Enabling Free On-line Access to UK Law Reports: The Copyright Problem

The history of publishing legal decisions (law reporting) in the UK has been that of a privatised system since its inception, and that history has encompassed several hundred years. The privatised nature of this has meant that the product (the law report) has been, except in limited cases, viewed as the property of the publisher, rather than the property of the court or public. BAILII is an open access legal database that came about in part because of the copyrighted, privatised nature of this legal information. In this paper, we will outline the problem of access to pre-2000 judgments in the UK and consider whether there are legal or other remedies which might enable BAILII to both develop a richer historic database and also to work in harmony, rather than in competition, with legal publishers. We argue that public access to case law is an essential requirement in a democratic common law system, and that BAILII should be seen as a potential step towards a National Law Library.

Breast cancer mortality in neighbouring European countries with different level of breast screening but similar access to treatment: An analysis of WHO mortality database

Objective: To compare trends in breast cancer mortality within three pairs of neighbouring European countries in relation to implementation of screening. Design: Retrospective trend analysis.
Setting: Three country pairs (Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) v Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands v Belgium and Flanders (Belgian region south of the Netherlands), and Sweden v Norway).
Data sources: WHO mortality database on cause of death and data sources on mammography screening, cancer treatment, and risk factors for breast cancer mortality.
Main outcome measures: Changes in breast cancer mortality calculated from linear regressions of log transformed, age adjusted death rates. Joinpoint analysis was used to identify the year when trends in mortality for all ages began to change.
Results: From 1989 to 2006, deaths from breast cancer decreased by 29% in Northern Ireland and by 26% in the Republic of Ireland; by 25% in the Netherlands and by 20% in Belgium and 25% in Flanders; and by 16% in Sweden and by 24% in Norway. The time trend and year of downward inflexion were similar between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and between the Netherlands and Flanders. In Sweden, mortality rates have steadily decreased since 1972, with no downward inflexion until 2006. Countries of each pair had similar healthcare services and prevalence of risk factors for breast cancer mortality but differing implementation of mammography screening, with a gap of about 10-15 years.
Conclusions: The contrast between the time differences in implementation of mammography screening and the similarity in reductions in mortality between the country pairs suggest that screening did not play a direct part in the reductions in breast cancer mortality.

Glucose lowers the threshold for human aortic vascular smooth muscle cell migration: inhibition by protein phosphatase-2A

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Atherosclerosis, which occurs prematurely in individuals with diabetes, incorporates vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) chemotaxis. Glucose, through protein kinase C-beta(II) signalling, increases chemotaxis to low concentrations of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB. In VSMC, a biphasic response in PDGF-beta receptor (PDGF-betaR) level occurs as PDGF-BB concentrations increase. The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased concentrations of PDGF-BB and raised glucose level had a modulatory effect on the mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular-regulated protein kinase pathway, control of PDGF-betaR level and chemotaxis.

METHODS: Cultured aortic VSMC, exposed to normal glucose (NG) (5 mmol/l) or high glucose (HG) (25 mmol/l) in the presence of PDGF-BB, were assessed for migration (chemotaxis chamber) or else extracted and immunoblotted.

RESULTS: At concentrations of PDGF-BB <540 pmol/l, HG caused an increase in the level of PDGF-betaR in VSMC (immunoblotting) versus NG, an effect that was abrogated by inhibition of aldose reductase or protein kinase C-beta(II). At higher concentrations of PDGF-BB (>540 pmol/l) in HG, receptor level was reduced but in the presence of aldose reductase or protein kinase C-beta(II) inhibitors the receptor levels increased. It is known that phosphatases may be activated at high concentrations of growth factors. At high concentrations of PDGF-BB, the protein phosphatase (PP)2A inhibitor, endothall, caused an increase in PDGF-betaR levels and a loss of biphasicity in receptor levels in HG. At higher concentrations of PDGF-BB in HG, the chemoattractant effect of PDGF-BB was lost (chemotaxis chamber). Under these conditions inhibition of PP2A was associated with a restoration of chemotaxis to high concentrations of PDGF-BB.

CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: The biphasic response in PDGF-betaR level and in chemotaxis to PDGF-BB in HG is due to PP2A activation.

Changes in muscle sympathetic nerve activity and vascular responses evoked in the spinotrapezius muscle of the rat by systemic hypoxia.

Responses evoked in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) by systemic hypoxia have received relatively little attention. Moreover, MSNA is generally identified from firing characteristics in fibres supplying whole limbs: their actual destination is not determined. We aimed to address these limitations by using a novel preparation of spinotrapezius muscle in anaesthetised rats. By using focal recording electrodes, multi-unit and discriminated single unit activity were recorded from the surface of arterial vessels. This had cardiac- and respiratory-related activities expected of MSNA, and was increased by baroreceptor unloading, decreased by baroreceptor stimulation and abolished by autonomic ganglion blockade. Progressive, graded hypoxia (breathing sequentially 12, 10, 8% O2 for 2 min each) evoked graded increases in MSNA. In single units, mean firing frequency increased from 0.2 ± 0.04 in 21% O2 to 0.62 ± 0.14 Hz in 8% O2, while instantaneous frequencies ranged from 0.04–6 Hz in 21% O2 to 0.09–20 Hz in 8% O2. Concomitantly, arterial pressure (ABP), fell and heart rate (HR) and respiratory frequency (RF) increased progressively, while spinotrapezius vascular resistance (SVR) decreased (Spinotrapezius blood flow/ABP), indicating muscle vasodilatation. During 8% O2 for 10 min, the falls in ABP and SVR were maintained, but RF, HR and MSNA waned towards baselines from the second to the tenth minute. Thus, we directly show that MSNA increases during systemic hypoxia to an extent that is mainly determined by the increases in peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation and respiratory drive, but its vasoconstrictor effects on muscle vasculature are largely blunted by local dilator influences, despite high instantaneous frequencies in single fibres.