Lessons from MENA: appraising EU transfers of military and security equipment to the Middle East and North Africa: a contribution to the review of the EU common position

This publication analyses EU arms exports to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in recent years both from an overarching perspective as well as detailing specific transfers. While the particular timing and nature of the Arab Spring itself could not be predicted, the potential for trouble at some point and the responding State repression could hardly be a surprise given the nature of these authoritarian regimes. While civil society over the years has questioned a number of arms sales to undemocratic regimes with a history of violating human rights, the Arab Spring appeared to be a necessary condition for EU governments to recognise that the implementation of their export control policies had failed on numerous occasions. This analysis probes the level of caution EU exporting authorities demonstrated. The aim is to identify patterns of poor decision-making on arms exports where they exist, to consider why such patterns exist and to suggest remedies. Demands for socio-economic improvements as well as civil liberties, as they emerged in numerous Arab countries over the past year, are not likely to die soon, nor are these demands constrained to the Arab world

Thermodynamic framework to assess low abundance DNA mutation detection by hybridization

The knowledge of genomic DNA variations in patient samples has a high and increasing value for human diagnostics in its broadest sense. Although many methods and sensors to detect or quantify these variations are available or under development, the number of underlying physico-chemical detection principles is limited. One of these principles is the hybridization of sample target DNA versus nucleic acid probes. We introduce a novel thermodynamics approach and develop a framework to exploit the specific detection capabilities of nucleic acid hybridization, using generic principles applicable to any platform. As a case study, we detect point mutations in the KRAS oncogene on a microarray platform. For the given platform and hybridization conditions, we demonstrate the multiplex detection capability of hybridization and assess the detection limit using thermodynamic considerations; DNA containing point mutations in a background of wild type sequences can be identified down to at least 1% relative concentration. In order to show the clinical relevance, the detection capabilities are confirmed on challenging formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical tumor samples. This enzyme-free detection framework contains the accuracy and efficiency to screen for hundreds of mutations in a single run with many potential applications in molecular diagnostics and the field of personalised medicine

Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction and Borohydride Oxidation Reactions Using Ag3Sn Nanointermetallic for the Ensemble Effect

2017-2018 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201805 bcrcAccepted ManuscriptOthersNational Natural Science Foundation of China; the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing in China; the Aeronautic Science Foundation Program of China; the Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Western Metal Materials; the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of ChinaPublishe