Reflections on the sociology of law: A rejection of law as 'socially marginal'

Rejecting the concept of law as subservient to social pathology, the principle aim of this article is to locatc law as a critical matter of social structure - and power - which requires to be considered as a central element in the construction of society and social institutions. As such, this article contends that wider jurisprudential notions such as legal procedure and procedural justice, and juridical power and discretion are cogent, robust normative social concerns (as much as they are legal concerns) that positively require consideration and representation in the ernpifical study of sociological phenomena. Reflecting upon scholarship and research evidence on legal procedure and decision-making, the article attempts to elucidate the inter-relationship between power, 'the social', and the operation of law. It concludes that law is not 'socially marginal' but socially, totally central. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The choice of names and symbols for quantities in chemistry

The importance of maintaining a clear distinction between the names and symbols for quantities and the names and symbols for units.

MFN status and the choice of tariff regime

The gradualist approach to trade liberalization views the uniform tariffs implied by MFN status as an important step on the path to free trade. We investigate whether a regime of uniform tariffs will be preferable to discriminatory tariffs when countries engage in non-cooperative interaction in multilateral trade. The analysis includes product differentiation and asymmetric costs. We show that with the cost asymmetry the countries will disagree on the choice of tariff regime. When the choice of import tariffs and export subsidies is made sequentially the uniform tariff regime may not be sustainable, because of an incentive to deviate to a discriminatory regime. Hence, an international body is needed to ensure compliance with tariff agreement.

Choice of designs and doses for early phase trials

This paper reviews state-of-art statistical designs for dose-escalation procedures in first-into-man studies. The main focus will be on studies in oncology, as most statistical procedures for phase I trials have been proposed in this context. Extensions to situations such as the observation of bivariate outcomes and healthy volunteer studies are also discussed. The number of dose levels and cohort sizes used in early phase trials are considered. Finally, this paper raises some practical issues for dose-escalation procedures.

Deciphering the complexity of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) proanthocyanidins by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with a judicious choice of isotope patterns and matrixes

Use of superdihydroxybenzoic acid as the matrix enabled the analysis of highly complex mixtures of proanthocyanidins from sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Proanthocyanidins contained predominantly B-type homopolymers and heteropolymers up to 12- mers (3400 Da). Use of another matrix, 2,6-dihydroxyacetophenone, revealed the presence of A-type glycosylated dimers. In addition, we report here how a comparison of the isotopic adduct patterns, which resulted from Li and Na salts as MALDI matrix additives, could be used to confirm the presence of A-type linkages in complex proanthocyanidin mixtures. Preliminary evidence suggested the presence of A-type dimers in glycosylated prodelphinidins and in tetrameric procyanidins and prodelphinidins.