Review of Leone Niglia, "The Struggle for European Private Law: A Critique of Codification"

Controversies around the European Commission’s attempt to codify European Union private law now usher the codification saga into the twenty-first century. Much EU scholarship has focused on the adoption of the Draft Common Frame of Reference or its shortened version, the Optional Sales Law Code (CELS). In The Struggle for European Private Law, Leone Niglia launches a searching critique that revisits the very notion of codification’s distinctly legislative paradigm. That model is, on his view, fundamentally flawed. The true function of a code goes missing. In order to grasp the full effects of codification, and to comprehend the purpose and function of some final text, we must, Niglia argues, shift our attention away from that legislative paradigm, towards what he identifies as a jurisprudential model. Codification becomes comprehensible, he suggests, only through an analysis – neglected in the existing literature – of jurisprudential actors within the process, such as judges and scholars

Nonlinear surface waves on the plasma-vacuum interface

In this paper we study the propagation of weakly nonlinear surface waves on a plasma-vacuum interface. In the plasma region we consider the equations of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics, while in vacuum the magnetic and electric fields are governed by the Maxwell equations. A surface wave propagate along the plasma-vacuum interface, when it is linearly weakly stable. Following the approach of Ali and Hunter, we measure the amplitude of the surface wave by the normalized displacement of the interface in a reference frame moving with the linearized phase velocity of the wave, and obtain that it satisfies an asymptotic nonlocal, Hamiltonian evolution equation. We show the local-in-time existence of smooth solutions to the Cauchy problem for the amplitude equation in noncanonical variables, and we derive a blow up criterion.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1305.5327 by other author

Genetic variation in genes interacting with BRCA1/2 and risk of breast cancer in Cypriot population.

Inability to correctly repair DNA damage is known to play a role in the development of breast cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of DNA repair genes have been identified, which modify the DNA repair capacity, which in turn may affect the risk of developing breast cancer. To assess whether alterations in DNA repair genes contribute to breast cancer, we genotyped 62 SNPs in 29 genes in 1,109 Cypriot women with breast cancer and 1,177 age-matched healthy controls. Five SNPs were associated with breast cancer. SNPs rs13312840 and rs769416 in the NBS1 gene were associated with a decrease in breast cancer risk (OR TT vs. TC/CC = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.92; P = 0.019 and OR GG vs. GT/TT = 0.23, 95% CI 0.06-0.85, P = 0.017, respectively). The variant allele of MRE11A rs556477 was also associated with a reduced risk of developing the disease (OR AA vs. AG/GG = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.64-0.91; P = 0.0022). MUS81 rs545500 and PBOV1 rs6927706 SNPs were associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer (OR GG vs. GC/CC = 1.21, 95% CI, 1.02-1.45; P = 0.031; OR AA vs. AG/GG = 1.53, 95% CI, 1.07-2.18; P = 0.019, respectively). Finally, haplotype-based tests identified significant associations between specific haplotypes in MRE11A and NBS1 genes and breast cancer risk. Further large-scale studies are needed to confirm these results

Kernel Target Alignment Parameter: A New Modelability Measure for Regression Tasks

© 2015 American Chemical Society. In this paper, we demonstrate that the kernel target alignment (KTA) parameter can efficiently be used to estimate the relevance of molecular descriptors for QSAR modeling on a given data set, i.e., as a modelability measure. The efficiency of KTA to assess modelability was demonstrated in two series of QSAR modeling studies, either varying different descriptor spaces for one same data set, or comparing various data sets within one same descriptor space. Considered data sets included 25 series of various GPCR binders with ChEMBL-reported pKi values, and a toxicity data set. Employed descriptor spaces covered more than 100 different ISIDA fragment descriptor types, and ChemAxon BCUT terms. Model performances (RMSE) were seen to anticorrelate consistently with the KTA parameter. Two other modelability measures were employed for benchmarking purposes: the Jaccard distance average over the data set (Div), and a measure related to the normalized mean absolute error (MAE) obtained in 1-nearest neighbors calculations on the training set (Sim = 1 - MAE). It has been demonstrated that both Div and Sim perform similarly to KTA. However, a consensus index combining KTA, Div and Sim provides a more robust correlation with RMSE than any of the individual modelability measures

On the amplitude equation of approximate surfacewaves on the plasma-vacuum interface

In this paper we present a recent result about the propagation of weakly nonlinear surface waves on a plasma-vacuum interface. In the plasma region we consider the equations of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics, while in vacuum the magnetic and electric fields are governed by the Maxwell equations. A surface wave propagate along the plasma-vacuum interface, when it is linearly weakly stable. Following the approach of Alì and Hunter, we measure the amplitude of the surface wave by the normalized displacement of the interface in a reference frame moving with the linearized phase velocity of the wave, and obtain that it satisfies an asymptotic nonlocal, Hamiltonian evolution equation with quadratic nonlinearity. We show the local-in-time existence of smooth solutions to the Cauchy problem for the amplitude equation in noncanonical variables, and we derive the regularity of the first order corrections of the asymptotic expansion

Seismicity and crustal structure of the southern main Ethiopian rift: new evidence from Lake Abaya

The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) has developed during the 18 Ma-Recent separation of the Nubian and Somalian plates. Extension in its central and northern sectors is associated with seismic activity and active magma intrusion, primarily within the rift, where shallow (urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22586:ggge22586-math-00015 km) seismicity along magmatic centers is commonly caused by fluid flow through open fractures in hydrothermal systems. However, the extent to which similar magmatic rifting persists into the southern MER is unknown. Using data from a temporary network of five seismograph stations, we analyze patterns of seismicity and crustal structure in the Abaya region of the southern MER. Magnitudes range from 0.9 to 4.0; earthquake depths are 0–30 km. urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22586:ggge22586-math-0002 ratios of urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22586:ggge22586-math-00031.69, estimated from Wadati diagram analysis, corroborate bulk-crustal urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22586:ggge22586-math-0004 ratios determined via teleseismic P-to-S receiver function H-urn:x-wiley:15252027:media:ggge22586:ggge22586-math-0005 stacking and reveal a relative lack of mafic intrusion compared to the MER rift sectors to the north. There is a clear association of seismicity with the western border fault system of the MER everywhere in our study area, but earthquake depths are shallow near Duguna volcano, implying a shallowed geothermal gradient associated with rift valley silicic magmatism. This part of the MER is thus interpreted best as a young magmatic system that locally impacts the geothermal gradient but that has not yet significantly modified continental crustal composition via rift-axial magmatic rifting

GENERATIVE TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING OF CONFORMATIONAL SPACE

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TRANSDUCTION LEARNING IN QSAR: AN EFFICIENT WAY TO BUILD THE MODELS ON SMALL DATA SETS

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