Religious Freedom in Flux: The European Court of Human Rights Grapples with Ethnic, Cultural, Religious, and Legal Pluralism

Received 5 August 2019 . Accepted 24 October 2019. Published online 6 January 2020.This article examines the growing influences of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and controversies arising as a result of the Court’s movement toward establishing itself as a de facto Supreme Court of member nations of the Council of Europe (CoE) in the area of human and civil rights, including religious freedom. Responses to criticisms of the Court are considered, as is the growing problem of some member states refusing to enforce rulings of the Court. Some recent cases, mostly involving Islam, that seem to demonstrate a growing recognition of the ethnic, cultural, and legal pluralism that exists within the expanded CoE are examined. Also discussed is the apparent two-track approach the Court has taken as a result of having to manage religious freedom within such a diverse group of member nations

Subcellular partitioning of MRP RNA assessed by ultrastructural and biochemical analysis.

A small RNA encoded within the nucleus is an essential subunit of a RNA processing endonuclease (RNase MRP) hypothesized to generate primers for mitochondrial DNA replication from the heavy strand origin of replication. Controversy has arisen, however, concerning the authenticity of an intramitochondrial pool of MRP RNA, and has called into question the existence of pathways for nucleo-mitochondrial transport of nucleic acids in animal cells. In an effort to resolve this controversy, we combined ultrastructural in situ hybridization and biochemical techniques to assess the subcellular partitioning of MRP RNA. Cryosections of mouse cardiomyocytes were hybridized with biotin-labeled RNA probes complementary to different regions of MRP RNA and varying in length from 115 to 230 nucleotides, followed by immunogold labeling. In addition, we transfected mouse C2C12 myogenic cells with constructs bearing mutated forms of the mouse MRP RNA gene and compared the relative abundance of the resulting transcripts to that of control RNAs within whole cell and mitochondrial fractions. In the former analysis we observed preferential localization of MRP RNA to nucleoli and mitochondria in comparison to the nucleoplasm and cytoplasm. In the latter series of studies we observed that wild-type MRP RNA partitions to the mitochondrial fraction by comparison to other RNA transcripts that are localized to the extramitochondrial cytoplasmic space (28S rRNA) or to the nucleoplasm (U1 snRNA). Deletions within 5' or 3' regions of the MRP RNA gene produced transcripts that remain competent for mitochondrial targeting. In contrast, deletion of the midportion of the coding region (nt 118 to 175) of the MRP RNA gene resulted in transcripts that fail to partition to the mitochondrial fraction. We conclude that an authentic intramitochondrial pool of MRP RNA is present in these actively respiring cells, and that specific structural determinants within the MRP RNA molecule permit it to be partitioned to mitochondria

Evolution of Solid Processing Methods in Continuous Flow Technology: Reactive Extrusion

The frustrations of precipitation, fouling and blockages of liquid-based flow reactors are familiar to all researchers working with continuous flow equipment. There have been many innovative solutions to try and circumvent this issue. This short review will highlight the emerging technique of mechanochemistry and reactive extrusion as a continuous process that can directly work on solid (and liquid) materials and elicit chemical transformations

Vascular perfusion chilling of red meat carcasses - A feasibility study.

Meat carcasses must be chilled to below 7°C before leaving the slaughterhouse. Typically this is done by passing cold air over the surfaces of eviscerated and de-hided carcasses. This surface cooling can take many hours to reduce centre temperatures to below 7°C. In vascular perfusion chilling (VPC), a cold fluid is circulated through the intact vascular system, offering significant reductions in cooling time. This paper describes a small feasibility study to evaluate vascular perfusion techniques for rapid chilling of lamb carcasses using a proprietary Flo-ice(™) system. This produces pumpable ice slurries containing very fine ice particles, suitable for circulating through vascular systems. VPC was found to be capable of rapid initial reduction of carcass temperatures in comparison with air chilling (mean times to 20°C in deep legs were reduced from 2.6 to 1.3h, which was significantly different at P<0.05). In all cases however, uptake of perfusate into the carcasses occurred. This limited the duration of the perfusion treatment and as a result restricted the period of enhanced cooling. Samples from carcasses treated with VPC were lighter (P<0.05, with mean measured L value increasing from 43.4 to 46.8) and more yellow (P<0.05, with mean measured b value increasing from 6.7 to 7.9) than samples from conventionally chilled carcasses, and had lower shear force values when cooked (P<0.05, with mean force reducing from 10.0 to 6.8kg). This was most probably due to the added water in the meat. Microbial quality of the meat was not significantly affected by the perfusion treatments

What is the impact of giant cell arteritis on patients' lives?: a UK qualitative study

Objectives: Clinical management of giant cell arteritis (GCA) involves balancing the risks and burdens arising from the disease with those arising from treatment, but there is little research on the nature of those burdens. We aimed to explore the impact of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and its treatment on patients’ lives. Methods: UK patients with GCA participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was employed. Results: 24 participants were recruited (age: 65–92 years, time since diagnosis: 2 months to >6 years). The overarching themes from analysis were: ongoing symptoms of the disease and its treatment; and ‘life-changing’ impacts. The overall impact of GCA on patients’ lives arose from a changing combination of symptoms, side effects, adaptations to everyday life and impacts on sense of normality. Important factors contributing to loss of normality were glucocorticoid-related treatment burdens and fear about possible future loss of vision. Conclusions: The impact of GCA in patients’ everyday lives can be substantial, multifaceted and ongoing despite apparent control of disease activity. The findings of this study will help doctors better understand patient priorities, legitimise patients’ experiences of GCA and work with patients to set realistic treatment goals and plan adaptations to their everyday lives

Emergence of structure in mouse embryos: Structural Entropy morphometry applied to digital models of embryonic anatomy

We apply an information-theoretic measure to anatomical models of the Edinburgh Mouse Atlas Project. Our goal is to quantify the anatomical complexity of the embryo and to understand how this quantity changes as the organism develops through time. Our measure, Structural Entropy, takes into account the geometrical character of the intermingling of tissue types in the embryo. It does this by a mathematical process that effectively imagines a point-like explorer that starts at an arbitrary place in the 3D structure of the embryo and takes a random path through the embryo, recording the sequence of tissues through which it passes. Consideration of a large number of such paths yields a probability distribution of paths making connections between specific tissue types, and Structural Entropy is calculated from this (mathematical details are given in the main text). We find that Structural Entropy generally decreases (order increases) almost linearly throughout developmental time (4–18 days). There is one `blip’ of increased Structural Entropy across days 7–8: this corresponds to gastrulation. Our results highlight the potential for mathematical techniques to provide insight into the development of anatomical structure, and also the need for further sources of accurate 3D anatomical data to support analyses of this kind

Evaluating Active U: an Internet-mediated physical activity program.

Background: Engaging in regular physical activity can be challenging, particularly during the winter months. To promote physical activity at the University of Michigan during the winter months, an eight-week Internet-mediated program (Active U) was developed providing participants with an online physical activity log, goal setting, motivational emails, and optional team participation and competition. Methods: This study is a program evaluation of Active U. Approximately 47,000 faculty, staff, and graduate students were invited to participate in the online Active U intervention in the winter of 2007. Participants were assigned a physical activity goal and were asked to record each physical activity episode into the activity log for eight weeks. Statistics for program reach, effectiveness, adoption, and implementation were calculated using the Re-Aim framework. Multilevel regression analyses were used to assess the decline in rates of data entry and goal attainment during the program, to assess the likelihood of joining a team by demographic characteristics, to test the association between various predictors and the number of weeks an individual met his or her goal, and to analyze server load. Results: Overall, 7,483 individuals registered with the Active U website (≈16% of eligible), and 79% participated in the program by logging valid data at least once. Staff members, older participants, and those with a BMI < 25 were more likely to meet their weekly physical activity goals, and average rate of meeting goals was higher among participants who joined a competitive team compared to those who participated individually (IRR = 1.28, P < .001). Conclusion: Internet-mediated physical activity interventions that focus on physical activity logging and goal setting while incorporating team competition may help a significant percentage of the target population maintain their physical activity during the winter months