Unlawful Acts in Maritime Transport & Civil Aviation

Maritime and civil aviation security is a global problem posed by terrorism and illegal acts and therefore requires global attention and solutions that can only be provided by relevant international organizations (International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization). Nineteen years have passed since the attacks of 11 September 2001 on the World Trade Center, but the threat of another terrorist attack is still just as possible and unacceptable. The series of attacks in the USA have started a new period of history. This period can be characterised as unsteady, unpredictable, and transforming of complex systems, including new types of dangers. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the most serious types of unlawful acts (terrorism and piracy) regarding legislation and jurisdiction. For the sake of comparability of legal phenomena, special attention is paid to illegal acts at sea and in the airspace above the sea

Commercialisation of Air Navigation Service Providers – Evidence from Europe

This paper deals with the on-going process of commercialisation of air navigation service providers (ANSPs) with specific focus on Europe. First part offers overview of conducted research on their commercialisation and identifies two main external drivers for the emergence of commercialisation – liberalisation of national markets and demand for other ANS related services. Our research also proposes methodology for numerical assessment of the degree of commercialisation based on the ANSP’s Commercialisation Index (ACI) and presents numerical evaluation of the ACI index of 35 European providers and proposes six different categories of providers reflecting different degree of their commercialisation. Results reveal that 63% of the European ANSPs show signs of commercialisation. On top of that, our outcomes prove that corporatisation cannot be considered a direct manifestation of commercialisation. Despite the most widely accepted view that corporatised providers are commercially active, the findings show that almost 40% of corporatised European ANSPs are not commercially active. The paper also claims that ownership of subsidiaries and joint ventures is the most dominant demonstration of commercialisation. At the same time, our outcomes show that the provision and development of commercial services and products related to ANS are the most common commercial activities of the European ANSPs

HUMAN AS A MAIN RISK DRIVER: UNDECLARED DANGEROUS GOODS IN MARITIME TRANSPORT & AVIATION

Dangerous goods (DGs) not declared for transport as required by the regulations can give rise to risks, as they can endanger public safety or the environment. This study explains the risks posed by undeclared shipments by providing information about the most common undeclared DGs aboard aircraft and maritime ships, legal frameworks regulating the proper transportation of DGs, and key mechanisms for preventing the occurrence of undeclared DG shipments. This paper identifies the responsibilities of each stakeholder involved in the process of DG transportation. The main objective of this paper is to reveal human errors and dishonest techniques within the supply chain when DGs are transported by air and sea

RASSF1A independence and early galectin-1 upregulation in PIK3CA-induced hepatocarcinogenesis: new therapeutic venues

Aberrant activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR and Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways is a hallmark of hepatocarcinogenesis. In a subset of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling dysregulation depends on phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase, catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) mutations, while RAS/MAPK activation is partly attributed to promoter methylation of the tumor suppressor Ras association domain-containing protein 1 (RASSF1A). To evaluate a possible cocarcinogenic effect of PIK3CA activation and RASSF1A knockout, plasmids expressing oncogenic forms of PIK3CA (E545K or H1047R mutants) were delivered to the liver of RASSF1A knockout and wild-type mice by hydrodynamic tail vein injection combined with sleeping beauty-mediated somatic integration. Transfection of either PIK3CA E545K or H1047R mutants sufficed to induce HCCs in mice irrespective of RASSF1A mutational background. The related tumors displayed a lipogenic phenotype with upregulation of fatty acid synthase and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1). Galectin-1, which was commonly upregulated in preneoplastic lesions and tumors, emerged as a regulator of SCD1. Co-inhibitory treatment with PIK3CA inhibitors and the galectin-1 inhibitor OTX008 resulted in synergistic cytotoxicity in human HCC cell lines, suggesting novel therapeutic venues

X-linked recessive TLR7 deficiency in ~1% of men under 60 years old with life-threatening COVID-19

Autosomal inborn errors of type I IFN immunity and autoantibodies against these cytokines underlie at least 10% of critical COVID-19 pneumonia cases. We report very rare, biochemically deleterious X-linked TLR7 variants in 16 unrelated male individuals aged 7 to 71 years (mean, 36.7 years) from a cohort of 1202 male patients aged 0.5 to 99 years (mean, 52.9 years) with unexplained critical COVID-19 pneumonia. None of the 331 asymptomatically or mildly infected male individuals aged 1.3 to 102 years (mean, 38.7 years) tested carry such TLR7 variants (P = 3.5 × 10−5). The phenotypes of five hemizygous relatives of index cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 include asymptomatic or mild infection (n = 2) or moderate (n = 1), severe (n = 1), or critical (n = 1) pneumonia. Two patients from a cohort of 262 male patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia (mean, 51.0 years) are hemizygous for a deleterious TLR7 variant. The cumulative allele frequency for deleterious TLR7 variants in the male general population is <6.5 × 10−4. We show that blood B cell lines and myeloid cell subsets from the patients do not respond to TLR7 stimulation, a phenotype rescued by wild-type TLR7. The patients’ blood plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) produce low levels of type I IFNs in response to SARS-CoV-2. Overall, X-linked recessive TLR7 deficiency is a highly penetrant genetic etiology of critical COVID-19 pneumonia, in about 1.8% of male patients below the age of 60 years. Human TLR7 and pDCs are essential for protective type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract

The safety and efficiency of water transport: statistical analysis

This paper provides comprehensive research on the linearity between the efficiency and safety of inland waterway transport (IWT). For this purpose, methods of statistical analysis are used. The efficiency of IWT is expressed by the transportation outputs, which today are strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to find whether the demand for IWT has an impact on the accident occurrence probability. The results show the linearity between shipping accidents and the outputs of freight and passenger IWT. The COVID-19 crisis has a higher impact on the efficiency of passenger navigation than on freight navigation. With reduced demand, the level of safety is higher but at the cost of declining efficiency in the transport sector

Revealing Causal Factors Influencing Sustainable and Safe Navigation in Central Europe

Even though inland navigation represents the safest transport mode, consequences of accidents are significantly higher, because of the larger quantities of cargo transported, compared with the conventional means of transport. Accidents in inland waterways are a regular phenomenon throughout the year, causing deaths, injuries, and monetary loss, and endangering the environment. At present, comprehensive research on inland navigation accidents including their causes and consequences is lacking. For this purpose, data about real accidents on the Danube River were collected and analysed in this study. This paper provides a comprehensive study of the hazards (causal factors) and resulting risks in inland waterway transport. Two methods were applied to fulfil the aim—a cause and effect diagram, used for hazard identification, and a risk matrix, used for risk assessment. The analysis confirmed the presence of recurring hazards, resulting mainly from human behaviour. This study can be used for the methodology and design of preventive measures to ensure safe inland navigation

Revealing Causal Factors Influencing Sustainable and Safe Navigation in Central Europe

Even though inland navigation represents the safest transport mode, consequences of accidents are significantly higher, because of the larger quantities of cargo transported, compared with the conventional means of transport. Accidents in inland waterways are a regular phenomenon throughout the year, causing deaths, injuries, and monetary loss, and endangering the environment. At present, comprehensive research on inland navigation accidents including their causes and consequences is lacking. For this purpose, data about real accidents on the Danube River were collected and analysed in this study. This paper provides a comprehensive study of the hazards (causal factors) and resulting risks in inland waterway transport. Two methods were applied to fulfil the aim&mdash;a cause and effect diagram, used for hazard identification, and a risk matrix, used for risk assessment. The analysis confirmed the presence of recurring hazards, resulting mainly from human behaviour. This study can be used for the methodology and design of preventive measures to ensure safe inland navigation