THE IMPACT OF THE WAR ON PRIVATE CONTRACTS

The destruction and impairment of contracts caused by governmental agencies because of the necessities of war production have been more far-reaching than is generally realized. A report that one large industrial organization has been prevented from performance of contracts involving more than one hundred and fifty million dollars gives a hint of the extent of these commercial casualties

In Defense of Its Identity

The Court of Justice has spoken. The Commission may now, under Regulation 2020/2092, withhold monies from Member States that do not observe the rule of law. This “budget conditionality”, if wielded smartly, should prove a powerful tool if comparative experience coaxing states through union money to follow union policies holds true in Europe. Given the limitations of national reference actions and infringement proceedings that lag behind the nefarious strategies of some governments, and the political obstacles to using Article 7 TEU, we cheer on this new tool of the Union. But we believe the urgency of rule of law concerns demands more pervasive action

Note and Comment

Estates in Fee Tail - Quite generally estates in fee tail under the STATUTE DE DONIS were recognized by the states as a part of the common law. Statutory provisions in the way of modification and abolishment of such estates, however, are very common. The nature and scope of the statutory provisions have varied. See the states classified according to the character of the legislation in BREWSTER, CONVEYANCING, § § 142, 143

A special simplex in the state space for entangled qudits

Focus is on two parties with Hilbert spaces of dimension d, i.e. "qudits". In the state space of these two possibly entangled qudits an analogue to the well known tetrahedron with the four qubit Bell states at the vertices is presented. The simplex analogue to this magic tetrahedron includes mixed states. Each of these states appears to each of the two parties as the maximally mixed state. Some studies on these states are performed, and special elements of this set are identified. A large number of them is included in the chosen simplex which fits exactly into conditions needed for teleportation and other applications. Its rich symmetry - related to that of a classical phase space - helps to study entanglement, to construct witnesses and perform partial transpositions. This simplex has been explored in details for d=3. In this paper the mathematical background and extensions to arbitrary dimensions are analysed.Comment: 24 pages, in connection with the Workshop 'Theory and Technology in Quantum Information, Communication, Computation and Cryptography' June 2006, Trieste; summary and outlook added, minor changes in notatio

Analytical Validation and Capabilities of the Epic CTC Platform: Enrichment-Free Circulating Tumour Cell Detection and Characterization

The Epic Platform was developed for the unbiased detection and molecular characterization of circulating tumour cells (CTCs). Here, we report assay performance data, including accuracy, linearity, specificity and intra/inter-assay precision of CTC enumeration in healthy donor (HD) blood samples spiked with varying concentrations of cancer cell line controls (CLCs). Additionally, we demonstrate clinical feasibility for CTC detection in a small cohort of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. The Epic Platform demonstrated accuracy, linearity and sensitivity for the enumeration of all CLC concentrations tested. Furthermore, we established the precision between multiple operators and slide staining batches and assay specificity showing zero CTCs detected in 18 healthy donor samples. In a clinical feasibility study, at least one traditional CTC/mL (CK+, CD45-, and intact nuclei) was detected in 89 % of 44 mCRPC samples, whereas 100 % of samples had CTCs enumerated if additional CTC subpopulations (CK-/CD45- and CK+ apoptotic CTCs) were included in the analysis. In addition to presenting Epic Platform’s performance with respect to CTC enumeration, we provide examples of its integrated downstream capabilities, including protein biomarker expression and downstream genomic analyses at single cell resolution

Epstein-Barr virus and human papillomavirus serum antibodies define the viral status of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a low endemic country

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in endemic regions, where almost every tumor is EBV-positive. In Western populations, NPC is rare, and human papillomavirus infection (HPV) has been suggested as another viral cause. We validated multiplex serology with molecular tumor markers, to define EBV-positive, HPV-positive, and EBV-/HPV-negative NPCs in the United Kingdom, and analyzed survival differences between those groups. Sera from NPC cases (N = 98) and age- and sex-matched controls (N = 142) from the Head and Neck 5000 clinical cohort study were analyzed. IgA and IgG serum antibodies against 13 EBV antigens were measured and compared with EBER in situ hybridization (EBER-ISH) data of 41 NPC tumors (29 EBER-ISH positive, 12 negative). IgG antibodies to EBV LF2 correctly diagnosed EBV-positive NPCs in 28 of 29 cases, while all EBER-ISH negative NPCs were seronegative to LF2 IgG (specificity = 100%, sensitivity = 97%). HPV early antigen serology was compared to HPV molecular markers (p16 expression, HPV DNA and RNA) available for 41 NPCs (13 positive, 28 negative). Serology matched molecular HPV markers in all but one case (specificity = 100%, sensitivity = 92%). EBV and HPV infections were mutually exclusive. Overall, 67% of the analyzed NPCs were defined as EBV-positive, 18% as HPV-positive and 14% as EBV/HPV-negative. There was no statistical evidence of a difference in survival between the three groups. These data provide evidence that both, EBV-positive and HPV-positive NPCs are present in a low incidence country, and that EBV and HPV serum antibodies correlate with the viral status of the tumor.</p

Bestimmung des soziokulturellen Existenzminimums von Kindern

Der vom Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (IZA) und der Universität Kassel erstellte Forschungsbericht gibt eine fachlich fundierte Übersicht hinsichtlich der Bestimmung der existenzsichernden Bedarfe von Kindern. Den Schwerpunkt des Forschungsberichts bildet die Frage, wie in anderen europäischen Ländern die existenzsichernden Leistungen bemessen werden. Neben einem Gesamtüberblick über die in den verschiedenen Ländern angewandten Verfahrensweisen, umfasst die Expertise eine vertiefende Darstellung der Vorgehensweise zur Bemessung von Mindestsicherungsleistungen in fünf ausgewählten Ländern. Darüber hinaus stellt der Forschungsbericht die in der Wissenschaft diskutierten Ansätze zur Bemessung existenzsichernder Bedarfe von Kindern dar und vermittelt eine Übersicht über entsprechende Vorschläge und Forderungen von ausgewählten Akteuren in Deutschland

Metrics and Methods for Evaluation of Over-The-Air Performance of MIMO User Equipment

Commercial User Equipment (UE) testing and certification has become more complex for state-of-the-art mobile communication standards such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) due to the extensive use of Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission techniques. The variety of different MIMO operating modes and the almost unlimited choice of possible multipath channel conditions under which UE performance may be evaluated are not accounted for by established Single Input-Single Output (SISO) Over-The-Air (OTA) performance metrics like Total Isotropic Sensitivity (TIS) and Total Radiated Power (TRP). As pointed out in this contribution, meaningful metrics and cost-effective, low-complexity measurement methods can, nevertheless, be derived by focusing on characterization of the physical attributes of UE and by adopting statistical metrics. Starting from a brief review of the most important MIMO operating modes in the 3GPP LTE standard, the relation between UE properties and UE performance, which is observed in these operating modes, is discussed. Two complementary metrics and corresponding measurement procedures for evaluation of MIMO OTA performance are presented in order to address the diversity of possible propagation scenarios. Measurement results from preliminary implementations of the two proposed measurement procedures, including comparison between different LTE devices, are presented