TARGETED SANCTIONS, JUDICIAL ANTAGONISM OR LEGAL DIALOGUE

This piece begins by illustrating the current status of United Nations targeted sanctions regimes, from the formal point of view. It then proceeds to explain the mechanisms of listing and de-listing at the UN level, as well as the means by which UN Member States, and the European Union, implement these sanctions in their national (regional) legal orders, and why the chosen means of implementation create potential situations where the states (the EU) might find themselves in breach of differing international obligations. In the final part, the article shows how the major international European courts (the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights) have dealt with this potential conflict, and posits that their approaches are very different and will have different consequences: i.e. whereas the CJEU has taken a militant approach, which threatens to damage the unity of international law, the ECtHR has taken an unitary approach, which strengthens the international system, while also promoting human rights over sanctions

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATABASE AND THE RESULTS OF USING ORAL BAITS VACCINES IN FOXES TO CONTROL RABIES

Rabies is a viral encephalomyelitis pathology that affects all kind of warm-blooded animals. While in America the main rabies reservoir is represented by the bat, in Europe rabies in maintained in wildlife by foxes which are the main source of the disease. In Europe, due to oral vaccination campaign in foxes which takes part every year, it is believed that in some years many European countries will be free of the disease. The study presents the efficiency of the oral vaccines in foxes by comparing the number of positive rabies cases before and after the use of baits vaccines. The research is made in Bistrita-Nasaud county between 2000 and 2017 and there were tested both domestic and wild animals

Intraspecific Differences Regarding Granular Polymorphism in Granular Ducts’ Cells in Rats’ Mandibular Gland

Mandibular gland ducts’ system in rodents consist of intralobular ducts (intercalated, granular, striated) and interlobular one (main excretory duct). Granular ducts are located between intercalated and striated ducts, being present only in mandibular gland of the mouse, rat, hamster and gerbil. The biological material used for this study was represented by two strains from the same species, three Wistar rats and three Brown Norway rats. After the animals were euthanized, the mandibular glands were harvested and then processed for histological investigations. The tissue fragments were sectioned at 5μm thickness and then stained the sections using Tricrom-Goldners method. Our results emphasize that the granular ducts are well developed; regarding the shape, they are convoluted in both Wistar and Brown Norway rats, without any significant differences between the two strains. In Wistar rat, the granules in granular ducts cells are small to medium in size, with discrete polymorphism. In Brown Norway rat, the cytoplasm is loaded with granules as in Wistar rat, but these are several times larger and more polymorphic

Preliminary hydrogeological interpretation of the Aigion area from the AIG10 borehole data

n/

A square-root speedup for finding the smallest eigenvalue

We describe a quantum algorithm for finding the smallest eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix. This algorithm combines Quantum Phase Estimation and Quantum Amplitude Estimation to achieve a quadratic speedup with respect to the best classical algorithm in terms of matrix dimensionality, i.e., $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{N}/\epsilon)$ black-box queries to an oracle encoding the matrix, where $N$ is the matrix dimension and $\epsilon$ is the desired precision. In contrast, the best classical algorithm for the same task requires $\Omega(N)\text{polylog}(1/\epsilon)$ queries. In addition, this algorithm allows the user to select any constant success probability. We also provide a similar algorithm with the same runtime that allows us to prepare a quantum state lying mostly in the matrix's low-energy subspace. We implement simulations of both algorithms and demonstrate their application to problems in quantum chemistry and materials science.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, all comments are welcome, additional references adde

Comparison among different methods for blood pressure monitoring in rats: literature review

Blood pressure is a cardinal vital sign that gives important information about the cardiovascular function and about hemodynamic trends during anaesthesia, in critical ill patients and during experimental procedures (Rehman and Nelson, 2018). Arterial blood pressure can be evaluated by direct technique (arterial catheter) or indirect technique (Doppler or oscillometry). Direct measurement is gold standard for blood pressure measurement, giving accurate beat-to-beat information and also allow collection of blood samples. However, it is more invasive and requires equipment for monitoring and experience to place the arterial catheter (Araghi et al., 2006; Ward and Langton, 2007; Wingfield and Raffe, 2002). Given its importance in directing care, it is essential to measure blood pressure accurately and consistently.The aim of this article is to present all technique found in literature, with its advantages and disadvantages, with the errors that may occur so that the researchers can have a better knowledge before choosing their technique. For this study we took into consideration articles from literature and speciality books from which we extracted the information reliable for the study. Experimental studies on small laboratory animals, particularly rats are widely used as a model. Three methods are used for recording the blood pressure in rats: tail cuff (indirect technique), intra-arterial catheters (direct technique), and radio telemetry. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages and each of it may lead to erroneous data if they are improperly performed. The vast ranges of these errors highlight the importance of adhering to appropriate technique when measuring blood pressure

Land & Localize: An Infrastructure-free and Scalable Nano-Drones Swarm with UWB-based Localization

Relative localization is a crucial functional block of any robotic swarm. We address it in a fleet of nano-drones characterized by a 10 cm-scale form factor, which makes them highly versatile but also strictly limited in their onboard power envelope. State-of-the-Art solutions leverage Ultra-WideBand (UWB) technology, allowing distance range measurements between peer nano-drones and a stationary infrastructure of multiple UWB anchors. Therefore, we propose an UWB-based infrastructure-free nano-drones swarm, where part of the fleet acts as dynamic anchors, i.e., anchor-drones (ADs), capable of automatic deployment and landing. By varying the Ads' position constraint, we develop three alternative solutions with different trade-offs between flexibility and localization accuracy. In-field results, with four flying mission-drones (MDs), show a localization root mean square error (RMSE) spanning from 15.3 cm to 27.8 cm, at most. Scaling the number of MDs from 4 to 8, the RMSE marginally increases, i.e., less than 10 cm at most. The power consumption of the MDs' UWB module amounts to 342 mW. Ultimately, compared to a fixed-infrastructure commercial solution, our infrastructure-free system can be deployed anywhere and rapidly by taking 5.7 s to self-localize 4 ADs with a localization RMSE of up to 12.3% in the most challenging case with 8 MDs

Bioactivity-guided isolation of trypanocidal coumarins and dihydro-pyranochromones from selected Apiaceae plant species.

Bioactivity-guided isolation of natural products from plant matrices is widely used in drug discovery. Here, this strategy was applied to identify trypanocidal coumarins effective against the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). Previously, phylogenetic relationships of trypanocidal activity revealed a coumarin-associated antichagasic hotspot in the Apiaceae. In continuation, a total of 35 ethyl acetate extracts of different Apiaceae species were profiled for selective cytotoxicity against T. cruzi epimastigotes over host CHO-K1 and RAW264.7 cells at 10 μg/mL. A flow cytometry-based T. cruzi trypomastigote cellular infection assay was employed to measure toxicity against the intracellular amastigote stage. Among the tested extracts, Seseli andronakii aerial parts, Portenschlagiella ramosissima and Angelica archangelica subsp. litoralis roots exhibited selective trypanocidal activity and were subjected to bioactivity-guided fractionation and isolation by countercurrent chromatography. The khellactone ester isosamidin isolated from the aerial parts of S. andronakii emerged as a selective trypanocidal molecule (selectivity index ∼9) and inhibited amastigote replication in CHO-K1 cells, though it was significantly less potent than benznidazole. The khellactone ester praeruptorin B and the linear dihydropyranochromones 3'-O-acetylhamaudol and ledebouriellol isolated from the roots of P. ramosissima were more potent and efficiently inhibited the intracellular amastigote replication at < 10 μM. The furanocoumarins imperatorin, isoimperatorin and phellopterin from A. archangelica inhibited T. cruzi replication in host cells only in combination, indicative of superadditive effects, while alloimperatorin was more active in fractions. Our study reports preliminary structure-activity relationships of trypanocidal coumarins and shows that pyranocoumarins and dihydropyranochromones are potential chemical scaffolds for antichagasic drug discovery

CREATING AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY IN PIGS

Minimally invasive surgery is a common technique that replaces classic surgery because of many benfits, including reduced postoperative pain and shorter hospitalization time. Getting familiar with the skills needed to perform this techniques requires specific training. In this study, we developed a two-day training on four live pigs, where the participants had to identify the uro-genital tract, liver, gall bladder, stomach, intestines and performing certain maneuvers on them and we preferred to focus on the basic laparoscopy procedures, which can then be integrated into any procedure