The Preliminary Ruling Procedure, Today: Revisiting Article 267 TFEU’s Constitutional Backbone

As the title of the Special Issue suggests, its main purpose is to shed new light on the content, scope, extent, and limits of Article 267 TFEU in today’s Union and, in turn, on the nature of this procedure and the European Court of Justice (ECJ)’s role as a sui generis supranational court. Such role has been played first and foremost through the rulings rendered in the context of the preliminary ruling procedure, which has been defined as the ‘keystone’ of the EU judicial system,2 the ‘most important aspect of the work of the Court’,3 the ‘jewel in the Crown’ of the Court’s jurisdiction,4 and the ‘genius’ without which core principles, such as direct effect and primacy, could have not been conceived.5 Indeed, the procedure enshrined in Article 267 TFEU has shaped and continues to shape profoundly the EU legal order and the relationship between the EU and the Member States.Moreover, this procedure shall not be seen simply as a tool used by the Court of Luxembourg to strengthen the evolution of EU law. In fact, the way Article 267 TFEU has been constantly interpreted, redesigned, and materially reformed over the decades is also a symptom of the dynamics underpinning such evolution. This transformative and mimetic nature of Article 267 TFEU explains the evergreen interest in the procedure despite the absence of any amendment to the Treaties since the 1950s, confirmed by the large number of studies published on the subject over the last few years

The ECJ’s Approach to Dual Preliminarity 5 Years after the ItCC’s Judgment No. 269/2017

This article examines the European Court of Justice (ECJ)’s perspective on dual preliminarity (doppia pregiudizialità) five years after the notorious obiter dictum of the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) in its judgment No. 269/2017. More precisely, the article aims at unravelling the essential requirements that any such “triangular” relation (between ordinary national courts, national Constitutional Courts, and the Kirchberg Court) shall satisfy to comply with European Union (EU) law. This analysis builds both on the “classics” and on the recent cases involving (blatant or disguised) restrictions on Hungarian and Romanian judges to refer to the ECJ or apply EU law. Against this backdrop, the compatibility of the current configuration of dual preliminarity in Italy with EU law will be assessed. Although a specific assessment in this regard has not been carried out by the ECJ (yet?), we contend that the refinements and adjustments in the more recent ItCC’s case law have remedied the main issues envisaged in the obiter dictum. Therefore, the current configuration seems to pose no serious threats to the EU systemic principles involved nor to EU law’s uniformity, coherence, and effectiveness. Indeed, provided that national judges continue to enjoy the actual power to refer freely to the ECJ and immediately set aside national law provisions incompatible with EU law rules, the ECJ has adopted a “secularist” approach and respects the Member States’ constitutional models. This article also argues that the early-stage involvement of ItCC’s (“first word”) in the dialogue with the ECJ may well serve the interests of a composite and pluralist system of fundamental rights protection in the EU. We will offer as an example the recent case on the Italian rules on childbirth and maternity allowances, which marks a step down the path of a “cooperative” dialogue between the two courts and shows the potentialities (and the little drawbacks) of such an early involvement

Room temperature syntheses of ZnO and their structures

ZnO has many technological applications which largely depend on its properties, which can be tuned by controlled synthesis. Ideally, the most convenient ZnO synthesis is carried out at room temperature in an aqueous solvent. However, the correct temperature values are often loosely defined. In the current paper, we performed the synthesis of ZnO in an aqueous solvent by varying the reaction and drying temperatures by 10 ◦C steps, and we monitored the synthesis products primarily by XRD). We found out that a simple direct synthesis of ZnO, without additional surfactant, pumping, or freezing, required both a reaction (TP) and a drying (TD) temperature of 40 ◦C. Higher temperatures also afforded ZnO, but lowering any of the TP or TD below the threshold value resulted either in the achievement of Zn(OH)2 or a mixture of Zn(OH)2/ZnO. A more detailed Rietveld analysis of the ZnO samples revealed a density variation of about 4% (5.44 to 5.68 gcm−3 ) with the synthesis temperature, and an increase of the nanoparticles’ average size, which was also verified by SEM images. The average size of the ZnO synthesized at TP = TD = 40 ◦C was 42 nm, as estimated by XRD, and 53 ± 10 nm, as estimated by SEM. For higher synthesis temperatures, they vary between 76 nm and 71 nm (XRD estimate) or 65 ± 12 nm and 69 ± 11 nm (SEM estimate) for TP = 50 ◦C, TD = 40 ◦C, or TP = TD = 60 ◦C, respectively. At TP = TD = 30 ◦C, micrometric structures aggregated in foils are obtained, which segregate nanoparticles of ZnO if TD is raised to 40 ◦C. The optical properties of ZnO obtained by UV-Vis reflectance spectroscopy indicate a red shift of the band gap by ~0.1 eV

Laser vs. thermal treatments of green pigment PG36: coincidence and toxicity of processes

Comparative laser and thermal treatments were carried out on PG36, a green phthalocyanine-based pigment, permitted in European countries where legislation on tattoo composition was issued. Prior to the treatments, PG36 was characterized by SEM imaging, EDX, IR and UV–Vis spectroscopies, revealing an excess of Si and C and O as compared to the pure halogenated Cu-phthalocyanine. Laser treatments were carried out with a Nd:YAG device applied to H2O and propan-2-ol dispersions. Pyrolysis and calcinations were carried out in air or under N2 flow. The outcome of the different procedures was analyzed by UV–Vis spectroscopy, GC–mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction of the solid residues, SEM microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The comparative analysis indicated the production of different fragment compounds depending on the treatment, (pyrolysis or laser), and, to some extent, to the solvent of the dispersion, with pyrolysis generating a larger number of hazardous compounds. Hydrocarbons and cyclic siloxanes present as additives in PG36 were stable or degraded depending on the treatment. The morphology of the products is also treatment-dependent with nanoparticles < 20 nm and fibers being produced upon laser treatments only. Based on the experimental findings, the equivalence of laser and thermal treatments is evaluated

It’s not all in your car: functional and structural correlates of exceptional driving skills in professional racers

Driving is a complex behavior that requires the integration of multiple cognitive functions. While many studies have investigated brain activity related to driving simulation under distinct conditions, little is known about the brain morphological and functional architecture in professional competitive driving, which requires exceptional motor and navigational skills. Here, 11 professional racing-car drivers and 11 “naïve” volunteers underwent both structural and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Subjects were presented with short movies depicting a Formula One car racing in four different official circuits. Brain activity was assessed in terms of regional response, using an Inter-Subject Correlation (ISC) approach, and regional interactions by mean of functional connectivity. In addition, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to identify specific structural differences between the two groups and potential interactions with functional differences detected by the ISC analysis. Relative to non-experienced drivers, professional drivers showed a more consistent recruitment of motor control and spatial navigation devoted areas, including premotor/motor cortex, striatum, anterior, and posterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex, precuneus, middle temporal cortex, and parahippocampus. Moreover, some of these brain regions, including the retrosplenial cortex, also had an increased gray matter density in professional car drivers. Furthermore, the retrosplenial cortex, which has been previously associated with the storage of observer-independent spatial maps, revealed a specific correlation with the individual driver's success in official competitions. These findings indicate that the brain functional and structural organization in highly trained racing-car drivers differs from that of subjects with an ordinary driving experience, suggesting that specific anatomo-functional changes may subtend the attainment of exceptional driving performance

It's not all in your car: functional and structural correlates of exceptional driving skills in professional racers.

Driving is a complex behavior that requires the integration of multiple cognitive functions. While many studies have investigated brain activity related to driving simulation under distinct conditions, little is known about the brain morphological and functional architecture in professional competitive driving, which requires exceptional motor and navigational skills. Here, 11 professional racing-car drivers and 11 "naïve" volunteers underwent both structural and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Subjects were presented with short movies depicting a Formula One car racing in four different official circuits. Brain activity was assessed in terms of regional response, using an Inter-Subject Correlation (ISC) approach, and regional interactions by mean of functional connectivity. In addition, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to identify specific structural differences between the two groups and potential interactions with functional differences detected by the ISC analysis. Relative to non-experienced drivers, professional drivers showed a more consistent recruitment of motor control and spatial navigation devoted areas, including premotor/motor cortex, striatum, anterior, and posterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex, precuneus, middle temporal cortex, and parahippocampus. Moreover, some of these brain regions, including the retrosplenial cortex, also had an increased gray matter density in professional car drivers. Furthermore, the retrosplenial cortex, which has been previously associated with the storage of observer-independent spatial maps, revealed a specific correlation with the individual driver's success in official competitions. These findings indicate that the brain functional and structural organization in highly trained racing-car drivers differs from that of subjects with an ordinary driving experience, suggesting that specific anatomo-functional changes may subtend the attainment of exceptional driving performance

Mutations impairing GSK3-mediated MAF phosphorylation cause cataract, deafness, intellectual disability, seizures, and a down syndrome-like facies

Transcription factors operate in developmental processes to mediate inductive events and cell competence, and perturbation of their function or regulation can dramatically affect morphogenesis, organogenesis, and growth. We report that a narrow spectrum of amino-acid substitutions within the transactivation domain of the v-maf avian musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog (MAF), a leucine zipper-containing transcription factor of the AP1 superfamily, profoundly affect development. Seven different de novo missense mutations involving conserved residues of the four GSK3 phosphorylation motifs were identified in eight unrelated individuals. The distinctive clinical phenotype, for which we propose the eponym Aymé-Gripp syndrome, is not limited to lens and eye defects as previously reported for MAF/Maf loss of function but includes sensorineural deafness, intellectual disability, seizures, brachycephaly, distinctive flat facial appearance, skeletal anomalies, mammary gland hypoplasia, and reduced growth. Disease-causing mutations were demonstrated to impair proper MAF phosphorylation, ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation, perturbed gene expression in primary skin fibroblasts, and induced neurodevelopmental defects in an in vivo model. Our findings nosologically and clinically delineate a previously poorly understood recognizable multisystem disorder, provide evidence for MAF governing a wider range of developmental programs than previously appreciated, and describe a novel instance of protein dosage effect severely perturbing developmen