Opinions about Greek cruelty and harshness at Rome end of the Republic and beginning of the Principate

Desde Cicerón hasta Augusto, la dureza de los griegos, que puede a veces transformarse en crudelidad, es un "topos" en Roma utilizado para justificar o bien poner de relieve diversas políticas de "clementia". Dionisio de Halicarnaso adapta este tema para demostrar que los romanos, porque fueron clementes en su conquista del mundo, al contrario que los Atenienses de la edad clásica, son los herederos auténticos de la ética griega.From Cicero to Augustus, the harshness of the Greeks to their fellow-citizens and to their ennemies, which may even turn into cruelty, is a “topos” in Rome. Political leaders used it to promote several policies of “clementia”. Dionysius of Halicarnassus converts this theme in order to show that Romans, being merciful, contrary to the Athenians, are actually the heirs of the Greek values

MicroRNA-related sequence variations in human cancers

MicroRNAs are emerging as a most promising field in basic and translational research, explaining the pathogenesis of numerous human diseases and providing excellent tools for their management. This review considers the effects of microRNA sequence variations and their implication in pathogenesis and predisposition to human cancers. Although the role of microRNAs still remains to be elucidated, functional, and populational studies indicate that microRNA variants are important factors underlying the process of carcinogenesis. Further understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of microRNA action will lead to the identification of their new target genes and microRNA-regulated pathways. As a consequence, novel models of cancer pathogenesis can be proposed, and serve as a basis for elucidation of new prognostic and diagnostic tools for human cancers

Inomrättslig medling i mål om vårdnad, boende och umgänge - En analys av medlingsinstitutet i komparation med Finland

När föräldrar väljer att separera från varandra aktualiseras många rättsliga frågor som berör barnet. Föräldrar kan befinna sig i en konfliktfylld situation. Ibland kan konflikten mellan föräldrarna vara så djup att de inte kan komma överens om vem som ska ha vårdnaden om barnen, var barnen ska bo eller hur umgänget med en av föräldrarna ska se ut. De flesta föräldrar kan komma överens om frågorna som gäller deras gemensamma barn men antalet vårdnadstvister vid domstolarna i Sverige har ökat kraftigt det senaste decenniet. Lagstiftningen har länge präglats av en strävan att få så många föräldrar som möjligt att nå samförståndslösningar i frågor som gäller vårdnad, boende och umgänge. Samförståndslösningar anses oftast vara bättre en bättre lösning än då domstolen fattar beslut i dessa frågor. Lagstiftaren har därför utökat möjligheterna för föräldrar att få utomstående hjälp för att nå en överenskommelse. År 2006 infördes 6 kap. 18 a § föräldrabalken och genom denna lagändring blev det möjligt för domstolen att förordna om medling i vårdnadsmål. Syftet med den inomrättsliga medlingen är att försöka få föräldrarna att nå en samförståndslösning. I detta examensarbete redogörs för inomrättslig medling i mål om vårdnad, boende och umgänge. I uppsatsens deskriptiva del redogörs för hur medling regleras i svensk rätt och vad dess syfte är. En jämförelse med Finlands reglering på området görs även. I framställningens analys konstateras att inomrättslig medling inte har fått något större genomslag i Sverige. Medlingens fördelar, så som förfarandets flexibilitet, tas upp. Förslag på hur förfarandet kunde förbättras ges. Exempelvis anser jag att medling borde ske i ett tidigare skede av processen, att föräldrar själva borde kunna ta initiativ till att inleda medling samt att samarbetssamtalens absoluta företräde kan vara problematiskt. Förslag på hur barnperspektivet kunde förstärkas ges även. För en del av dessa förslag hämtas inspiration från den finska regleringen på området. Avslutningsvis anser jag att inomrättslig medling skulle kunna vara en väldigt effektiv och framgångsrik hjälpinsats för föräldrar som tvistar om vårdnad, boende och umgänge ifall en del förändringar skedde.When parents decide to separate from each other many legal issues concerning their child arises. Parents can find themselves in a very contentious situation. Sometimes the conflict can be so deep that the parents cannot agree on who should have custody of the child, where the child will live or how one parents visitation rights should be formed. Most parents can reach an agreement on their own, but the amount of cases concerning custody of a child in the Swedish courts has greatly increased during the past century. For a long time, the legislation has been characterized by the strive to get as many parents as possible to agree on issues concerning custody of the child, residency and visitation rights. In these types of cases solutions based on mutual understanding are usually considered to be better than decisions made by the courts. Therefore, the legislator has increased the opportunities available for parents to receive help from a third party to reach an agreement. In 2006 a new provision was added to the Children and Parents Code which made it possible for the courts to appoint a mediator in custody disputes. The purpose of this court appointed mediation is to try and get the parents to reach an agreement. In this thesis an account will be given of court appointed mediation in cases concerning custody of a child, residency and visitation rights. In the descriptive part an account will be given of how mediation is regulated in Swedish law and what its aim is. Furthermore, comparison with the Finnish regulation regarding this area will also be presented. In the analysis of this thesis it is stated that mediation has not gained a great impact in Sweden. The advantages of mediation, for example its flexibility, are discussed. Suggestions on how mediation could be improved are given. For example, I consider that mediation should occur earlier during the process, parents should be able to take initiative to initiate mediation and that the absolute preference of cooperation talks can be problematic. Suggestions of how the child’s perspective can be strengthened are also given. The Finnish regulation concerning mediation has inspired some of these suggestions. In conclusion, I consider that mediation could be a very effective and successful way of helping parents who disagree on questions concerning custody of a child, residency and visitation rights reach an agreement if some changes were made

Selective and Collaborative Optimization Methods for Plasmonics: A Comparison

International audienceIn this paper, we optimize the size parameters of hollow nanospheres and nanoshells used in cancer photothermal therapy and we focus on two practical therapy cases: the visible range for shallow cancer and the near infrared for deep cancer. For this, we consider analytical models: the Mie theory for coated spheres. The investigated optimization methods are the Evolutionary Method (EM) and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) which are based on competitiveness and collaborative algorithms, respectively. A comparative study is achieved by checking the efficiency of the optimization methods, to improve the nanoparticles efficiency

Electromagnetic Heat-induced in Meso-structures: Computation of Temperature in Metallic Dimers

International audienceThe illumination of a dimer metallic nanostructure is known to produce an in- tense source of light, with nanometric size. This con¯nement of light in the gap between the two material structures can induce an increase of the absorption of the electromagnetic energy in the nanaoantenna itself, and therefore its warm-up. The multiphysics problem associated to this photo-thermal e®ect is modeled through a Finite Element Method (FEM). This contribu- tion consists in computing both the electromagnetic ¯eld and the temperature, and discussing the in°uence of the gap, in the case of a bow-tie nanoantenna. The applications could be the development of nanodevices with thermal properties

Clinical implications of GWAS variants associated with differentiated thyroid cancer

The genetic risk of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) probably consists of multiple low-penetrance, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Such markers are difficult to uncover by linkage analysis but can be revealed by association studies. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have uncovered 31 SNPs associated with DTC. These markers carry a low to moderate risk for DTC, but their cumulative effect increases with each successive risk allele. These data support the important contribution of low penetrance variants in the pathogenesis of DTC. Contrary to somatic mutations such as BRAFV600E, germline variants can be ascertained prior to surgical treatment. Therefore, we hypothesise that GWAS SNPs might impact the clinical course of DTC and we can benefit from this knowledge in choosing a treatment strategy. Several associations between clinical factors and GWAS markers have been reported so far. The most important are associations between rs966423 and mortality (HR = 1.60, p = 0.038), extrathyroidal extension (ETE) (OR = 1.57, p = 0.019); rs965513 and tumour diameter (slope of regression 0.14, p = 0.025), lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.59, p = 0.030) and ETE (OR = 1.29, p = 0.045); rs944289 and distant metastasis (OR = 0.58, p = 0.042); and rs116909374 and lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.61, p = 0.016). These findings show that GWAS SNPs are not only the ignition factors (together with environmental factors) for malignant transformation of thyrocytes but might also impact the clinical course of DTC. Surprisingly, it is not always the risk allele for DTC that is associated with worse clinical outcome. The second interesting observation is that GWAS SNPs show different associations with DTC clinical features depending on their histological subtypes. These point to the complexity of DTC with putatively different roles of genes at different stages of DTC development. (Endokrynol Pol 2019; 70 (5): 423–429

SERS detection of biomolecules using lithographied nanoparticles towards a reproducible SERS biosensor

International audienceIn this paper we highlight the accurate spectral detection of bovine serum albumin and ribonuclease-A using a Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrate based on gold nanocylinders obtained by Electron-Beam Lithography (EBL). The nanocylinders have diameter from 100 to 180 nm with a gap of 200 nm. We demonstrate that optimizing the size and the shape of the lithographied gold nanocylinders, we can obtain SERS spectra of proteins at low concentration. This SERS study enabled us to estimate high enhancement factors (105 for BSA and 107 for RNase-A) of important bands in the protein Raman spectrum measured for 1mM concentration. We demonstrate that to reach the highest enhancement it is necessary to optimize the SERS signal and that the main parameter of optimization is the LSPR position. The LSPR have to be suitably located between the laser excitation wavelength which is 632.8 nm and the position of the considered Raman band. Our study underlines the efficiency of gold nanocylinders arrays in spectral detection of proteins

Microdissection of human chromosomes by a laser microbeam

A laser microbeam apparatus, based on an excimer laser pumped dye laser is used to microdissect human chromosomes and to isolate a single chromosome slice