Not Just Efficiency: Insolvency Law in the EU and Its Political Dimension

Certain insolvency law rules, like creditors’ priorities and set-off rights, have a distributive impact on creditors. Distributional rules reflect the hierarchies of values and interests in each jurisdiction and, as a result, have high political relevance and pose an obstacle to reforming the EU Insolvency Regulation. This paper will show the difficulty of reform by addressing two alternative options to regulate cross-border insolvencies in the European Union. The first one is the ‘choice model’, under which companies can select the insolvency law they prefer. Although such a model would allow distressed firms to select the most efficient insolvency law, it would also displace Member States’ power to protect local constituencies. The choice model therefore produces negative externalities and raises legitimacy concerns. The opposite solution is full harmonisation of insolvency law at EU level, including distributional rules. Full harmonisation would have the advantage of internalising all externalities produced by cross-border insolvencies. However, the EU legislative process, which is still based on negotiations between states, is not apt to decide on distributive insolvency rules; additionally, if harmonisation includes such rules, it will indirectly modify national social security strategies and equilibria. This debate shows that the choice regarding power allocation over bankruptcies in the EU depends on the progress of European integration and is mainly a matter of political legitimacy, not only of efficiency

Living between languages: The politics of translation in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

This is the author's final draft post-refereeing as published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2012 47: 207 DOI:10.1177/0021989412440433. The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcl.sagepub.com/content/47/2/20

Avpr1a variant associated with preschoolers' lower altruistic behavior

10.1371/journal.pone.0025274PLoS ONE69

Local Difference Measures between Complex Networks for Dynamical System Model Evaluation

Acknowledgments We thank Reik V. Donner for inspiring suggestions that initialized the work presented herein. Jan H. Feldhoff is credited for providing us with the STARS simulation data and for his contributions to fruitful discussions. Comments by the anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged as they led to substantial improvements of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Anxiolytic Effects of the MCH1R Antagonist TPI 1361-17

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a hypothalamic neuropeptide that acts on the MCH1 receptor. MCH1R is expressed widely throughout the brain, particularly in regions thought to be involved in the regulation of stress and emotional response. The role of MCH in anxiety has been controversial, however. Central administration of MCH has been reported to promote or reduce anxiety-like behaviors. The anxiolytic activity of several MCH1R antagonists has also been debated. To address this issue, we have tested whether TPI 1361-17, a highly specific and high affinity MCH1R antagonist, exerts anxiolytic effects in two commonly used models of anxiety, the elevated plus maze and the light–dark transition test. We show that this MCH1R antagonist exerts potent anxiolytic effects in both assays. Our study therefore supports previous studies indicating that MCH1R antagonists may be useful in the treatment of anxiety

How Similar Are the Mice to Men? Between-Species Comparison of Left Ventricular Mechanics Using Strain Imaging

BACKGROUND: While mammalian heart size maintains constant proportion to whole body size, scaling of left ventricular (LV) function parameters shows a more complex scaling pattern. We used 2-D speckle tracking strain imaging to determine whether LV myocardial strains and strain rates scale to heart size. METHODS: We studied 18 mice, 15 rats, 6 rabbits, 12 dogs and 20 human volunteers by 2-D echocardiography. Relationship between longitudinal or circumferential strains/strain rates (S(Long)/SR(Long), S(Circ)/SR(Circ)), and LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) or mass were assessed by the allometric (power-law) equation Y = kM(β). RESULTS: Mean LV mass in individual species varied from 0.038 to 134 g, LV EDV varied from 0.015 to 102 ml, while RR interval varied from 81 to 1090 ms. While S(Long) increased with increasing LV EDV or mass (β values 0.047±0.006 and 0.051±0.005, p<0.0001 vs. 0 for both) S(Circ) was unchanged (p = NS for both LV EDV or mass). Systolic and diastolic SR(Long) and SR(Circ) showed inverse correlations to LV EDV or mass (p<0.0001 vs. 0 for all comparisons). The ratio between S(Long) and S(Circ) increased with increasing values of LV EDV or mass (β values 0.039±0.010 and 0.040±0.011, p>0.0003 for both). CONCLUSIONS: While S(Circ) is unchanged, S(Long) increases with increasing heart size, indicating that large mammals rely more on long axis contribution to systolic function. SR(Long) and SR(Circ), both diastolic and systolic, show an expected decrease with increasing heart size

The Origins of Novel Protein Interactions during Animal Opsin Evolution

Background. Biologists are gaining an increased understanding of the genetic bases of phenotypic change during evolution. Nevertheless, the origins of phenotypes mediated by novel protein-protein interactions remain largely undocumented. Methodology/Principle Findings. Here we analyze the evolution of opsin visual pigment proteins from the genomes of early branching animals, including a new class of opsins from Cnidaria. We combine these data with existing knowledge of the molecular basis of opsin function in a rigorous phylogenetic framework. We identify adaptive amino acid substitutions in duplicated opsin genes that correlate with a diversification of physiological pathways mediated by different protein-protein interactions. Conclusions/Significance. This study documents how gene duplication events early in the history of animals followed by adaptive structural mutations increased organismal complexity by adding novel protein-protein interactions that underlie different physiological pathways. These pathways are central to vision and other photo-reactive phenotypes in most extant animals. Similar evolutionary processes may have been a work in generating other metazoan sensory systems and other physiological processes mediated by signal transduction

Recent Updates on the Melanin-Concentrating Hormone (MCH) and Its Receptor System: Lessons from MCH1R Antagonists

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a 19-amino-acid cyclic peptide which was originally found to lighten skin color in fish that is highly conserved among many species. MCH interacts with two G-protein-coupled receptors, MCH1R and MCH2R, but only MCH1R is expressed in rodents. MCH is mainly synthesized in the lateral hypothalamus and zona incerta, while MCH1R is widely expressed throughout the brain. Thus, MCH signaling is implicated in the regulation of many physiological functions. The identification of MCH1R has led to the development of small-molecule MCH1R antagonists that can block MCH signaling. MCH1R antagonists are useful not only for their potential therapeutic value, but also for understanding the physiological functions of the endogenous MCH system. Here, we review the physiological functions of the MCH system which have been investigated using MCH1R antagonists such as food intake, anxiety, depression, reward, and sleep. This will help us understand the physiological functions of the MCH system and suggest some of the potential applications of MCH1R antagonists in human disorders

The Melanin-Concentrating Hormone (MCH) System Modulates Behaviors Associated with Psychiatric Disorders

Deficits in sensorimotor gating measured by prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle have been known as characteristics of patients with schizophrenia and related neuropsychiatric disorders. PPI disruption is thought to rely on the activity of the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system and is inhibited by most antipsychotic drugs. These drugs however act also at the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway and exert adverse locomotor responses. Finding a way to inhibit the mesocorticolimbic- without affecting the nigrostriatal-dopaminergic pathway may thus be beneficial to antipsychotic therapies. The melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) system has been shown to modulate dopamine-related responses. Its receptor (MCH1R) is expressed at high levels in the mesocorticolimbic and not in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathways. Interestingly a genomic linkage study revealed significant associations between schizophrenia and markers located in the MCH1R gene locus. We hypothesize that the MCH system can selectively modulate the behavior associated with the mesocorticolimbic dopamine pathway. Using mice, we found that central administration of MCH potentiates apomorphine-induced PPI deficits. Using congenic rat lines that differ in their responses to PPI, we found that the rats that are susceptible to apomorphine (APO-SUS rats) and exhibit PPI deficits display higher MCH mRNA expression in the lateral hypothalamic region and that blocking the MCH system reverses their PPI deficits. On the other hand, in mice and rats, activation or inactivation of the MCH system does not affect stereotyped behaviors, dopamine-related responses that depend on the activity of the nigrostriatal pathway. Furthermore MCH does not affect dizocilpine-induced PPI deficit, a glutamate related response. Thus, our data present the MCH system as a regulator of sensorimotor gating, and provide a new rationale to understand the etiologies of schizophrenia and related psychiatric disorders