LITIS CAUSA MALO MORE PECUNIAM PROMITTERE: SULLA CONTRARIETA' AI BONI MORES DEL 'PATTO DI QUOTA LITE'.

The agreement, currently known in judiciary praxis as patto di quota lite, through which a lawyer undertakes the defence of a client with the understanding that he will receive as fee a part of the amount the latter will achieve in case of victory of the lawsuit, derives from Roman juridical experience. The institution of quota litis is often subject to unbending prohibitions: examples of such reaction of the legal system, even if with different gradation, are found in both the Swiss and Italian norms. On the one hand, in the Helvetian Confederation, both at cantonal and federal level, the pactum de quota litis has been always prohibited to protect the public interest so that the lawyer handling a lawsuit might be independent in his decisions and not forced by personal interests that somehow could undermine his neutrality. On the other hand, this institution in Italy has been subject to several reforms that sometimes have apparently produced a partial opening of the legal system but, in essence, have always maintained firm the principle of its unlawfulness; this, as emerges from the sentences of the Corte di Cassazione, aims to avoid the lawyer taking advantage of his influence to ascribe to himself the majority of the dispute and consequently does not guarantee a role of independence in regard to the lawsuit he is handling. After this initial comparative digression, the Roman sources which in all probability concern the illicit covenant, have been examined with exegetic method. A dubitative attitude is obligatory because the expression pactum de quota litis, continuously recalled in the juridical literature of every later time, is not a creation of the Roman people but of their medieval exegetes, glossators and commentators, who first created the expression we know nowadays. It is mostly a question of late classical juridical sources, in particular of two responsa of the jurist Ulpianus (D.50.13.1.12; D.2.14.53), a text taken from the Institutio Oratoria of the rhetor Quintilianus and a pair of constitutions of the emperor Constantinus (C.2.6.5 and C.Th.2.10.4), which show the blame that such agreement between the lawyer and his client (or sometimes between the procurator ad litem and his dominus litis too) provoked. Its contrariety to boni mores is understandable in these texts through expressions like malo more, non licet, abominanda negotiatio and illicita compendia. However, the ratio of this opposition to morality is not made clear; this issue has been pursued considering social and economic reasons that have marked the passage, from the unbreakability of the principle of gratuity of lawyer activity to provisions legally defined and certified by imperial constitutions. However, it was not possible to leave another issue out of consideration because of its strict relation and complexity within the doctrinal opinions that have been studied and compared in the present analysis. I refer to the institution of redemptio litis that, according to jurists of the XVI and XVII century (for instance Johann Schiller, Johann Brunnemann, Iacobus Curtius), was completely assimilable to the hypothesis of the so called patto di quota lite. I have attempted to take up a position following the literature of the last century about the subject (for instance Vittorio Scialoja and the up-to-date Mariano Scarlata Fazio and Gianni Santucci). According to their opinions there are two behaviours, although equally illegal, different as to content. Redimere litem generally means \u201ctaking on the risk of the lawsuit\u201d against the payment of a fee (as D.17.1.6.7, D.17.1.7; C.2.12.15 and C.4.35.20 explain), by having recourse to the mechanism of trial replacement that made the transfer of credits and debts possible for a procurator in rem suam, but it assumes also the meaning of \u201cpurchasing a credit at low cost\u201d to recover from the transferred debtor the whole nominal value (as in C.4.35.22, where the content of the lex Anastasiana is reported). In both cases speculation is dominant and both cases in point were not tolerated by the system of laws because considered opposite to morality. Certainly the redemptio litis could be used also to pay the lawyer (or the substitute in a trial), like the pactum de quota litis which shared the imputation of immorality, but in any case it was a different agreement in nature (transfer of contentious credit and not simple pactum) and in content (purchase of the whole trial position of the surrender and not of a part of the proceeds in case of victory of the lawsuit). The inseparable linkage between the technical contrivance by means of which the redemptio litis was carried out, the procuratio ad litem in rem suam, and the mandate have been the crucial points to elaborate the final considerations about the unlawfulness of such an agreement within the classical Roman legal and late classic experience.Die Vereinbarung, welche gegenw\ue4rtig in der Rechtspraxis als quota-litis-Vereinbarung bekannt ist, hat ihre Wurzeln im r\uf6mischen Recht. Bei dieser Vereinbarung \ufcbernimmt der Rechtsanwalt die Vertretung des Mandanten mit der Absprache, dass jener als Honorar einen Teil von dem erhalten soll, was dieser im Fall eines Prozessgewinns erlangen wird. Das Institut der quota-litis-Vereinbarung ist h\ue4ufig Gegenstand strenger Verbote. Beispiele einer solchen Reaktion der Rechtsordnung findet man \u2013 wenn auch mit verschiedenen Abstufungen \u2013 im schweizerischen wie auch im italienischen Recht. Einerseits war die quota-litis-Vereinbarung in der Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft sowohl auf kantonaler als auch auf f\uf6deraler Ebene schon seit jeher verboten, um das \uf6ffentliche Interesse daran zu sch\ufctzen, dass der Berufstr\ue4ger in seinen Entscheidungen unabh\ue4ngig ist, wenn er eine Rechtssache f\ufchrt, und sich nicht von pers\uf6nlichen Interessen leiten l\ue4sst, die auf irgendeine Art seine Neutralit\ue4t gef\ue4hrden k\uf6nnen. Andererseits erfuhr sie in Italien verschiedene Reformen, die zwar bisweilen eine Teil\uf6ffnung der Rechtsordnung mit sich brachten, aber stets an dem Prinzip ihrer Widerrechtlichkeit festhielten; wie sich aus der h\uf6chstrichterlichen Rechtsprechung ergibt, verfolgt man damit den Zweck zu vermeiden, dass der Rechtsanwalt seinen Einfluss missbraucht, um den Gro fteil der streitgegenst\ue4ndlichen Sache zu beanspruchen, und infolgedessen keine Position der Unparteilichkeit und Unabh\ue4ngigkeit im Hinblick auf den Rechtsstreit gew\ue4hrleistet, an dem er mitwirkt. Nach diesem anf\ue4nglichen rechtsvergleichenden Exkurs werden mit Hilfe der exegetischen Methode diejenigen r\uf6mischen Quellenzeugnisse untersucht, welche h\uf6chstwahrscheinlich diese rechtswidrige Vereinbarung betreffen. Eine skeptische Haltung ist zwingend erforderlich, da die Urheberschaft des Ausdrucks pactum de quota litis, anders als in der juristischen Literatur aller Epochen immer behauptet wird, nicht den R\uf6mern selbst zuzuerkennen ist, sondern ihren mittelalterlichen Exegeten, den Glossatoren und den Kommentatoren, die als erste den Ausdruck gepr\ue4gt haben, den wir heute kennen. Es handelt sich haupts\ue4chlich um klassische und sp\ue4tantike Rechtsquellen, insbesondere um zwei responsa des Juristen Ulpian (D. 50, 13, 1, 12; D. 2, 14, 53), um einen Ausschnitt aus der Institutio Oratoria des Rhetors Quintilian (Inst. 12, 7, 11) und um zwei constitutiones des Kaisers Konstantin (C. 2, 6, 5 und CTh. 2, 10, 4), in denen das missbilligende Empfinden aufscheint, welches eine solche Vereinbarung zwischen dem Anwalt (oder zuweilen auch zwischen dem procurator ad litem und dem dominus litis) und dem Klienten ausl\uf6ste. Ihr Widerspruch zu den boni mores ergibt sich in den Texten aus Wendungen wie malo more, non licet, abominanda negotiato und illecita compendia. Allerdings geht aus diesen nicht die ratio dieses Widerspruchs zu den guten Sitten hervor. Auf diese Frage wurde versucht, eine Antwort zu geben, indem auf die sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Beweggr\ufcnde verwiesen wurde, welche den cbergang von der Unabdingbarkeit des Prinzips der Unentgeltlichkeit der Anwaltst\ue4tigkeit zu der Festlegung gesetzlich bestimmter Honorare kennzeichneten, die auch durch kaiserliche Reskripte bezeugt sind. Es konnte jedoch nicht von der Vertiefung einer weiteren Frage abgesehen werden, deren enger Zusammenhang und deren gleichzeitige Komplexit\ue4t in den Lehrmeinungen deutlich wurde, die an dieser Stelle untersucht und \ufcberpr\ufcft wurden. Ich beziehe mich auf das Institut der redemptio litis, welches gem\ue4 f der allgemeinen cberzeugung der Gelehrten des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (z. B. Johann Schilter, Johann Brunnemann, Iacobus Curtius) mit dem Fall einer quota-litis-Vereinbarung v\uf6llig vergleichbar war. Es wurde versucht, hierzu Stellung zu nehmen, indem der Literatur des vergangenen Jahrhunderts zu diesem Thema zugestimmt wurde (z. B. Vittorio Scialoja und j\ufcngst Mariano Scarlato-Fazio und Gianni Santucci), gem\ue4 f der es sich um zwei Tatbst\ue4nde handeln soll, die zwar gleicherma fen unrechtm\ue4 fig gewesen seien, sich aber dem Inhalt nach unterschieden h\ue4tten. Redimere litem bedeutet in den Quellen f\ufcr gew\uf6hnlich \u201cdas Prozessrisiko \ufcbernehmen\u201d gegen Zahlung eines Entgelts (so in D. 17, 1, 6, 7; D. 17, 1, 7; C. 2, 12, 15; C. 4, 35, 20), indem man auf den Mechanismus der Prozess\ufcbernahme zur\ufcckgreift, der die cbertragung von Forderungen und Schulden auf den procurator in rem suam gestattete; dieser Terminus erlangt auch die Bedeutung \u201ckosteng\ufcnstig eine Forderung erwerben\u201d, um von dem Schuldner der abgetretenen Forderung ihren gesamten Nominalwert einzutreiben (so in C. 4, 35, 22, wo der Inhalt der lex Anastasiana berichtet wird). In beiden F\ue4llen herrscht das spekulative Element vor und beide Tatbest\ue4nde wurden von der Rechtsordnung nicht toleriert, da man sie als den guten Sitten zuwider beurteilte. Sicherlich konnte auch die redemptio litis ebenso wie die quota-litis-Vereinbarung, mit der sie die Sittenwidrigkeit gemein hatte, verwendet werden, um den Anwalt (oder den Prozess\ufcbernehmer) zu entlohnen; aber es handelte sich in jedem Fall um eine nach Art (Zession einer streitbefangenen Forderung und nicht einfach ein pactum) und Inhalt (Erwerb der ganzen prozessualen Lage des Zedenten und nicht eines Teils des Erl\uf6ses im Fall des Prozessgewinns) andere Vereinbarung. Die untrennbare Verbindung zwischen dem technischen Hilfsmittel, mit dem man die redemptio litis verwirklichte, der procuratio ad litem in rem suam, und dem Mandat bildete den Schwerpunkt der Ausarbeitung von abschlie fenden Erw\ue4gungen betreffend die Widerrechtlichkeit einer derartigen Vereinbarung im r\uf6mischen Recht der Klassik und Sp\ue4tklassik

Evolution of HER2-positive mammary carcinoma: HER2 loss reveals claudin-low traits in cancer progression

HER2-positive breast cancers may lose HER2 expression in recurrences and metastases. In this work, we studied cell lines derived from two transgenic mammary tumors driven by human HER2 that showed different dynamics of HER2 status. MamBo89HER2stable cell line displayed high and stable HER2 expression, which was maintained upon in vivo passages, whereas MamBo43HER2labile cell line gave rise to HER2-negative tumors from which MamBo38HER2loss cell line was derived. Both low-density seeding and in vitro trastuzumab treatment of MamBo43HER2labile cells induced the loss of HER2 expression. MamBo38HER2loss cells showed a spindle-like morphology, high stemness and acquired in vivo malignancy. A comprehensive molecular profile confirmed the loss of addiction to HER2 signaling and acquisition of an EMT signature, together with increased angiogenesis and migration ability. We identified PDGFR-B among the newly expressed determinants of MamBo38HER2loss cell tumorigenic ability. Sunitinib inhibited MamBo38HER2loss tumor growth in vivo and reduced stemness and IL6 production in vitro. In conclusion, HER2-positive mammary tumors can evolve into tumors that display distinctive traits of claudin-low tumors. Our dynamic model of HER2 status can lead to the identification of new druggable targets, such as PDGFR-B, in order to counteract the resistance to HER2-targeted therapy that is caused by HER2 loss

aberrant inos signaling is under genetic control in rodent liver cancer and potentially prognostic for the human disease

Mounting evidence underlines the role of inducible nitric oxidesynthase (iNOS) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develop-ment, but its functional interactions with pathways involved inHCC progression remain uninvestigated. Here, we analyzed inpreneoplastic and neoplastic livers from Fisher 344 and BrownNorway rats, possessing different genetic predisposition to HCC,in transforming growth factor-a (TGF-a) and c-Myc–TGF-atransgenic mice, characterized by different susceptibility toHCC, and in human HCC: (i) iNOS function and interactionswith nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) and Ha-RAS/extracellularsignal-regulated kinase (ERK) during hepatocarcinogenesis;(ii) influence of genetic predisposition to liver cancer on thesepathways and role of these cascades in determining a susceptibleor resistant phenotype and (iii) iNOS prognostic value in humanHCC. We found progressive iNos induction in rat and mouse liverlesions, always at higher levels in the most aggressive models rep-resented by HCC of rats genetically susceptible to hepatocarcino-genesis and c-Myc–TGF-a transgenic mice. iNOS, inhibitor of kBkinase/NF-kB and RAS/ERK upregulation was significantly higherin HCC with poorer prognosis (as defined by patients' survivallength) and positively correlated with tumor proliferation, genomicinstability and microvascularization and negatively with apoptosis.Suppression of iNOS signaling by aminoguanidine led to decreasedHCC growth and NF-kB and RAS/ERK expression and increasedapoptosis both in vivo and in vitro. Conversely, block of NF-kBsignaling by sulfasalazine or short interfering RNA (siRNA) orERK signaling by UO126 caused iNOS downregulation in HCCcell lines. These findings indicate that iNOS cross talk with NF-kB and Ha-RAS/ERK cascades influences HCC growth and prog-nosis, suggesting that key component of iNOS signaling could rep-resent important therapeutic targets for human HCC.IntroductionHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent anddeadliest human cancers worldwide. Current therapies do not improvesignificantly the prognosis of patients with unresectable HCC (1,2).This emphasizes the need to investigate the molecular mechanismsresponsible for HCC development to identify new targets for earlydiagnosis, chemoprevention and treatment.Numerous genes regulating susceptibility to HCC and controllinggrowth, progression and redifferentiation of preneoplastic and neo-plastic lesions have been mapped in rodents (3). Decrease in growthability and/or marked redifferentiation of preneoplastic lesion char-acterizes rodent strains resistant to hepatocarcinogenesis (3,4). Con-sequently, studies on the mechanisms underlying the acquisition ofa phenotype susceptible/resistantto hepatocarcinogenesis in rodentstrains, carrying preneoplastic lesions differently prone to progressto HCC, may lead to the discovery of prognostic markers and ther-apeutic targets for the human disease. Dysplastic nodules and HCCinduced in susceptible Fisher 344 (F344) rats show upregulation ofc-Myc, Cyclin D1, E and A and E2f1 genes, increased cyclinD1–Cdk4, cyclin E–Cdk2 and E2f1–Dp1 complexes and retinoblas-toma protein (pRb) hyperphosphorylation (4–6). These changes areabsent or less pronounced in liver lesions from resistant Brown Norway(BN) rats, where a block of

Benign splenosis mimicking peritoneal seeding in a bladder cancer patient: a case report

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MAMBO Mapping of Spitzer c2d Small Clouds and Cores

AIMS: To study the structure of nearby (< 500 pc) dense starless and star-forming cores with the particular goal to identify and understand evolutionary trends in core properties, and to explore the nature of Very Low Luminosity Objects (< 0.1 L_sun; VeLLOs). METHODS: Using the MAMBO bolometer array, we create maps unusually sensitive to faint (few mJy per beam) extended (approx. 5 arcmin) thermal dust continuum emission at 1.2 mm wavelength. Complementary information on embedded stars is obtained from Spitzer, IRAS, and 2MASS. RESULTS: Our maps are very rich in structure, and we characterize extended emission features (``subcores'') and compact intensity peaks in our data separately to pay attention to this complexity. We derive, e.g., sizes, masses, and aspect ratios for the subcores, as well as column densities and related properties for the peaks. Combination with archival infrared data then enables the derivation of bolometric luminosities and temperatures, as well as envelope masses, for the young embedded stars. CONCLUSIONS: (abridged) Starless and star-forming cores occupy the same parameter space in many core properties; a picture of dense core evolution in which any dense core begins to actively form stars once it exceeds some fixed limit in, e.g., mass, density, or both, is inconsistent with our data. Comparison of various evolutionary indicators for young stellar objects in our sample (e.g., bolometric temperatures) reveals inconsistencies between some of them, possibly suggesting a revision of some of these indicators.Comment: Accepted to A&A. In total 46 pages, with 20 pages of tables, figures, and appendices. High-resolution version of this article at https://www.xythosondemand.com/home/harvard_iic/Users/jkauffma/Public/mambo_spitzer.pd

A PCR-colorimetric microwell plate hybridization assay for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium from culture samples and Ziehl-Neelsen-positive smears

Differentiation between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium is essential for the treatment of mycobacterial infections. We have developed an easy and rapid detection assay for the diagnosis of mycobacterial diseases. This is a PCR-hybridization assay based on selective amplification of a 16S rRNA gene sequence using pan-Mycobacterium primers followed by hybridization of the amplification products to biotinylated M. tuberculosis and M. avium-specific probes. A total of 55 mycobacterial isolates were tested. For all isolates, results concordant with those of conventional identification methods were obtained. Moreover, we developed a method for extraction of DNA from Ziehl-Neelsen-positive smears which allows the recovery of intact target DNA in our PCR-hybridization assay. Our method was able to confirm all culture results for 59 Ziehl-Neelsen-positive smears from clinical specimens (35 sputum, 11 lymph node biopsy, 6 stool, 4 pus, 2 urine, and 1 pericardial fluid specimens). These data suggest that our PCR-hybridization assay, which is simple to perform and less expensive than commercial probe methods, may be suitable for the identification of M. tuberculosis and M. avium. It could become a valuable alternative approach for the diagnosis of mycobacterial infections when applied directly to DNA extracted from Ziehl-Neelsen-positive smears as well

Far-infrared observations of a massive cluster forming in the Monoceros R2 filament hub

We present far-infrared observations of Monoceros R2 (a giant molecular cloud at approximately 830 pc distance, containing several sites of active star formation), as observed at 70 μm, 160 μm, 250 μm, 350 μm, and 500 μm by the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) instruments on the Herschel Space Observatory as part of the Herschel imaging survey of OB young stellar objects (HOBYS) Key programme. The Herschel data are complemented by SCUBA-2 data in the submillimetre range, and WISE and Spitzer data in the mid-infrared. In addition, C18O data from the IRAM 30-m Telescope are presented, and used for kinematic information. Sources were extracted from the maps with getsources, and from the fluxes measured, spectral energy distributions were constructed, allowing measurements of source mass and dust temperature. Of 177 Herschel sources robustly detected in the region (a detection with high signal-to-noise and low axis ratio at multiple wavelengths), including protostars and starless cores, 29 are found in a filamentary hub at the centre of the region (a little over 1% of the observed area). These objects are on average smaller, more massive, and more luminous than those in the surrounding regions (which together suggest that they are at a later stage of evolution), a result that cannot be explained entirely by selection effects. These results suggest a picture in which the hub may have begun star formation at a point significantly earlier than the outer regions, possibly forming as a result of feedback from earlier star formation. Furthermore, the hub may be sustaining its star formation by accreting material from the surrounding filaments

Interstellar MHD Turbulence and Star Formation

This chapter reviews the nature of turbulence in the Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) and its connections to the star formation (SF) process. The ISM is turbulent, magnetized, self-gravitating, and is subject to heating and cooling processes that control its thermodynamic behavior. The turbulence in the warm and hot ionized components of the ISM appears to be trans- or subsonic, and thus to behave nearly incompressibly. However, the neutral warm and cold components are highly compressible, as a consequence of both thermal instability in the atomic gas and of moderately-to-strongly supersonic motions in the roughly isothermal cold atomic and molecular components. Within this context, we discuss: i) the production and statistical distribution of turbulent density fluctuations in both isothermal and polytropic media; ii) the nature of the clumps produced by thermal instability, noting that, contrary to classical ideas, they in general accrete mass from their environment; iii) the density-magnetic field correlation (or lack thereof) in turbulent density fluctuations, as a consequence of the superposition of the different wave modes in the turbulent flow; iv) the evolution of the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio (MFR) in density fluctuations as they are built up by dynamic compressions; v) the formation of cold, dense clouds aided by thermal instability; vi) the expectation that star-forming molecular clouds are likely to be undergoing global gravitational contraction, rather than being near equilibrium, and vii) the regulation of the star formation rate (SFR) in such gravitationally contracting clouds by stellar feedback which, rather than keeping the clouds from collapsing, evaporates and diperses them while they collapse.Comment: 43 pages. Invited chapter for the book "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media", edited by Elisabete de Gouveia dal Pino and Alex Lazarian. Revised as per referee's recommendation