Establishing Legal Order in the Digital World: Local Laws and Internet Content Regulation

The need for establishing legal order in cyberspace is growing; the time has come when it is also possible in severaldifferent ways. One of the crucial issues in this respect is the worldwide reach of the global network. Legal rules for humanactivities, including online activities, vary from state to state, and regulation of cyberspace cannot occur in one singlemanner all over the world. The existence of various laws produces far reaching consequences both for users and forregulators. Thus, users might face legal consequences in a foreign state for activities lawful in their home jurisdiction, andstates might not be able to enforce the laws if the offender resides in another state. This paper examines this issue, inparticular the issue of Internet content regulation. The approach proposed here is to focus on the new actors in the online world and the new regulatory choices they offer

Travelling waves in a model of quasi-active dendrites with active spines

Dendrites, the major components of neurons, have many different types of branching structures and are involved in receiving and integrating thousands of synaptic inputs from other neurons. Dendritic spines with excitable channels can be present in large densities on the dendrites of many cells. The recently proposed Spike-Diffuse-Spike (SDS) model that is described by a system of point hot-spots (with an integrate-and-fire process) embedded throughout a passive tree has been shown to provide a reasonable caricature of a dendritic tree with supra-threshold dynamics. Interestingly, real dendrites equipped with voltage-gated ion channels can exhibit not only supra-threshold responses, but also sub-threshold dynamics. This sub-threshold resonant-like oscillatory behaviour has already been shown to be adequately described by a quasi-active membrane. In this paper we introduce a mathematical model of a branched dendritic tree based upon a generalisation of the SDS model where the active spines are assumed to be distributed along a quasi-active dendritic structure. We demonstrate how solitary and periodic travelling wave solutions can be constructed for both continuous and discrete spine distributions. In both cases the speed of such waves is calculated as a function of system parameters. We also illustrate that the model can be naturally generalised to an arbitrary branched dendritic geometry whilst remaining computationally simple. The spatio-temporal patterns of neuronal activity are shown to be significantly influenced by the properties of the quasi-active membrane. Active (sub- and supra-threshold) properties of dendrites are known to vary considerably among cell types and animal species, and this theoretical framework can be used in studying the combined role of complex dendritic morphologies and active conductances in rich neuronal dynamics

Democratization in a passive dendritic tree : an analytical investigation

One way to achieve amplification of distal synaptic inputs on a dendritic tree is to scale the amplitude and/or duration of the synaptic conductance with its distance from the soma. This is an example of what is often referred to as “dendritic democracy”. Although well studied experimentally, to date this phenomenon has not been thoroughly explored from a mathematical perspective. In this paper we adopt a passive model of a dendritic tree with distributed excitatory synaptic conductances and analyze a number of key measures of democracy. In particular, via moment methods we derive laws for the transport, from synapse to soma, of strength, characteristic time, and dispersion. These laws lead immediately to synaptic scalings that overcome attenuation with distance. We follow this with a Neumann approximation of Green’s representation that readily produces the synaptic scaling that democratizes the peak somatic voltage response. Results are obtained for both idealized geometries and for the more realistic geometry of a rat CA1 pyramidal cell. For each measure of democratization we produce and contrast the synaptic scaling associated with treating the synapse as either a conductance change or a current injection. We find that our respective scalings agree up to a critical distance from the soma and we reveal how this critical distance decreases with decreasing branch radius

Branching dendrites with resonant membrane: a “sum-over-trips” approach

Dendrites form the major components of neurons. They are complex branching structures that receive and process thousands of synaptic inputs from other neurons. It is well known that dendritic morphology plays an important role in the function of dendrites. Another important contribution to the response characteristics of a single neuron comes from the intrinsic resonant properties of dendritic membrane. In this paper we combine the effects of dendritic branching and resonant membrane dynamics by generalising the “sum-over-trips” approach (Abbott et al. in Biol Cybernetics 66, 49–60 1991). To illustrate how this formalism can shed light on the role of architecture and resonances in determining neuronal output we consider dual recording and reconstruction data from a rat CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cell. Specifically we explore the way in which an Ih current contributes to a voltage overshoot at the soma

Opening new pages of history: Reports of German military attachés from Japan in 1937–1941

The article is devoted to military and political events in the Far East on the eve and at the beginning of World War II, namely, German-Japanese relations. The rapprochement of Germany and Japan during this period had a serious geopolitical reason, which consisted in the attitude of both countries towards the Soviet Union. It was a common military and political goal for both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The presence of such an external enemy led to the creation of a German-Japanese military-political alliance, which, however, could not overcome the geographical remoteness of both countries, as well as the partners’ wary attitude towards mutual ambitions in the Asia Pacific region. A huge role in the development of military-political relations between Germany and Japan was played by their military diplomats operating in Tokyo and Berlin. Military-political cooperation between the two countries did not stop until April 1945 and was represented not only by the conclusion of bilateral agreements, contacts with the top leadership of Germany and Japan, and the exchange of intelligence information, but also by the organization of delivery of military supplies, which, however, did not have any real significance. Central to the article is the analysis of reports of German military attachés accredited to the German embassy in Tokyo. These documents are deposited in the captured archival funds, which are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Most of these documents are reviews of military operations during the Sino-Japanese War, as well as data on the armed forces of Japan and the army of the central government of China (Kuomintang). Some of the materials contain intelligence information about the Red Army and the Soviet military forces in the Far East. The Authors did not set themselves the goal of recreating the full picture of military-political cooperation between Germany and Japan in the pre-war period and during the Second World War, but rather limited themselves to analyzing the reflection of this topic in the reports of German military attachés from Tokyo

Effect of cartolin on oryzalin-induced changes in lectin activity during low-temperature plant hardening

The effect of cartolin (0.33 μM), an antistress regulator of cytokinin type, on the cytoskeleton-dependent changes in lectin activity in the roots of unhardened (23°C) and cold-hardened (3°C, 7 days) 7-day-old plants of three cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was studied. In unhardened plants, cartolin increased activity of soluble and cell wall-bound lectins in a cultivar-specific mode. This is evidently important for subsequent enhancement of adaptation processes in the cell. The inhibitor of microtubule polymerization, oryzalin, reduced the activity of soluble lectins and increased that of cell wall-bound lectins. A reduced sensitivity of lectin activity to oryzalin after cartolin treatment could result from its stabilizing action on the cytoskeletal structures and on the interaction between cell-wall lectins and microtubules. The most efficient cartolin action, the suppression of oryzalin effect on lectin activity in hardened plants, was observed in the frost-sensitive wheat cultivar. It is likely that cartolin treatment is more efficient in the activation of adaptation processes occurring with the involvement of cytoskeletal structures in the cultivars of lower tolerance. © 2008 MAIK Nauka

SYNTHESIS OF 2,6-DIAMINOPYRIDINE-4-NITROPHENOL (2,6DAP4N) COCRYSTAL NANOPARTICLES BY LASER ABLATION METHOD

We propose findings for laser ablation of organic materials in liquids as one of the perspective methods of nanoparticles synthesis on their basis. We describe nanoparticles synthesis for 2,6-diaminopyridine-4-nitrophenol (2,6DAP4N) cocrystal by the method of material laser ablation at nanoparticles condensation in liquid (dodecane and polyphenyleneoxide). Laser radiation with wavelength equal to 355 nm, pulse duration - 10 ns, pulse repetition rate - 3.8 kHz, and pulse power density equal to 170 kW/cm2 has been used in the study. Nanoparticles in the form of colloids have been obtained and studied by visible range spectroscopy and optical microscopy. Obtained particles size is around 0.5 μm