmed it with smiles and soap.The snark is pursued with forks and hope. The hunters are unclear about where to find it, and the appropriate methods for catching it, because they are not even clear what it is that they are seeking. We do not pursue metaphysical quarry with forks, although we often pursue such quarry with inappropriate logical tools and misplaced hope, for often we are equally confused about what it is we are seeking, and the appropriate methods for finding it. So what we find may be very surprising: we may find that there is nothing to find.
Glucocorticoids can activate the α-ENaC gene promoter independently of SGK1
Authors: McTavish Niall , Getty Jennet , Burchell Ann , Wilson Stuart M. 
Published: July 2009

The role of SGK1 (serum- and glucocorticoid-induced protein kinase 1) in the glucocorticoid induction of α-ENaC (epithelial Na+ channel α subunit) gene transcription was explored by monitoring the transcriptional activity of a luciferase-linked, α-ENaC reporter gene construct (pGL3-KR1) expressed in H441 airway epithelial cells. Dexamethasone evoked a concentration-dependent (EC50∼4 μM) increase in transcriptional activity dependent upon a glucocorticoid response element in the α-ENaC sequence. Although dexamethasone also activated endogenous SGK1, artificially increasing cellular SGK1 activity by expressing a constitutively active SGK1 mutant (SGK1-S422D) in hormone-deprived cells did not activate pGL3-KR1. Moreover, expression of catalytically inactive SGK1 (SGK1-K127A) suppressed the activation of endogenous SGK1 without affecting the transcriptional response to dexamethasone. Increasing cellular PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) activity by expressing a membrane-anchored form of the catalytic PI3K-P110α subunit [CD2 (cluster of differentiation 2)-P110α] also activated endogenous SGK1 without affecting pGL3-KR1activity. A catalytically inactive form of CD2-P110α (R1130P), on the other hand, prevented the dexamethasone-induced activation of SGK1, but did not inhibit the activation of pGL3-KR1. However, expression of SGK1-S422D or CD2-P110α enhanced the transcriptional responses to maximally effective concentrations of dexamethasone and this effect occurred with no change in EC50. Dexamethasone-induced (0.3–300 nM) activation of pGL3-KR1 was unaffected by inhibitors of PI3K (PI-103 and wortmanin) and by rapamycin, a selective inhibitor of the TORC1 (target of rapamycin complex 1) signalling complex. Dexamethasone-induced activation of the α-ENaC gene promoter can thus occur independently of SGK1/PI3K, although this pathway does provide a mechanism that allows this transcriptional response to dexamethasone to be enhanced.
Data Gathering Schedule for Minimal Aggregation Time in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Chen Xujin , Hu Xiaodong , Zhu Jianming 
Published: July 2009

Data aggregation promises a new paradigm for gathering data via collaboration among wireless sensors deployed over a large geographical region. Many real-time applications impose stringent delay requirements and ask for time-efficient schedules of data gathering in which data sensed at sensors are aggregated at intermediate sensors along the way towards the data sink. The Minimal Aggregation Time (MAT) problem is to find the schedule that routes data appropriately and has the shortest time for all requested data to be aggregated and sent to the data sink. In this article we consider the MAT problem with collision-free transmission where a sensor can not receive any data if more than one sensors within its transmission range send data at the same time. We first prove that the MAT problem is NP-hard even if all sensors are deployed on a grid. We then propose a (Δ −1)-approximation algorithms for the MAT problem, where Δ is the maximum number of sensors within the transmission range of any sensor. By exploiting the geometric nature of wireless sensor networks, we obtain some better theoretical results for some special cases. We also simulate the proposed algorithm. The numerical results show that our algorithm has much better performance in practice than the theoretically proved guarantees and outperforms other existing algorithms.
Systematic review: the short‐term and long‐term efficacy of adalimumab following discontinuation of infliximab
Authors: MA C. , PANACCIONE R. , HEITMAN S. J. , DEVLIN S. M. , GHOSH S. , KAPLAN G. G. 
Published: July 2009

SummaryBackground  Therapy with adalimumab has been shown to be effective in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients who have lost response or are intolerant to infliximab.Aim  To determine the efficacy of adalimumab in CD patients who discontinued infliximab through a systematic review.Methods  Electronic searches of EMBASE and MEDLINE databases up to May 1, 2009, as well as abstracts from the AGA (2006–2008), ACG (2006–2007), UEGW (2006–2008) and CDDW (2006–2009) identified randomized‐controlled trials (RCT) or open‐labelled cohorts (OLC) evaluating the short‐term and/or long‐term efficacy of adalimumab in infliximab failures. The response rates for short‐term (clinical response and remission at 4 weeks) and long‐term (remission at 6 and 12 months) efficacy were considered.Results  A total of 1810 CD patients were identified among the 15 studies (2 RCT and 13 OLC). The majority of studies evaluated CD patients who either lost response or were intolerable to infliximab, although five OLCs permitted patients refractory to infliximab. Short‐term clinical response (n = 9 articles) ranged from 41% to 83%. Long‐term clinical remission at 12 months (n = 8 articles) ranged from 19% to 68%. The occurrence of severe adverse events ranged from 0% to 19% and four patients died.Conclusions  Current RCT and OLC evidence suggest that adalimumab is an efficacious therapy for CD patients who discontinue infliximab.
Associations between decay‐accelerating factor polymorphisms and allergic respiratory diseases
Authors: Kawai T. , Takeshita S. , Imoto Y. , Matsumoto Y. , Sakashita M. , Suzuki D. , Shibasaki M. , Tamari M. , Hirota T. , Arinami T. , Fujieda S. , Noguchi E. 
Published: July 2009

SummaryBackground
Allergic diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis are major causes of morbidity in developed countries. The pathology underlying allergic respiratory diseases is considered to be IgE‐mediated type I allergy characterized by mucosal inflammation that occurs in response to allergen exposure. They are common diseases involving a complex inheritance. Complement systems are known to play an important role in allergic diseases. Decay‐accelerating factor (DAF) is important for the regulation of the complement system and is a good candidate for determining the susceptibility to allergic diseases.Objective
The present study aimed to investigate whether polymorphisms in the DAF gene are associated with allergic respiratory diseases in the Japanese population.Methods
We performed mutation screenings of DAF and conducted a tag single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) association analysis for 684 unrelated adult individuals with seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) with Japanese ceder pollen, 188 mite‐sensitive adults with asthma, and 346 unrelated non‐allergic healthy controls.Results
DAF is located in the tight linkage disequilibrium (LD) block spanning 62 kb. The tag SNP analysis revealed that rs10746463 was significantly associated with SAR (P=0.00033) and mite‐sensitive adult asthma (P=0.044). The rs2564978 and rs3841376 haplotypes, which are located in the promoter region of DAF, were in complete LD with rs10746463 (r2=1). Luciferase reporter assays with constructs containing the 5′ flanking regions of DAF showed that the plasmid with rs2564978 C/rs3841376 deletion (the risk haplotype) had a statistically significantly lower transcriptional activity than that containing the rs2564978 T/rs3841376 insertion.Conclusions
Our results suggest that DAF is one of the genes involved in conferring susceptibility to allergic respiratory diseases and show that decreased levels of DAF may be associated with the enhanced specific IgE responses occurring in allergic diseases in the Japanese population.
The impact of soil carbon management on soil macropore structure: a comparison of two apple orchard systems in New Zealand
Authors: Deurer M. , Grinev D. , Young I. , Clothier B. E. , Müller K. 
Published: July 2009

SummaryWe analysed the long‐term effect of the addition of organic carbon (C) on the macropore structure of topsoils. For this purpose we compared the top 50 mm in the tree rows of an organic apple orchard with those in an adjacent conventional orchard with the same soil type, texture and previous land‐use history in New Zealand. After 12 years the topsoils of the organic orchard had 32% more soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestered than those of the conventional, integrated orchard because of regular compost applications and grass coverage. We quantified the macropore structure (macropores = pores > 0.3 mm) of nine undisturbed soil columns (43 mm long, 20 × 17 mm in the plane) within each orchard using 3D X‐ray computed tomography. The macroporosity (7.5 ± 2.1%) of the organic orchard soil was significantly greater than that of the integrated orchard (2.4 ± 0.5%). The mean macropore radius was similar in the organic and integrated systems, with 0.41 ± 0.02 mm and 0.39 ± 0.01 mm, respectively. The connectivity of macropores tended to be greater in the organic than in the integrated system, but this was not statistically significant. The pronounced soil C management in the organic orchard increased both the formation of macropores by roots and a larger fresh weight of anecic earthworms, and the stabilization of the macropore structure was increased by a larger aggregate stability and microbial biomass compared with those of the integrated orchard. We simulated the diffusion through the measured pore structures of segments of the soil columns. The segments had the length of the mean aggregate size of the soils. The relative diffusion coefficients at this aggregate scale were significantly greater in the organic (0.024 ± 0.0009) than in the integrated (0.0056 ± 0.008) orchard. In a regression analysis with both the porosity and connectivity of macropores as significant variables, 76% of the variability of the relative diffusion coefficients was explained in the integrated, and, with the porosity as the only significant factor, 71% of the variability in the organic orchard. We hypothesize that a greater relative diffusion coefficient at the aggregate scale would reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) production and emission in a wet soil and suggest that soil C management combats climate change directly by sequestering C and indirectly in the form of a reduction of N2O emissions, by creating more macropores.
Fungal C translocation restricts N‐mineralization in heterogeneous environments
Authors: Boberg Johanna B. , Finlay Roger D. , Stenlid Jan , Lindahl Björn D. 
Published: July 2009

Summary 1. In forest soils, fungi generally dominate the decomposer community, but their specific, filamentous physiology is often not recognized in nitrogen (N) cycling models. Many litter degrading fungi form large mycelia and have a well‐developed capacity to translocate resources within their mycelia. Fungi may thus connect substrates that differ with respect to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability and, thereby, overcome local resource limitation through translocation. 2. Here we test whether the ability of fungi to translocate carbohydrates within their mycelia prevents local C limitation in a low C:N ratio substrate, thereby reducing N mineralization. The capacity of fungi to translocate N to a high C:N ratio substrate in order to increase the decomposition, was also assessed. Two litter decomposing fungi, Marasmius androsaceus and Mycena epipterygia were grown in axenic laboratory microcosms containing spatially separated substrates: pine needles (C:N = 135) and glycine (C:N = 2). 3. In the absence of needles both fungi mineralized the glycine N. When connecting the two substrates, both fungi were able to overcome local C‐deficiency on the glycine medium by translocating carbohydrates from the needles. In the presence of needles, N mineralization from glycine was negligible, although the glycine was utilized. Only trace amounts of N were translocated from glycine to the needles. 4. A basic assumption of N cycling models is that substrates of different qualities decompose in an independent manner. Our observations imply that this assumption may be violated in heterogenic environments dominated by fungi.