Current developments: Public international law I. Conflicts of criminal jurisdiction

The expansion of claims of extended territorial and extraterritorial criminal legislative jurisdiction and the increasing facility with which States are able to obtain custody over defendants by way of more effective extradition arrangements is leading to a new problem in transnational criminal law. The result of these developments is that more than one State may have legitimate jurisdiction to legislate for the same conduct and the courts of more than one State may be entitled to exercise judicial jurisdiction over those persons charged with crimes arising from that conduct. For prosecutors, the problem may present itself as one of prosecutorial efficiency—how may the case be proceeded with expeditiously, in particular, in which jurisdiction is a conviction most likely to be secured? Considerations such as the availability of witnesses or the admissibility of evidence may influence the prospects of conviction and prospective punishments may be a factor when deciding in which system prosecutors prefer the case to go ahead. Defendants have different perspectives. In many cases involving extradition to face a charge based on an exercise of extended jurisdiction, the defendant will be removed from the place where he lives and works to another State. There may be adverse consequences for him compared to facing a trial where he is usually located. Criminal proceedings abroad will be in an unfamiliar legal system; bail may be harder to obtain because of a perceived greater danger of flight; the impossibility to continue working during the period in which the trial is being prepared may impose financial hardship; defendants will be removed from their families and social networks for considerable periods

Photocalorimetry: design, development and test considerations

The goal of the project is to design and build a photocalorimeter capable of carrying out photostability testing in the pharmaceutical industry. A current challenge is to develop methods of testing the photostability of solid materials which are non-invasive, non-destructive and allow real time observations to be made. Calorimetry represents one such method. Solution-phase systems are relatively straight-forward and have been applied to calorimetry for many years requiring few assumptions about the reaction system under study to be made. Previous studies have developed iterative methods to fit experimental data to established calorimetric equations. A new approach allowing the direct calculation of reaction parameters is described in chapter two. For solids, the situation is more complicated than that for solutions and equations are more difficult to develop since additional parameters (such as the solid state fitting parameters m and ri) have to be accommodated. New theoretical approaches to data fitting in the solid state are also described in chapter two. Having previously established that the imidazole-catalysed hydrolysis of triacetin reaction is robust and reliable, new applications, such as the effect of fill-volume on the calorimetric output and thus the reaction parameters, are described in chapter three in preparation for use of the system on solid state systems. Chapter four describes the design and development of the photocalorimeter, together with improvements and modifications made to it as the project progressed, whilst chapter five describes the development of actinometric techniques. An actinometer provides a means of measuring the amount of light-energy being delivered to a target sample. Actinometric techniques are described in the literature and studies carried out on candidates for use with the photocalorimeter are outlined. Particular success was achieved with 2-nitrobenzaldehyde, where results within 2% error were achieved for the actinometric experiments. The final stage of the project involves the application of the newly-developed photocalorimeter to the testing of solid samples such as nifedipine. Studies were carried out both on the photodegradation caused by white light and also using monochromatic light. This allowed "causative wavelengths" of photodegradation to be investigated using the photocalorimeter - a significant area of interest in the pharmaceutical industry and the first time quantitative data has been obtained for a solid state material using non-classical techniques. Finally, studies were carried out into establishing the photostability of an unknown solid state test material

Fish parasites as bio-indicators of heavy metals in two South African embayments

The Cape Elephant fish (Callorhinchus capensis) and two common sand shark species (Rhinobatos annulatus and Rhinobatos blochii) were caught off False Bay and Saldanha Bay and surveyed for their parasite community in 2013 and 2014. The surveys were used to build species accumulation curves (SAC) and calculate biodiversity indices, particularly, rarefied species richness, Shannon Weiner's diversity index, Simpson's index and Pielou's J index. The biodiversity indices were correlated with the host's biological data and parasite infection data, to determine the parasite community structure and provide insight into the host's community structure. The parasites identified in C. capensis (n=19) include a cestode (Gyrocotyle plana), two monogeneans (Callorhynchicotyle callorhynchi and Callorhinchicola multitesticulatus) and an isopod (Anilocra sp.). The cestode was the most prevalent at 68.4 % and the monogenean, C. callorhynchi was the most abundant (1.68 ±0.78) and had the highest infection intensity (4.00 ±1.45). The SAC and biodiversity measures indicate a uniform parasite community across the host population, suggesting a highly interactive shark community. Conversely, Rhinobatos annulatus (n=19) and R. blochii (n=17) had very limited parasite infection with two species of nematode found infecting the stomach (Proleptus obtusus) and encysted in the kidneys (Ascaris sp.) and a copepod species (Clavelottis sp.) found infecting the gills. Proleptus obtusus was the most prevalent (31.6 % and 29.4%), the most abundant (1 ±0.37 and 3.68 ±2.76) and had the highest mean infection intensity (3.17 ±0.4 and 14 ±1.5). A cestode (Trilocularia sp.) was found infecting three specimens of R. annulatus from False Bay. The SAC and biodiversity indices combined with the limited parasite infection indicate a non-uniform parasite community across the host population, suggesting an isolationist population. Within the parasite community discovered, a potential biological indicator for heavy metal accumulation was identified to determine the levels of heavy metal pollution within these two anthropogenically impacted bays. Gyrocotyle plana and Proleptus obtusus were chosen as potential indicators due to their high prevalence and the close relationship they have with their hosts. The results support the use of higher trophic level animals as biological indicators. The results also indicate that G. plana is an incredibly good accumulator of certain metals, particularly As (4073.52 ± 5561.54 μg/g), Mn (522.16 ± 578.21 μg/g), Pb (64.87 ± 101.7 μg/g), Ti (1821.42 ± 1348.16 μg/g), and Zn (12439.57 ± 9743.60 μg/g). Unfortunately water and sediment samples were not tested, however, concentrations were compared to baseline values, and the accumulation of these metals are orders of magnitude above the surrounding environment. Proleptus obtusus did not significantly accumulate metals from its surrounding environment. These results show that parasites can be used to infer their own and their host's community structure and confirm their usefulness as indicators of pollution in marine ecosystems

Engaging Faces: The Persistence of Traditional Portrait Painting Practices in a “Post-digital” Age

In the current global climate of contemporary art discourse, the term “post-digital” variously draws attention to the rapidly changing relationship between digital technologies, human beings, and art forms, an attitude that essentially concerns itself more with “being human” than with “being digital.” While the proliferation of digital imagery—particularly depicting the human face—has become commonplace and ubiquitous to the point of becoming somewhat unremarkable, portrait painting and public demand to see the painted portrait thrive vehemently today. Significantly, and perhaps surprisingly, is the fact that the majority of portrait-painting galleries and portrait-painting prizes uphold the traditional notion that the painted portrait be painted from life; that there must be some personal human encounter between artist and sitter either during or throughout the creation of the work. This article explores the significance of the “painting from life” clause as stipulated by specific gallery and competition stakeholders and its viability as an artistic convention in a period of advanced technological opportunities. It will be shown that such a clause may in fact embody important humanising elements that make it an extremely valuable means of representation in a “post-digital” age

Expression of RUNX1 correlates with poor patient prognosis in triple negative breast cancer

The RUNX1 transcription factor is widely recognised for its tumour suppressor effects in leukaemia. Recently a putative link to breast cancer has started to emerge, however the function of RUNX1 in breast cancer is still unknown. To investigate if RUNX1 expression was important to clinical outcome in primary breast tumours a tissue microarray (TMA) containing biopsies from 483 patients with primary operable invasive ductal breast cancer was stained by immunohistochemistry. RUNX1 was associated with progesterone receptor (PR)-positive tumours (P<0.05), more tumour CD4+(P<0.05) and CD8+(P<0.01) T-lymphocytic infiltrate, increased tumour CD138+plasma cell (P<0.01) and more CD68+macrophage infiltrate (P<0.001). RUNX1 expression did not influence outcome of oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive or HER2-positive disease, however on univariate analysis a high RUNX1 protein was significantly associated with poorer cancer-specific survival in patients with ER-negative (P<0.05) and with triple negative (TN) invasive breast cancer (P<0.05). Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis of cancer-specific survival showed a trend towards significance in ER-negative patients (P<0.1) and was significant in triple negative patients (P<0.05). Of relevance, triple negative breast cancer currently lacks good biomarkers and patients with this subtype do not benefit from the option of targeted therapy unlike patients with ER-positive or HER2-positive disease. Using multivariate analysis RUNX1 was identified as an independent prognostic marker in the triple negative subgroup. Overall, our study identifies RUNX1 as a new prognostic indicator correlating with poor prognosis specifically in the triple negative subtype of human breast cancer

Direct imaging of short-range order and its impact on deformation in Ti-6Al.

Chemical short-range order (SRO) within a nominally single-phase solid solution is known to affect the mechanical properties of alloys. While SRO has been indirectly related to deformation, direct observation of the SRO domain structure, and its effects on deformation mechanisms at the nanoscale, has remained elusive. Here, we report the direct observation of SRO in relation to deformation using energy-filtered imaging in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The diffraction contrast is enhanced by reducing the inelastically scattered electrons, revealing subnanometer SRO-enhanced domains. The destruction of these domains by dislocation planar slip is observed after ex situ and in situ TEM mechanical testing. These results confirm the impact of SRO in Ti-Al alloys on the scale of angstroms. The direct confirmation of SRO in relationship to dislocation plasticity in metals can provide insight into how the mechanical behavior of concentrated solid solutions by the material's thermal history