Istria's Artistic and Spiritual Heritage in Abeyance: International Cooperation and Cultural Community Rights

This article deals with the contested status of two groups of cultural objects - a collection of priceless artworks, and fifteen church bells - originating from Istria, precisely from the present-day territory of the Slovenian and Croatian Littorals, and preserved in Italy since the turbulent, tragic times of the Second World War. It argues that the ownership title to such objects does not lie at the centre of the current controversy between Slovenia (and potentially Croatia) and Italy. Instead, it seems that the fundamental issue in this regard refers to the recognition and realization of cultural community rights to such heritage, affected by political, territorial, and ethnic transformations. This article discusses various international legal regimes that might be applicable in this case of Istria\u2019s contested cultural heritage, with special focus on the enhancement of cultural human rights and international cultural cooperation. It also touches upon the concept of procedural justice, built on the principles of participation, voice, and transparency, which are perceived as crucial in negotiating and managing cultural heritage matters and controversies

Population genetic structure of N. American and European \u3ci\u3ePhalaris arundinacea\u3c/i\u3e L. as inferred from inter-simple sequence repeat markers

Phalaris arundinacea L. (reed canarygrass) has become one of the most aggressive invaders of North American wetlands. P. arundinacea is native to temperate N. America, Europe, and Asia, but repeated introductions of European genotypes to N. America, recent range expansions, and the planting of forage and ornamental cultivars complicate the resolution of its demographic history. Molecular tools can help to unravel the demographic and invasion history of populations of invasive species. In this study, inter-simple sequence repeat markers were used to analyze the population genetic structure of European and N. American populations of reed canary grass as well as forage and ornamental cultivars. We found that P. arundinacea harbors a high amount of genetic diversity with most of the diversity located within, as opposed to among, populations. Cluster analyses suggested that current populations are admixtures of two formerly distinct genetic groups

A pharmacodynamic comparison of prasugrel vs. high-dose clopidogrel in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease: results of the Optimizing anti-Platelet Therapy In diabetes MellitUS (OPTIMUS)-3 Trial

Aims: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have increased platelet reactivity and reduced platelet response to clopidogrel compared with patients without DM. Prasugrel, a more potent antiplatelet agent, is associated with greater reductions in ischaemic events compared with clopidogrel, particularly in patients with DM. The aim of this study was to perform serial pharmacodynamic assessments of prasugrel with high-dose clopidogrel in patients with DM. Methods and results: Optimizing anti-Platelet Therapy In diabetes MellitUS (OPTIMUS)-3 was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, crossover study in patients with type 2 DM and coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients (n= 35) were randomly assigned to either prasugrel 60 mg loading dose (LD)/10 mg maintenance dose (MD) or clopidogrel 600 mg LD/150 mg MD over two 1-week treatment periods separated by a 2-week washout period. Platelet function was assessed by VerifyNow® P2Y12 assay, light transmission aggregometry, and vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphorylation at 0, 1, 4, and 24 h and 7 days. Greater platelet inhibition by VerifyNow® P2Y12 was achieved by prasugrel compared with clopidogrel at 4 h post-LD (least squares mean, 89.3 vs. 27.7%, P< 0.0001; primary endpoint). The difference in platelet inhibition between prasugrel and clopidogrel was significant from 1 h through 7 days (P < 0.0001). Similar results were obtained using all other platelet function measures. Prasugrel resulted in fewer poor responders at all time points irrespective of definition used. Conclusion: In patients with type 2 DM and CAD, standard-dose prasugrel is associated with greater platelet inhibition and better response profiles during both the loading and maintenance periods when compared with double-dose clopidogrel

Distributions of deposits and hydrogen on the upper and lower TDUs3 target elements of Wendelstein 7-X

Distributions of deposits and hydrogen (H) on the graphite divertor target elements TM4h4 and TM3v5 in the test divertor units 3 (TDUs3) of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) are studied. The TM4h4 and TM3v5 are located at the magnetically symmetric positions in the upper and lower divertor. The microstructure of the deposition layer is characterized by a transmission electron microscope (TEM) combined with a focused ion beam (FIB). Metallic deposits such as iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo), chromium (Cr) are detected in the deposition layer by energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The depth-resolved distribution patterns of boron (B) and metallic deposits on upper and lower horizontal (h) divertor target elements TDUs3-TM4h4 as well as upper and lower vertical (v) divertor target elements TDUs3-TM3v5 are clarified by glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GDOES). Results for both TDUs3-TM4h4 and TDUs3-TM3v5 show that the B deposition regions exhibit higher H retention due to the co-deposition with deposits. On the other hand, up-down asymmetries in B deposition caused by particle drift exist on both TDUs3-TM4h4 and TDUs3-TM3v5. The B deposition amount on upper TDUs3-TM4h4 is 40% smaller than that on lower TDUs3-TM4h4. While for the vertical target elements, the B deposition amount on upper TDUs3-TM3v5 is 35% larger than that on lower TDUs3-TM3v5. Meanwhile, a shift of around 3 cm in B deposition peaks is observed on upper and lower TDUs3-TM4h4 and TDUs3-TM3v5. Results of numerical simulation of carbon deposition/erosion profiles on the target elements using ERO2.0 code and power flux measured by infrared cameras are shown and compared with the above mentioned B profiles

A framework for the local information dynamics of distributed computation in complex systems

The nature of distributed computation has often been described in terms of the component operations of universal computation: information storage, transfer and modification. We review the first complete framework that quantifies each of these individual information dynamics on a local scale within a system, and describes the manner in which they interact to create non-trivial computation where "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts". We describe the application of the framework to cellular automata, a simple yet powerful model of distributed computation. This is an important application, because the framework is the first to provide quantitative evidence for several important conjectures about distributed computation in cellular automata: that blinkers embody information storage, particles are information transfer agents, and particle collisions are information modification events. The framework is also shown to contrast the computations conducted by several well-known cellular automata, highlighting the importance of information coherence in complex computation. The results reviewed here provide important quantitative insights into the fundamental nature of distributed computation and the dynamics of complex systems, as well as impetus for the framework to be applied to the analysis and design of other systems.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figure