Bringing Certainty and Order Out of the Wilderness of Law

The codification of the French civil law represented the first significant initiative which provided the moral and intellectual impetus for systematic reorganization and reform of the law. The growing production of laws by the legislatures, together with the courts\u2019 constant definition of the principles of law, has always constituted a massive problem in providing a service of certain and equal justice. The French model of codification was undoubtedly useful but it did not suffice, by itself, to preserve a coherent and accessible system of law. The experience of the last decades showed a proliferation of new sources of law (including multilevel systems of protection of fundamental rights) that increased the complexity of law on a more than proportional scale. In order to tackle the compelling need of certainty and order in the legal systems, the French codification approach had been developed and integrated with other simplifying and reorganizing tools. The different experiences are interesting under three profiles: a) the subjects dedicated to the function of simplifying and clarifying the law; b) the tools used to perform the function; c) the effects produced in the legal systems. The comparative analysis of the different experiences in Civil law and Common law countries reveals a major tendency to constitute independent bodies by initiative of a law experts el\uecte of lawyers, judges and academics. Generally, these bodies adopt a scientific method in order to produce shared documents which are supposed to represent a valid reference for all the legal operators. Most of the time there is no political influence on the process, contributing to preserve the authoritativeness of the body. Notwithstanding, the documents may be addressed to the parliaments with the purpose to enact law reforms through the legislative process. Out of these cases, the documents are supposed to have mere persuasive value but it is disputed how they affect the other sources of law when they are widely adopted by courts

Taking Justice Seriously: the problem of courts overload and the new model of judicial process

This article traces a profound world-wide metamorphosis of the judicial process. It analyses recent procedural legislations adopted in the United Kingdom, the Unites States of America, France, Germany, Spain and Italy fashioned to address the problems of unreasonable delay and access to justice. The main tendencies that emerge from the analysis outline the passage from an authoritarian model of adjudication to a more cooperative approach based on flexibility of the time schedule and availability of alternative choices. Moreover, an instrument generally adopted to reduce the demand for justice is the selection of meritorious cases on the base of the conformity to precedents. It is, indeed, a procedural law development that may change the perspective on the civil law-common law divide

Brain White Matter Involvement in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias: Analysis with Multiple Diffusion Tensor Indices

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The hereditary spastic paraplegias are a group of genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorders, characterized by progressive spasticity and weakness of the lower limbs. Although conventional brain MR imaging findings are normal in patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia, microstructural alteration in the cerebral WM can be revealed with DTI. Concomitant investigation of multiple intrinsic diffusivities may shed light on the neurobiologic substrate of the WM degeneration pattern in patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia across the whole brain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tract-based spatial statistics analysis was performed to compare fractional anisotropy and mean, axial, and radial diffusivities of the WM skeleton in a group of 12 patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia and 12 healthy volunteers. Data were analyzed counting age and sex as nuisance covariates. The threshold-free cluster-enhancement option was applied, and the family-wise error rate was controlled by using permutation tests for nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: In pure hereditary spastic paraplegia, group widespread fractional anisotropy decreases and radial diffusivity and mean diffusivity increases ( P CONCLUSIONS: In patients with pure hereditary spastic paraplegia, alterations in multiple DTI indices were found. Radial diffusivity seems more sensitive to hereditary spastic paraplegia–related WM pathology and, in line with the lack of axial diffusivity changes, might indicate a widespread loss of myelin integrity. A decrease of fractional anisotropy alone in the frontal circuitry may reflect subtle disruption of the frontal connections

Die Erstellung des Leitbildes für Corporate Social Responsibility der österreichischen Wirtschaft (CSR-Austria Leitbild). Process-review und lessons learned.

Series: Research Paper Series of the Research Focus Managing Sustainabilit

Photovoltaic system applied in a medium-sized industry in Brazil: economic analysis / Sistema fotovoltaico aplicado a uma indústria de médio porte no Brasil: análise econômica

The planning about the composition of the national electric energy matrix, determined by the growing demand and population environmental concern, must be based in a best use of renewable sources, as the photovoltaic solar. Its possible integration in urban areas and use throughout the year in most parts of Brazil’s territory make this an attractive alternative of investment. In this context, this work aims to analyze economically the installation of grid-connected photovoltaic panels in a medium-sized industry in Porto Alegre. Information and data were measured in the field for its development, which configures the applied nature of the research, which has modeling and simulation as technical procedure. Two photovoltaic systems were technically dimensioned, one of 23.76 kWp and another of 39.6 kWp. Both combined with the variation of the Minimum Acceptable Rate of Return of the investor and the tariff flag in use, configured the 24 scenarios modeled. For the economic viability were used the Engineering Economy methods such as NPV, IRR, simple payback and discounted payback, in addition to the LCOE calculation. As main result, the scenario with the highest economic attractiveness, corresponding to the 39.6 kWp system, obtained NPV of R$334,502.27, IRR of 2.79$/kWh. Thus, it was possible to conclude that there is economic viability for the projects proposed. This is because in 16 scenarios the IRR exceeded the MARR considered for the medium-sized industry used as a case in this work

Statistical Description in the Turbulent Near Wake of a Rotating Circular Cylinder

Turbulence studies were made in the wake of a rotating circular cylinder in a uniform free stream. The interest was to examine the turbulence properties at the suppression of periodicity in vortex formation process. An experimental study of the turbulent near wake of a rotating circular cylinder was made at a Reynolds number of 9000 for velocity ratios, λ between 0 and 2.7. Hot-wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry results indicate that the rotation of the cylinder causes significant changes in the vortical activities. The turbulence quantities are getting smaller as λ increases due to suppression of coherent vortex structures

Comparison of influenza-specific neutralizing antibody titers determined using different assay readouts and hemagglutination inhibition titers:good correlation but poor agreement

Determination of influenza-specific antibody titers is commonly done using the hemagglutination inhibition assay (HAI) and the viral microneutralization assay (MN). Both assays are characterized by high intra- and inter-laboratory variability. The HAI assay offers little opportunity for standardization. For the MN assay, variability might be due to the use of different assay protocols employing different readouts. We therefore aimed at investigating which of the MN assay readout methods currently in use would be the most suitable choice for a standardized MN assay that could serve as a substitute for the HAI assay. For this purpose, human serum samples were tested for the presence of influenza specific neutralizing antibodies against A/California/7/09 H1N1 (49 sera) or A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (50 sera) using four different infection readout methods for the MN assay (cytopathic effect, hemagglutination, ELISA, RT qPCR) and using the HAI assay. The results were compared by correlation analysis and by determining the level of agreement before and after normalization to a standard serum. Titers as measured by the 4 MN assay readouts showed good correlation, with high Person's r for most comparisons. However, agreement between nominal titers varied with readouts compared and virus strain used. In addition, Pearson's correlation of MN titers with HAI titers was high but agreement of nominal titers was moderate and the average difference between the readings of two assays (bias) was virus strain-dependent. Normalization to a standard serum did not result in better agreement of assay results. Our study demonstrates that different MN readouts result in nominally different antibody titers. Accordingly, the use of a common and standardized MN assay protocol will be crucial to minimize inter-laboratory variability. Based on reproducibility, cost effectiveness and unbiased assessment of results we elected the MN assay with ELISA readout as most suitable for a possible replacement of the HAI assay

Jean Dagen, Catherine François-Giappiconi et Sophie Marchand (dir.), La Chaussée, Destouches et la comédie nouvelle au xviiie siècle

«On ne lit plus, on ne joue plus la comédie dite “larmoyante”. Donc, n’en parlons plus»; a questa asserzione negativa posta come punto di partenza dai curatori, rispondono i ventisette interessanti saggi presenti in questo libro, dei quali necessariamente ci limitiamo a presentare una scelta significativa. In forma ampia ed esaustiva, gli studi proposti hanno come loro obiettivo fondamentale quello di riproporre all’attenzione degli studiosi i due drammaturghi indicati nel titolo, che più di ..

Aa. Vv., «Europe», 91e année, n. 1014

Nel tricentenario della nascita di Diderot, la rivista «Europe» dedica all’enciclopedista una sezione del numero 1014, offrendo temi eterogenei e angolature che vogliono proporsi come originali, alternative ai filoni di riflessione classici. Charles Vincent si interroga sul tema dei Silences de Diderot (pp. 18-29): non fu solo la censura a limitare la voce di un intellettuale tanto propenso alla condivisione delle idee e alla divulgazione del sapere. Nonostante la circolazione clandestina di ..