Modeling the Afferent Dynamics of the Baroreflex Control System

In this study we develop a modeling framework for predicting baroreceptor firing rate as a function of blood pressure. We test models within this framework both quantitatively and qualitatively using data from rats. The models describe three components: arterial wall deformation, stimulation of mechanoreceptors located in the BR nerve-endings, and modulation of the action potential frequency. The three sub-systems are modeled individually following well-established biological principles. The first submodel, predicting arterial wall deformation, uses blood pressure as an input and outputs circumferential strain. The mechanoreceptor stimulation model, uses circumferential strain as an input, predicting receptor deformation as an output. Finally, the neural model takes receptor deformation as an input predicting the BR firing rate as an output. Our results show that nonlinear dependence of firing rate on pressure can be accounted for by taking into account the nonlinear elastic properties of the artery wall. This was observed when testing the models using multiple experiments with a single set of parameters. We find that to model the response to a square pressure stimulus, giving rise to post-excitatory depression, it is necessary to include an integrate-and-fire model, which allows the firing rate to cease when the stimulus falls below a given threshold. We show that our modeling framework in combination with sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation can be used to test and compare models. Finally, we demonstrate that our preferred model can exhibit all known dynamics and that it is advantageous to combine qualitative and quantitative analysis methods

The constitutional structures of the national political economy: barrier to or precondition for European integration?

The Court of Justice of the European Union is increasingly dedicated to the pursuit of economic efficiency. As this article will demonstrate, this has led to diagonal conflict between European legal pronouncements on the free movement of labour within a services regime and national jurisprudence on democratically-legitimated public procurement policies within distinct state aids regimes. Where once the CJEU treated public procurement as a distinctive part of the EU’s state aids regime, or one which might be reconciled with redistributive ethical and social concerns maintained at national level, the application of the EU services regime to procurement has placed this traditional understanding in doubt. This re-alignment, however, as well as the supranational-national conflict that it has created, reflects both the deeper mismatch both between European economic and national social competences, as well as friction between national and European conceptions of constitutional legitimacy. Such tensions must be overcome in order to secure continuing legal integration within Europe

German Yearbook of International Law: Origins, Development, Prospects

This chapter examines the history, development, function, and future of the German Yearbook of International Law (GYIL). The chapter traces the evolution of the GYIL over many decades, from its inception in the aftermath of the Second World War to the present day, demonstrating how it has moved beyond its origins as a forum in which German scholars could publish their research to become a global platform for the dissemination of scholarship in international law. The chapter also aims to show how the structure and contents of the GYIL have developed in the years since its establishment, reflecting in particular on the impact of the decision to begin to publish contributions authored in English in order to reach the widest possible international audience and the introduction of a double-blind peer review procedure. The chapter concludes that the function and future of the GYIL lie in its capacity to inform a global readership about current research and practice in the sphere of international law taking place in Germany while, at the same time, presenting international viewpoints to a German audience