Assessing the influence of the Responsibility to Protect on the UN Security Council during the Arab Spring

This article challenges those perspectives which assert first, that the Security Council’s engagement with the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) during the Arab Spring evidences a generally positive trend, and second, that the response to the Arab Spring, particularly Syria, highlights the need for veto restraint. With respect to the first point, the evidence presented in this article suggests that the manner in which R2P has been employed by the Security Council during this period evidences three key trends: first, a willingness to invoke R2P only in the context of Pillar I; second, a pronounced lack of consensus surrounding Pillar III; and third, the persistent prioritisation of national interests over humanitarian concerns. With respect to veto restraint, this article argues that there is no evidence that this idea will have any significant impact on decision-making at the Security Council; the Council’s response to the Arab Spring suggests that national interests continue to trump humanitarian need

Characterization of epitopes for virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to Ross River virus E2 using phage-displayed random peptide libraries

Ross River virus (RRV) is the predominant cause of epidemic polyarthritis in Australia, yet the antigenic determinants are not well defined. We aimed to characterize epitope(s) on RRV-E2 for a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognize overlapping conformational epitopes on the E2 envelope protein of RRV and that neutralize virus infection of cells in vitro. Phage-displayed random peptide libraries were probed with the MAbs T1E7, NB3C4, and T10C9 using solution-phase and solid-phase biopanning methods. The peptides VSIFPPA and KTAISPT were selected 15 and 6 times, respectively, by all three of the MAbs using solution-phase biopanning. The peptide LRLPPAP was selected 8 times by NB3C4 using solid-phase biopanning; this peptide shares a trio of amino acids with the peptide VSIFPPA. Phage that expressed the peptides VSIFPPA and LRLPPAP were reactive with T1E7 and/or NB3C4, and phage that expressed the peptides VSIFPPA, LRLPPAP, and KTAISPT partially inhibited the reactivity of T1E7 with RRV. The selected peptides resemble regions of RRV-E2 adjacent to sites mutated in neutralization escape variants of RRV derived by culture in the presence of these MAbs (E2 210-219 and 238-245) and an additional region of E2 172-182. Together these sites represent a conformational epitope of E2 that is informative of cellular contact sites on RRV

High confinement and high density with stationary plasma energy and strong edge radiation in the TEXTOR-94 tokamak

Stationary high energy confinement is observed on TEXTOR-94 for times limited only by the flux swing of the transformer using strong edge radiation cooling. Necessary tools are the feedback control of the radiated power and of the plasma energy content. At the highest densities obtained (up to 1.2 times the Greenwald limit), energy confinement exceeds the edge-localized-mode-free H-mode scaling ITERH93-P by more than 20%. beta limits of TEXTOR-94 are reached with f(H89)/q(a) approximate to 0.6 No detrimental effect of the seeded impurity is seen. These high confinement discharges meet many conditions necessary for a fusion reactor regime

CD4 recovery following antiretroviral treatment interruptions in children and adolescents with HIV infection in Europe and Thailand

Objectives The aim of the study was to explore factors associated with CD4 percentage (CD4%) reconstitution following treatment interruptions (TIs) of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methods Data from paediatric HIV-infected cohorts across 17 countries in Europe and Thailand were pooled. Children on combination ART (cART; at least three drugs from at least two classes) for > 6 months before TI of >= 30 days while aged CD4% at restart of ART (r-ART) and in the long term (up to 24 months after r-ART) following the first TI was modelled using asymptotic regression. Results In 779 children with at least one TI, the median age at first TI was 10.1 [interquartile range (IQR) 6.4, 13.6] years and the mean CD4% was 27.3% [standard deviation (SD) 11.0%]; the median TI duration was 9.0 (IQR 3.5, 22.5) months. In regression analysis, the mean CD4% was 19.2% [95% confidence interval (CI) 18.3, 20.1%] at r-ART, and 27.1% (26.2, 27.9%) in the long term, with half this increase in the first 6 months. r-ART and long-term CD4% values were highest in female patients and in children aged TI. Long-term CD4% was highest in those with a TI lasting 1 to = 25% (all P = 25%. Conclusions After restart of ART following TI, most children reconstituted well immunologically. Nevertheless, several factors predicted better immunological reconstitution, including younger age and higher nadir CD4% during TI