Mandatory Contract Law: Functions and Principles in Light of the Proposal for a Directive on Consumer Rights

Starting from the theoretical underpinnings of contract law, mandatory rules should be the exception. In the reality of current European legislation, mandatory law is not the exception but the rule. The obvious explanation is that the EU has focussed on consumer law, i.e. on the regulation of transactions between a business and a consumer. In a B-to-C relationship, the consumer is perceived as the weaker party which requires protection against the more powerful business. The following article tries to dismantle the assumptions that consumers are weak and that the ‘weakness’ of consumers forms the normative basis for the body of Directives we now have before us. The Draft Proposal of a Directive on Consumer Rights is used as an object for analyses from the perspectives of comparative law and economic reasoning. The argument is that, while there are important areas where mandatory law is justified, the card of mandatory law has been overplayed in important respects. In particular, the petrification of the law of sales that began with the Directive on Consumer Sales and Guarantees seems to be unjustified. Within a system that allows for court control over standard contract terms, the need for mandatory law is negligible. Where court control over standard terms is perceived not to be sufficient, ‘options’ should be used instead of mandatory law. While options preserve party autonomy, they do limit freedom of choice to a set of immutable alternatives. And in doing so, they reconcile party autonomy with legal certainty

Bewertung verschiedener Alternativen zur Kraftstoff‭‭‭‭-‭Einsparung im privaten Pkw-Verkehr

Die Ölkrise 1973 führte auch in Deutschland zu politischen Auffanglösungen. Dazu gehörten vor allem vier aufeinanderfolgende autofreie Sonntage ab 25. November 1973 sowie allgemeine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen für sechs Monate. Die Sonntags-fahrverbote stellten entferntere Tourismus- und Freizeitgebiete vor besondere Probleme und verstärkten die Suche nach. raumordnungspolitisch verträglicheren Lösungen. Die Prüfung der Vorschläge schloss alle Sparmaßnahmen im Verkehr ein, die öffentlich diskutiert oder in Briefen an den Bundesminister für Raumordnung, Bauwesen und Städtebau angeregt worden waren. Den Kern der hier dargestellten Kurzanalyse bildete die Ministervorlage der drei Autoren. Darin wurden folgende alternative Maßnahmen zur Kraftstoffeinsparung im Verkehr verglichen und bewertet. • Fahrverbot für private Pkw an Wochenenden, gestaffelt nach der Zahl der Verbotstage (Sonntag bzw. Samstag) pro Monat, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw auf Bundesfernstraßen und Bundesautobahnen, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw im Umkreis von mehr als 30 km vom Standort, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw an allen Tagen zwischen 10 und 16 Uhr, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw mit Besetzungsgrad unter 2 Personen bei zeitlicher Limitierung, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw an 2 Tagen der Woche nach Wahl, • Fahrverbot für private Pkw an 3 Tagen pro Monat gemäß Zulassungsnummer und • Rationierung der Benzinausgabe mit Bezugsscheinen für jedermann, die personell übertragen und deshalb am Markt gehandelt werden können. Die Kurzanalyse offenbart die instrumentelle Überlegenheit der Maßnahme, die Benzinausgabe mit übertragbaren Benzinscheinen zu rationieren. Ihre Einsparmöglichkeiten sind flexibel handhabbar. Auch damit verbundene sektorale und personelle Entzugseffekte sind besonders gering. Schließlich vermeidet dieser Lösungsweg Kontroll-aufwand und zeitliche wie räumliche Ausweichreaktionen.The 1973 oil crisis led, also in Germany as in other countries, to a search for emergency solutions. These included most notably all consecutive car-free Sundays from 25 November 1973 and general speed limits for six months. The ban on Sunday driving led to a massive drop in demand in more distant recreation and leisure areas and intensified the search for politically more acceptable solutions. The examination of the proposals made included all fuel-cutting measures widely discussed in public or proposed in letters from the general public to the Federal Minister of Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development. The core of the brief analysis presented here was the paper to the minister by the three authors. This paper compared and evaluated the following fuel-saving measures in transport: • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars at weekends according to the number of ban days (Sunday or Saturday) per month, • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars on German motorways and Federal trunk roads, • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars beyond a 30 kilometre radius from the place where the vehicle is based, • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars on all days between 10.00 and 16.00, • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars with an occupancy rate less than 2 people and temporal limitation • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars on 2 days per week of the driver‘s choice, • a nationwide driving ban for passenger cars on 3 days per dependent on the registration number and • strictly rationed petrol sales with coupons for everybody that may be transfered and traded on secondary markets The brief analysis showed the superiority of the measure to restrict petrol sales by transferable coupons. It was a flexible solution which could be adjusted to circumstances. Related problems like sectoral or human hardships would therefore be limited. This approach would greatly reduce the burden of administration and enforcement and prevent attempts to circumvent bans temporally or spatially

Alkaline Fuel Cells with Novel Gortex-Based Electrodes are Powered Remarkably Efficiently by Methane Containing 5% Hydrogen

Numerous electric and gas utilities are actively pursuing power-to-gas technology, which involves using unwanted, excess renewable energy to manufacture hydrogen gas (H 2 ) that is then injected into the existing natural gas pipeline network in 5-10% by volume. This work reports an alkaline fuel cell that has the potential to harness such gas mixtures for downstream generation of electric power. The fuel cell, which employs novel Gortex-based electrodes layered with Pd/Pt catalysts, generates electricity remarkably efficiently when fuelled with methane (CH 4 ) containing 5% hydrogen. Methane constitutes the major component of natural gas. The fuel cell has been studied over a range of hydrogen to methane ratios using Tafel plots and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. These show that, in terms of fundamental operation, there is, astonishingly, almost no difference between using pure hydrogen and 5% hydrogen in methane, as the fuel. The Gortex electrodes and alkaline electrolyte are clearly able to utilize the dilute hydrogen as a fuel with remarkable efficiency. The methane acts as an inert carrier gas and is not consumed

An electrochemical cell with Gortex-based electrodes capable of extracting pure hydrogen from highly dilute hydrogen-methane mixtures

In this work we report a novel liquid-acid electrochemical cell containing Gortex-based gas diffusion electrodes, layered with suitable catalysts and current collectors, that is capable of sustainably extractin g pure hydrogen from methane mixtures containing as little as 5% hydrogen. The origin of its efficiency appears to derive from the solid-liquid interface between the solid Gortex electrodes and the liquid electrolyte, as well as the high proton conductivity of the electrolyte. This interface and electrolyte exhibit an efficiency for reaction that greatly exceeds that achieved by the comparable solid-solid interface and proton conductor in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology. We report hydrogen yields and recovery by the cell from a range of methane-hydrogen mixtures. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been used to characterise the cell and to illuminate the system limitations

Triaxial orbit based galaxy models with an application to the (apparent) decoupled core galaxy NGC 4365

We present a flexible and efficient method to construct triaxial dynamical models of galaxies with a central black hole, using Schwarzschild's orbital superposition approach. Our method is general and can deal with realistic luminosity distributions, which project to surface brightness distributions that may show position angle twists and ellipticity variations. The models are fit to measurements of the full line-of-sight velocity distribution (wherever available). We verify that our method is able to reproduce theoretical predictions of a three-integral triaxial Abel model. In a companion paper (van de Ven, de Zeeuw & van den Bosch), we demonstrate that the method recovers the phase-space distribution function. We apply our method to two-dimensional observations of the E3 galaxy NGC 4365, obtained with the integral-field spectrograph SAURON, and study its internal structure, showing that the observed kinematically decoupled core is not physically distinct from the main body and the inner region is close to oblate axisymmetric.Comment: 21 Pages, 14 (Colour) Figures, Companion paper is arXiv:0712.0309 Accepted to MNRAS. Full resolution version at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~bosch/papers/RvdBosch_triaxmethod.pd

Selective Methyl Labeling of Eukaryotic Membrane Proteins Using Cell-Free Expression

Structural characterization of membrane proteins and other large proteins with NMR relies increasingly on perdeuteration combined with incorporation of specifically protonated amino acid moieties, such as methyl groups of isoleucines, valines, or leucines. The resulting proton dilution reduces dipolar broadening producing sharper resonance lines, ameliorates spectral crowding, and enables measuring of crucial distances between and to methyl groups. While incorporation of specific methyl labeling is now well established for bacterial expression using suitable precursors, corresponding methods are still lacking for cell-free expression, which is often the only choice for producing labeled eukaryotic membrane proteins in mg quantities. Here we show that we can express methyl-labeled human integral membrane proteins cost-effectively by cell-free expression based of crude hydrolyzed ILV-labeled OmpX inclusion bodies. These are obtained in Escherichia coli with very high quantity and represent an optimal intermediate to channel ILV precursors into the eukaryotic proteins

Position of Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor eIF1A on the 40S Ribosomal Subunit Mapped by Directed Hydroxyl Radical Probing

The universally conserved eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF), eIF1A, plays multiple roles throughout initiation: it stimulates eIF2/GTP/Met-tRNA_i^{Met} attachment to 40S ribosomal subunits, scanning, start codon selection and subunit joining. Its bacterial ortholog IF1 consists of an oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB) domain, whereas eIF1A additionally contains a helical subdomain, N-terminal tail (NTT) and C-terminal tail (CTT). The NTT and CTT both enhance ribosomal recruitment of eIF2/GTP/Met-tRNA_i^{Met}, but have opposite effects on the stringency of start codon selection: the CTT increases, whereas the NTT decreases it. Here, we determined the position of eIF1A on the 40S subunit by directed hydroxyl radical cleavage. eIF1A's OB domain binds in the A site, similar to IF1, whereas the helical subdomain contacts the head, forming a bridge over the mRNA channel. The NTT and CTT both thread under Met-tRNA_i^{Met} reaching into the P-site. The NTT threads closer to the mRNA channel. In the proposed model, the NTT does not clash with either mRNA or Met-tRNA_i^{Met}, consistent with its suggested role in promoting the ‘closed’ conformation of ribosomal complexes upon start codon recognition. In contrast, eIF1A-CTT appears to interfere with the P-site tRNA-head interaction in the ‘closed’ complex and is likely ejected from the P-site upon start codon recognition

Tumor suppression by small molecule inhibitors of translation initiation

Translation initiation factors are over-expressed and/or activated in many human cancers and may contribute to their genesis and/or progression. Removal of physiologic restraints on translation initiation causes malignant transformation. Conversely, restoration of physiological restrains on translation initiation reverts malignant phenotypes. Here, we extensively characterize the anti-cancer activity of two small molecule inhibitors of translation initiation: #1181, which targets the eIF2-GTP-Met-tRNAi ternary complex, and 4EGI-1, which targets the eIF4F complex. In vitro, both molecules inhibit translation initiation, abrogate preferentially translation of mRNAs coding for oncogenic proteins, and inhibit proliferation of human cancer cells. In vivo, both #1181 and 4EGI-1 strongly inhibit growth of human breast and melanoma cancer xenografts without any apparent macroscopic- or microscopic-toxicity. Mechanistically, #1181 phosphorylates eIF2α while 4EGI-1 disrupts eIF4G/eIF4E interaction in the tumors excised from mice treated with these agents. These data indicate that inhibition of translation initiation is a new paradigm in cancer therapy

Discovering universal statistical laws of complex networks

Different network models have been suggested for the topology underlying complex interactions in natural systems. These models are aimed at replicating specific statistical features encountered in real-world networks. However, it is rarely considered to which degree the results obtained for one particular network class can be extrapolated to real-world networks. We address this issue by comparing different classical and more recently developed network models with respect to their generalisation power, which we identify with large structural variability and absence of constraints imposed by the construction scheme. After having identified the most variable networks, we address the issue of which constraints are common to all network classes and are thus suitable candidates for being generic statistical laws of complex networks. In fact, we find that generic, not model-related dependencies between different network characteristics do exist. This allows, for instance, to infer global features from local ones using regression models trained on networks with high generalisation power. Our results confirm and extend previous findings regarding the synchronisation properties of neural networks. Our method seems especially relevant for large networks, which are difficult to map completely, like the neural networks in the brain. The structure of such large networks cannot be fully sampled with the present technology. Our approach provides a method to estimate global properties of under-sampled networks with good approximation. Finally, we demonstrate on three different data sets (C. elegans' neuronal network, R. prowazekii's metabolic network, and a network of synonyms extracted from Roget's Thesaurus) that real-world networks have statistical relations compatible with those obtained using regression models

Towards hydrogen energy: progress on catalysts for water splitting

This article reviews some of the recent work by fellows and associates of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) at Monash University and the University of Wollongong, as well as their collaborators, in the field of water oxidation and reduction catalysts. This work is focussed on the production of hydrogen for a hydrogen-based energy technology. Topics include: (1) the role and apparent relevance of the cubane-like structure of the Photosystem II Water Oxidation Complex (PSII-WOC) in non-biological homogeneous and heterogeneous water oxidation catalysts, (2) light-activated conducting polymer catalysts for both water oxidation and reduction, and (3) porphyrin-based light harvesters and catalysts