In Deep Water: Towards a Greater Commitment for Human Rights in Sea Operations Coordinated by FRONTEX?

Introduction: The paper is organized in four sections. The first section of this paper will be devoted to analysing the broad concept of border surveillance adopted by the Regulation on the sea border operations coordinated by Frontex. In the following two sections, the paper will focus on examining to what extent the new rules applicable to the detection, interception of vessels, and search and rescue situations respect the obligations arising from the main international law treaties binding on the Member States. Finally, in the fourth section, the paper provides a detailed exam of the principle of non-refoulement in the context of Frontex operations. It is important to determine the content and scope of the principle of non-refoulement when interception of vessels takes place in the territorial seas and contiguous zone of the Member States. Furthermore, it is crucial to know whether the principle applies extraterritorially, in particular on the high seas and in the territorial waters of third states

Transatlantic Transfer of Personal Data: Rebuilding Trust in EU-US Data Relations?

Introduction: This paper aims to analyse firstly, the extent to which the NSA scandal has damaged trust in EU-US transfer of data. PNR and SWIFT already raised serious concerns regarding breaches of data protection rights of EU citizens but the NSA scandal constituted the last straw in the already troubled waters of transatlantic data exchanges. While PNR and SWIFT are not the only existing data transfer agreements between the EU and the US, they are the most contentious. Secondly, this paper will try to examine whether the Umbrella Agreement can contribute to rebuilding trust in EUUS relations by laying down a sufficient and effective framework for data protection in the context of transatlantic cooperation. For that purpose, this paper will first look at the implications of the NSA scandal for trust in transatlantic data relations. Secondly, the challenges to transfers of data in EU-US relations will be examined, paying particular attention to weak level of protection in SWIFT and PNR as well as to their review process and issues of accountability. Thirdly, an analysis of the Commission’s Non- Paper on the state of play of negotiations on the Umbrella Agreement will serve as a ground to assess whether the agreed proposals will provide sufficient safeguards against the identified concerns. Finally, provisional conclusions will be drawn on the basis of the current state of negotiations

Synthesis and Characterisation of Addition Compounds of Pyridine Carboxylic Acid Hydrazides with Tin (IV) Halides, Organotin (IV) Halides and Thicyanates*

Addition compounds of the compositions SnX/sub 4/.xL and R/sub n/SnX/sub 4-n/.xL where X=Cl/sup -/, Br/sup -/, I/sup -/, or (NCS)/sup -/, R=phenyl or n-butyl, L = picolinic acid hydrazide (PH), nicotinic acid hydrazide (NH) or isonicotinic acide hydrazide (INH), x=1 or 2 and n= 1,2 or 3 have been prepared and characterised with the help of elemental analysis, molar conductance, UV and IR spectral studies. All the adducts are nonionic as evidenced from their low molar conductances in DMF. UV and IR spectral studies show that NH and INH coordiante through carbonyl oxygen and terminal nitrogen; and (PH) through carbonyl oxygen and ring nitrogen in monoadducts. All the three isometric pyridine carboxylic acid hydrazides are coordinated through pyridine nitrogen alone in the di-adducts. Octahedral geometry has been proposed for mono-as well as di-adducts

Design, navigation, and structure of a hypermedia application for the teaching–learning of pneumatic engineering design drawing

This article presents a hypermedia application used to study pneumatics that serves to support the lecturer in the lecture hall and as a self-study tool for the student. The reason behind the creation of this application is as follows: currently, there is no application in the market, which is equipped with a navigational system to guide the student through this subject matter, which has a system for self-assessment, and a system to identify those concepts that are of greatest interest or difficulty for the student. The proposed system monitors the time each user spends studying each section, as well as the dates on which each one was studied. Moreover, students are able to monitor their progress in learning the subject matter and identify those areas in which they have to improve. They are also able to simulate any pneumatic circuit in order to check its feasibility or detect any errors. The application has an open, modular structure, which enables changes to be made without its structure being affected. Use of the hypermedia application has supported the tutorial work of lecturers and reduced time spent elaborating on subject matter in the lecture hall, at the same time as facilitating its study

LATENTIATED PRODRUG APPROACH OF DRUGS: AN OVERVIEW

Prodrugs, with their capability of declining the adverse events and elevating the bioavailability of certain drugs, have captured enormous attention throughout the world since the 20th century. The versatility of the prodrugs that are inert and after administration releasing the parent moiety for the desired effect has become a major criterion for the scientists to incorporate this to alleviate the undesired effects of a conventional drug. About 10% of the prevailing drugs are prodrugs and their usage is being amplified owing to its critical application in cancer therapy, toxicity alleviation, and specificity. The purpose of this review is to understand the prodrugs, strategies incorporated in designing the prodrugs, applications, their crucial benefits in targeted action at a specific site of the body, their advantageous effects in chemotherapy. Also, to be acknowledged with the ongoing clinical trials and researches on prodrugs and some notable marketed prodrugs in a depth manner

Impact of high temperature stress on floret fertility and individual grain weight of grain sorghum: sensitive stages and thresholds for temperature and duration

Citation: Prasad PVV, Djanaguiraman M, Perumal R and Ciampitti IA (2015) Impact of high temperature stress on floret fertility and individual grain weight of grain sorghum: sensitive stages and thresholds for temperature and duration. Front. Plant Sci. 6:820. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00820Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] yield formation is severely affected by high temperature stress during reproductive stages. This study pursues to (i) identify the growth stage(s) most sensitive to high temperature stress during reproductive development, (ii) determine threshold temperature and duration of high temperature stress that decreases floret fertility and individual grain weight, and (iii) quantify impact of high daytime temperature during floret development, flowering and grain filling on reproductive traits and grain yield under field conditions. Periods between 10 and 5 d before anthesis; and between 5 d before- and 5 d after-anthesis were most sensitive to high temperatures causing maximum decreases in floret fertility. Mean daily temperatures >25°C quadratically decreased floret fertility (reaching 0% at 37°C) when imposed at the start of panicle emergence. Temperatures ranging from 25 to 37°C quadratically decreased individual grain weight when imposed at the start of grain filling. Both floret fertility and individual grain weights decreased quadratically with increasing duration (0–35 d or 49 d during floret development or grain filling stage, respectively) of high temperature stress. In field conditions, imposition of temperature stress (using heat tents) during floret development or grain filling stage also decreased floret fertility, individual grain weight, and grain weight per panicle

Common fixed point theorems of different compatible type mappings using Ciric\u27s contraction type condition

The purpose of this paper is to establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of common fixed points for a compatible pair of selfmaps under Ciric\u27s contraction type condition. These theorems improve and generalize the results of Mukherjee and Verma [11] and Jungck [9] to a pair of selfmaps. Also established the existence of common fixed points for a pair of compatible mappings of type (B), and obtain a result on the existence of common fixed points for a pair of compatible mappings of type (A) as corollary. Greguš fixed point theorem follows as a special case to our results