The Rank of Queen's Counsel: Judicial Perspectives

The rank of queen's counsel, granted under the royal prerogative, has been part of the architecture of the legal profession and legal system since 1594 but has undergone many changes in that time, including most recently the adoption of new selection procedures. Recent cases in Northern Ireland have raised the question - what is the legal position of queen's counsel? By examining decided cases in context, this paper aims to explain judicial perspectives on what it means to be a QC.

Expression of the Yersinia enterocolitica pYV-encoded type III secretion system is modulated by lipopolysaccharide O-antigen status

We show that the expression of a Yersinia enterocolitica O:8 pYV-encoded type III secretion system was altered in a rough mutant (YeO8-R) due to elevated levels of FlhDC. H-NS might underlie flhDC upregulation in YeO8-R, and the data suggest a relationship between the absence of O antigen and the expression of H-NS.

Reduced soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (sRAGE) scavenger capacity precedes pre-eclampsia in Type 1 diabetes

Objective Increased advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and their soluble receptors (sRAGE) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia (PE). However, this association has not been elucidated in pregnancies complicated by diabetes. We aimed to investigate the serum levels of these factors in pregnant women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), a condition associated with a four-fold increase in PE. Design Prospective study in women with T1DM at 12.2 ± 1.9, 21.6 ± 1.5 and 31.5 ± 1.7 weeks of gestation [mean ± standard deviation (SD); no overlap] before PE onset. Setting Antenatal clinics. Population Pregnant women with T1DM (n = 118; 26 developed PE) and healthy nondiabetic pregnant controls (n = 21). Methods Maternal serum levels of sRAGE (total circulating pool), N -(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), hydroimidazolone (methylglyoxal-modified proteins) and total AGEs were measured by immunoassays. Main outcome measures Serum sRAGE and AGEs in pregnant women with T1DM who subsequently developed PE (DM PE+) versus those who remained normotensive (DM PE-). Results In DM PE+ versus DM PE-, sRAGE was significantly lower in the first and second trimesters, prior to the clinical manifestation of PE (P <0.05). Further, reflecting the net sRAGE scavenger capacity, sRAGE:hydroimidazolone was significantly lower in the second trimester (P <0.05) and sRAGE:AGE and sRAGE:CML tended to be lower in the first trimester (P <0.1) in women with T1DM who subsequently developed PE versus those who did not. These conclusions persisted after adjusting for prandial status, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), duration of diabetes, parity and mean arterial pressure as covariates. Conclusions In the early stages of pregnancy, lower circulating sRAGE levels, and the ratio of sRAGE to AGEs, may be associated with the subsequent development of PE in women with T1DM. © 2012 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology © 2012 RCOG.

Next-generation sequencing-based molecular diagnosis of 82 retinitis pigmentosa probands from Northern Ireland

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited retinal disorders characterized by progressive photoreceptor degeneration. An accurate molecular diagnosis is essential for disease characterization and clinical prognoses. A retinal capture panel that enriches 186 known retinal disease genes, including 55 known RP genes, was developed. Targeted next-generation sequencing was performed for a cohort of 82 unrelated RP cases from Northern Ireland, including 46 simplex cases and 36 familial cases. Disease-causing mutations were identified in 49 probands, including 28 simplex cases and 21 familial cases, achieving a solving rate of 60 %. In total, 65 pathogenic mutations were found, and 29 of these were novel. Interestingly, the molecular information of 12 probands was neither consistent with their initial inheritance pattern nor clinical diagnosis. Further clinical reassessment resulted in a refinement of the clinical diagnosis in 11 patients. This is the first study to apply next-generation sequencing-based, comprehensive molecular diagnoses to a large number of RP probands from Northern Ireland. Our study shows that molecular information can aid clinical diagnosis, potentially changing treatment options, current family counseling and management.

Proactive Relay Selection with Joint Impact of Hardware Impairment and Co-channel Interference

In this paper, we investigate the end-to-end performance of dual-hop proactive decode-and-forward relaying networks with Nth best relay selection in the presence of two practical deleterious effects: i) hardware impairment and ii) cochannel interference. In particular, we derive new exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions for the outage probability and average channel capacity of Nth best partial and opportunistic relay selection schemes over Rayleigh fading channels. Insightful discussions are provided. It is shown that, when the system cannot select the best relay for cooperation, the partial relay selection scheme outperforms the opportunistic method under the impact of the same co-channel interference (CCI). In addition, without CCI but under the effect of hardware impairment, it is shown that both selection strategies have the same asymptotic channel capacity. Monte Carlo simulations are presented to corroborate our analysis.

Medium-term prospects for portuguese agriculture under health check Proposals: a quantitative analysis with the CAPRI modelling system

The challenges of Common Agricultural Policy are driven by internal and external factors, such as the budgetary constraints, the budget reform, the globalization and the world financial crisis. According to this work results, CAP will continue its evolution from a sectorial to a territorial approach, with a slow re-balance of its two pillars. The Portuguese agriculture will slowly adjust itself to the disappearance of prices and markets policy and the reinforcement of rural development policy. As in the past, agriculture will accommodate the reform effects and adjust to a new framework without sudden brakes or disclosers.

Neues Glied in der Logistikkette

Hohe Löhne, kurze Arbeitszeiten und die Konkurrenz schläft nicht. Wenn die deutsche Industrie schon nicht billiger sein kann, muss sie schneller sein. Dafür muss die Produktentwicklung in die Logistikkette integriert werden, was im folgenden Artikel erläutert wird.

A luz na pintura de representação : mito, representação e luz na prática pictórica : (1550-1650)

Tese de doutoramento, Belas-Artes (Pintura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas-Artes, 2014

Optimization model for medium term natural gas commitment

In this paper we study the optimal natural gas commitment for a known demand scenario. This study implies the best location of GSUs to supply all demands and the optimal allocation from sources to gas loads, through an appropriate transportation mode, in order to minimize total system costs. Our emphasis is on the formulation and use of a suitable optimization model, reflecting real-world operations and the constraints of natural gas systems. The mathematical model is based on a Lagrangean heuristic, using the Lagrangean relaxation, an efficient approach to solve the problem. Computational results are presented for Iberian and American natural gas systems, geographically organized in 65 and 88 load nodes, respectively. The location model results, supported by the computational application GasView, show the optimal location and allocation solution, system total costs and suggest a suitable gas transportation mode, presented in both numerical and graphic supports.

Exciting dynamical behavior in a network of two coupled rings of Chen oscillators

We study exotic patterns appearing in a network of coupled Chen oscillators. Namely, we consider a network of two rings coupled through a “buffer” cell, with Z3×Z5 symmetry group. Numerical simulations of the network reveal steady states, rotating waves in one ring and quasiperiodic behavior in the other, and chaotic states in the two rings, to name a few. The different patterns seem to arise through a sequence of Hopf bifurcations, period-doubling, and halving-period bifurcations. The network architecture seems to explain certain observed features, such as equilibria and the rotating waves, whereas the properties of the chaotic oscillator may explain others, such as the quasiperiodic and chaotic states. We use XPPAUT and MATLAB to compute numerically the relevant states.

Estado de la contaminación marina en litoral peruano en 1994 y 1995

da a conocer el estado de la contaminación marina en el periodo comprendido entre 1994 a 1995 en diferentes áreas del litoral peruano. En el trabajo se consideraron las principales fuentes terrestres de contaminación provenientes de los desechos domésticos e industriales, plaguicidas organoclorados, hidrocarburos de petróleo y metales pesados. Así mismo se evaluaron los efectos de ellos sobre el macrobentos en las áreas estudiadas, contrastando con ensayos de corta duración de toxicidad letal y utilizando zoeas de Emerita analoga con hidrocarburos y metales pesados. Las bahías de Callao y Chimbote mostraron mayor contaminación por desechos domésticos e industriales, con deterioro de la calidad microbiológica determinándose altos niveles de contaminación fecal. En ninguna de las áreas marinas hubo presencia de Vibrio cholerae toxigénico. En lo que se refiere a los plaguicidas se detectaron 3 tipos de DDT 's en la zona del Callao. En la evaluación de los efectos de la contaminación sobre las comunidades marinas del macrozoobentos tanto de sustrato blando como rocoso de las áreas de Chimbote, Huacho, Pisco e Ilo se ha determinado que la comunidad béntica de sustrato rocoso situada al norte de bahía Ferrol, Chimbote muestra una moderada perturbación al igual que las comunidades de sustratos blandos de las bahías de Paracas e Ite.

Recueil de pièces relatives à la correspondance.

Kitab insha loghat

L'Écho de Paris

1888/08/02 (Numéro 1594).