Redesigning the European Court of Human Rights: Embeddedness as a Deep Structural Principle of the European Human Rights Regime

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is the crown jewel of the world’s most advanced international system for protecting civil and political liberties. In recent years, however, the ECHR has become a victim of its own success. The Court now faces a docket crisis of massive proportions, the consequence of the growing number of states subject to its jurisdiction, its favourable public reputation, its expansive interpretations of individual liberties, a distrust of domestic judiciaries in some countries, and entrenched human rights problems in others. In response to this growing backlog of individual complaints, the Council of Europe has, over the last five years, considered numerous proposals to restructure the European human rights regime and redesign the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This article argues that these proposals should be understood not as ministerial changes in supranational judicial procedure, nor as resolving a debate over whether the ECHR should strive for individual or constitutional justice, but rather as raising more fundamental questions concerning the Court’s future identity. In particular, the article argues for recognition of ‘ embeddedness ’ in national legal systems as a deep structural principle of the ECHR, a principle that functions as a necessary counterpoint to the subsidiary doctrine that has animated the Convention since its founding. Embeddedness does not substitute ECHR rulings for the decisions of national parliaments or domestic courts. Rather, it requires the Council of Europe and the Court to bolster the mechanisms for governments to remedy human rights violations at home, obviating the need for individuals to seek supranational relief and restoring countries to a position in which the ECHR’s deference to national decision-makers is appropriate

MarciaTesta: An Automatic Generator of Test Programs for Microprocessors' Data Caches

SBST (Software Based Self-Testing) is an effective solution for in-system testing of SoCs without any additional hardware requirement. SBST is particularly suited for embedded blocks with limited accessibility, such as cache memories. Several methodologies have been proposed to properly adapt existing March algorithms to test cache memories. Unfortunately they all leave the test engineers the task of manually coding them into the specific Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) of the target microprocessor. We propose an EDA tool for the automatic generation of assembly cache test program for a specific architectur

Validation & Verification of an EDA automated synthesis tool

Reliability and correctness are two mandatory features for automated synthesis tools. To reach the goals several campaigns of Validation and Verification (V&V) are needed. The paper presents the extensive efforts set up to prove the correctness of a newly developed EDA automated synthesis tool. The target tool, MarciaTesta, is a multi-platform automatic generator of test programs for microprocessors' caches. Getting in input the selected March Test and some architectural details about the target cache memory, the tool automatically generates the assembly level program to be run as Software Based Self-Testing (SBST). The equivalence between the original March Test, the automatically generated Assembly program, and the intermediate C/C++ program have been proved resorting to sophisticated logging mechanisms. A set of proved libraries has been generated and extensively used during the tool development. A detailed analysis of the lessons learned is reporte

Mechanisms and Mediators of Pain in Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis

Abstract Purpose of the review Pain in chronic inflammatory joint diseases is a common symptom reported by patients. Pain becomes of absolute clinical relevance especially when it becomes chronic, i.e., when it persists beyond normal healing times. As an operational definition, pain is defined chronic when it lasts for more than 3 months. This article aims to provide a review of the main mechanisms underlying pain in patients with chronic inflammatory joint diseases, discussing in particular their overlap. Recent findings While it may be intuitive how synovial inflammation or enthesitis are responsible for nociceptive pain, in clinical practice, it is common to find patients who continue to complain of symptoms despite optimal control of inflammation. In this kind of patients at the genesis of pain, there may be neuropathic or nociplastic mechanisms. Summary In the context of chronic inflammatory joint diseases, multiple mechanisms generally coexist behind chronic pain. It is the rheumatologist's task to identify the mechanisms of pain that go beyond the nociceptive mechanisms, to adopt appropriate therapeutic strategies, including avoiding overtreatment of patients with immunosuppressive drugs. In this sense, future research will have to be oriented to search for biomarkers of non-inflammatory pain in patients with chronic inflammatory joint diseases

An area-efficient 2-D convolution implementation on FPGA for space applications

The 2-D Convolution is an algorithm widely used in image and video processing. Although its computation is simple, its implementation requires a high computational power and an intensive use of memory. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) architectures were proposed to accelerate calculations of 2-D Convolution and the use of buffers implemented on FPGAs are used to avoid direct memory access. In this paper we present an implementation of the 2-D Convolution algorithm on a FPGA architecture designed to support this operation in space applications. This proposed solution dramatically decreases the area needed keeping good performance, making it appropriate for embedded systems in critical space application

A P. menziesii var. menziesii (=viridis) (Schwerin) Franco stand description dataset: a case study of Pavari's experimental Plot 412 ninety years after plantation

This paper describes a dataset containing the historical series of dendrometric data from a P. menziesii var. menziesii (=viridis) (Schwerin) Franco plantation. Implemented in 1932, the plantation is located in “Rio di Mercurella” place, in the Tyrrhenian coastal mountain range of Calabria region (Southern Italy). The experimental plot has been identified as Plot 412 and is characterized by trees with a relevant role for forest community biodiversity. The monitoring started in 1940.  The dataset reported five of all the inventories Until 2013, inventories have been carried out by Istituto Sperimentale di Selvicoltura and Unità di Ricerca per la Selvicoltura in Ambiente Mediterraneo, now CREA Forestry and Wood research centre which has taken over the last two. The following data have been collected: position, number, diameter at breast heigh (DBH) of all the trees and total height (Ht) of a trees sample. Collected data are an important historical source and testimony the first experimental test of P. menziesii introduction which will have to be monitored in the future and will constitute a fundamental contribution to enrich the knowledge on appropriate management in Calabria and evaluate the health state and stability of the forest stand in the future

Comparison between three glass fiber post cementation techniques

The aim of this experimental study was to compare the traditional cement systems with those of the latest generation, to assess if indeed these could represent of viable substitutes in the cementation of indirect restorations, and in the specific case of endodontic posts

A feasible and automatic free tool for T1 and ECV mapping

Purpose: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a useful non-invasive tool for characterizing tissues and detecting myocardial fibrosis and edema. Estimation of extracellular volume fraction (ECV) using T1 sequences is emerging as an accurate biomarker in cardiac diseases associated with diffuse fibrosis. In this study, automatic software for T1 and ECV map generation consisting of an executable file was developed and validated using phantom and human data. Methods: T1 mapping was performed in phantoms and 30 subjects (22 patients and 8 healthy subjects) on a 1.5T MR scanner using the modified Look-Locker inversion-recovery (MOLLI) sequence prototype before and 15 min after contrast agent administration. T1 maps were generated using a Fast Nonlinear Least Squares algorithm. Myocardial ECV maps were generated using both pre- and post-contrast T1 image registration and automatic extraction of blood relaxation rates. Results: Using our software, pre- and post-contrast T1 maps were obtained in phantoms and healthy subjects resulting in a robust and reliable quantification as compared to reference software. Coregistration of pre- and post-contrast images improved the quality of ECV maps. Mean ECV value in healthy subjects was 24.5% ± 2.5%. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that it is possible to obtain accurate T1 maps and informative ECV maps using our software. Pixel-wise ECV maps obtained with this automatic software made it possible to visualize and evaluate the extent and severity of ECV alterations

Sovranità popolare, partecipazione e metodo democratico fra utopia e illusioni costituzionali. Dalla deriva dei partiti agli scenari del XXI secolo

Caposaldo storico del costituzionalismo contemporaneo, la sovranità del popolo oggi appare come un vano sintagma che se introdotto nella dialettica politica quotidiana vi figurerebbe come un inutile esercizio teorico. Le performances dei partiti, o almeno dei più, tuttavia, sono intrise di "utili" espressioni come democrazia e partecipazione dei cittadini. Anche questi sono slogans privi di effettività, ma se ne abusa. Questo avviene in un quadro deformato da leggi elettorali antidemocratiche, dal distacco degli elettori dal voto e dall'imporsi della globalizzazione capitalistica. Eppure nel costituzionalismo del ventesimo secolo, buone leggi elettorali, partecipazione popolare e partiti democratici rappresentarono la diramazione vertebrale della sovranità popolare. Siamo andati alla ricerca della distinzione fra inattuazione e inattualità per tentare di spiegare ai giovani che oggi sovranità del popolo, democrazia e partecipazione popolare sono termini che possono avere ancora un senso