THE IMPACT OF STATES EXIT FROM INTERNATIONAL ENTITIES, STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF BRITAIN’S EXIT FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

There was an international problematic centered on without knowing what is the appropriate interface in the formation of the contemporary international community. Do countries seek to form entities and unions through which they can have influence and an influential entity at the international level, or do countries seek to strengthen their sovereignty and independence and exit from international entities and unions? The exit of Britain from the European Union had a significant impact? In this regard, as it has been proven that the independence and sovereignty of the state is much more important to some states than any economic gains they can obtain. Its impact is limited to Britain and the European Union only, but its impact extends to different countries of the world, and therefore we have shed light on the reasons that prompted Britain to exit, as well as the stages that the talks went through until the signing. From the British exit agreement from the European Union and Britain’s actual exit from the European Union, and here we had to shed light on the most important effects of Britain after its exit from the European Union and the passage of time after that, as well as the impact of its exit on the European Union and other countries

Climatic signals of tree-ring in Quercus gussonei (Borz\uec) Brullo in the Mediterranean region

Change in growth is among the primary response of trees to environmental variation. Tree-rings contain a wealth of information related to the climatic conditions. A dendroclimatic study on Quercus gussonei (Borz\uec) Brullo was carried out in the Nature Reserve of \u201cBosco della Ficuzza, Rocca Busambra, Bosco Del Cappelliere, Gorgo Del Drago\u201d (southern Italy). Q. gussonei is an endemic deciduous oak and thermophilous form of Quercus cerris L. that is found only in Sicily, although with clear sign of decline. The knowledge of ecology of this species should help to establish criteria for forest conservation in the Mediterranean region. For definining the ecological character and understanding the potential causes of the oak decline, we collected cores from ten trees with an increment borer. Precipitation and temperature data were obtained from a meteorological station located nearby from the stand. Annual ring widths, earlywood and latewood analyses were used in order to investigate and better understand the climatic dynamics influencing the oaks\u2019 growth. We determined the stable isotope discrimination of carbon (D13C) in the wood in order to investigate wateruse efficiency variations and the expression of possible plant adaptive traits. Climate-growth relationship, for the chronology 1951-2008, were analyzed using response, correlation and moving correlation functions. Our finding mostly highlight relationships between tree-rings width and climate data. Furthermore, D13C in treerings was used to identify long-term adjustments in water-use efficiency

Pulsed neutron fields measurements around a synchrotron storage ring

A measurement campaign was performed for characterizing the neutron ambient dose equivalent, H*(10), in selected positions at ISA, Aarhus, Denmark, around the ASTRID and ASTRID2 storage rings. The neutron stray radiation field is characterized here by very intense radiation bursts with a low repetition rate, which result in a comparatively low average H*(10) rate. As a consequence, devices specifically conceived for operating in pulsed neutron fields must be employed for efficiently measuring in this radiation environment, in order to avoid severe underestimations of the H*(10) rate. The measurements were performed with the ELSE NUCLEAR LUPIN 5401 BF3-NP rem counter, a detector characterized by an innovative working principle that is not affected by dead time losses. This allowed characterizing both the H*(10) and the time structure of the radiation field in the pre-selected positions

Occupational Pension Funds (IORPs) & Sustainability: What does the Prudent Person Principle say?

The European Union encourages individuals to save in private and occupational pension funds to complement their state saving-plans. Throughout their lives, employers directly sponsor occupational retirement saving plans, so individual employees may top up their future pensions. While the European Union clearly supports the formation and cross-border participation in these financial vehicles by adopting EU regulatory framework, the EU has also decided to determine a common investment decision standard to be used in all Member States, called the Prudent Person Principle. According to this principle, the fund - the future retirement for many - shall be managed with care, the skill of an expert, prudence and due diligence. Under this principle, the pension fund’s governing body is given a broad authority to invest the pension assets in a prudent fashion in light of the particular investment plan of a fund. At the same time, the EU is also moving towards more Responsible Investment and inclusion of the ESG-principles (Environment, Social and Governance). The question we aim to answer in this paper is how these two principles co-exist and whether, due to the new Directive adopted by the occupational pension funds in 2016, all funds are obliged to make only responsible, environmentally and socially beneficial investments

Platforms as Private Governance Systems – The Example of Airbnb

Online platforms create legal systems that can best be described as private governance systems. By private governance we refer to the fact that a private actor can take on the roles as regulator, implementer and dispute resolution body, thereby mirroring the classical roles of the state and potentially replacing state governance with an alternative, private legal order. As an example, the Airbnb platform (www.airbnb.com) regulates the rights and duties between users of the platform (hosts and guests), it implements these rights and duties by facilitating supervision mechanisms such as ratings and reviews, and it provides dispute resolution mechanisms for the users. The increasing societal role and impact of online platforms makes it pertinent to consider to what extent these private governance systems can safeguard the public values and interests which state legal orders seek to promote and protect. In this article, we use the concept of private governance to make a case study of the private legal order of Airbnb. Our analysis shows that the private governance system created by Airbnb is concerned not only with commercial matters, but also with public values as known in state legal orders. However, it also shows that the private governance system created by Airbnb can have an undermining effect on state legal orders

Foreword

[...] conflicting legal rules and norms, some pushing for the pursuance of CSR and sustainability goals and some suggesting the risk of liability for the same, were in the focus of the conference titled ‘To Pursue or Not to Pursue CSR Goals: Legal Risks and Liabilities’ held in Copenhagen on 6-7 October 2016. This conference was an initiative of the Centre for Enterprise Liability, Copenhagen University (CEVIA) and the International and Transnational Tendencies in Law centre, Aarhus University (INTRAlaw) and co-organised with the Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART) project and the CSR Legal Research Network. The speakers addressed the issue of whether companies, states and other entities that are required by transnational private regulation and soft law to pursue CSR and sustainability goals in their activities may in fact face legal risks and liabilities for doing or not doing so. This special issue presents five of the contributions, discussing the topic both from the company (private) and state (public) perspectives. [...

Antisense oligonucleotide inhibition of hepatitis C virus genotype 4 replication in HepG2 cells

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C (HCV) viral infection is a serious medical problem in Egypt and it has a devastating impact on the Egyptian economy. It is estimated that over 15% of Egyptians are infected by the virus and thus finding a cure for this disease is of utmost importance. Current therapies for hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 4 with interferon/ribavirin have not been successful and thus the development of alternative therapy for this genotype is disparately needed. RESULTS: Although previous studies utilizing viral subgenomic or full cDNA fragments linked to reporter genes transfected into adhered cells or in a cell free system showed promise, demonstration of efficient viral replication was lacking. Thus, we utilized HepG2 cells infected with native HCV RNA genomes in a replication competent system and used antisense phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides (S-ODN) against stem loop IIId and the AUG translation start site of the viral polyprotein precursor to monitor viral replication. We were able to show complete arrest of intracellular replication of HCV-4 at 1 uM S-ODN, thus providing a proof of concept for the potential antiviral activity of S-ODN on native genomic replication of HCV genotype 4. CONCLUSION: We have successfully demonstrated that by using two S-ODNs [(S-ODN1 (nt 326–348) and S-ODN-2 (nt 264–282)], we were able to completely inhibit viral replication in culture, thus confirming earlier reports on subgenomic constructs and suggesting a potential therapeutic value in HCV type 4