Traditional paradigms for new services? : The Commission Proposal for a 'Audiovisual Media Services Directive'

For over 10 years the European Community has strived to develop suitable and proportionate answers to the phenomenon of convergence in its audiovisual regulatory policy. This article outlines the regulatory process at an EU level since the early 1980s as far as media, telecommunications and Information Society services are concerned, and analyses some of the most relevant policy papers specifically related to the adoption of the EC legal framework for the media in the digital age, before focusing on the preparatory phase leading up to the adoption of the Commission proposal for a Directive on "Audiovisual Media Services", issued in December 2005. In addition, the core of this proposal for a revised "Television without Frontiers" Directive, i.e. the extension of its scope to cover new media services provided in a non-linear manner and the introduction of a graduated regime of regulation with a lighter-touch approach in view of such services, is presented along with the main lines of debate among stakeholders

Multiwavelength study of Cygnus A III. Evidence for relic lobe plasma

We study the particle energy distribution in the cocoon surrounding Cygnus A, using radio images between 151 MHz and 15 GHz and a 200 ks Chandra ACIS-I image. We show that the excess low frequency emission in the the lobe further from Earth cannot be explained by absorption or excess adiabatic expansion of the lobe or a combination of both. We show that this excess emission is consistent with emission from a relic counterlobe and a relic counterjet that are being re-energized by compression from the current lobe. We detect hints of a relic hotspot at the end of the relic X-ray jet in the more distant lobe. We do not detect relic emission in the lobe nearer to Earth as expected from light travel-time effects assuming intrinsic symmetry. We determine that the duration of the previous jet activity phase was slightly less than that of the current jet-active phase. Further, we explain some features observed at 5 and 15 GHz as due to the presence of a relic jet.Comment: Accepted for publication with MNRAS, 10 pages with 10 figure

Insulin-like growth factor 1 stimulates the angiogenic activity of adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments

Angiogenesis in adipose tissue is promoted by insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling. We analyzed whether this regulatory mechanism also improves the angiogenic activity of adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments. Murine adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments were cultivated for 24 h in the University of Wisconsin (UW) solution supplemented with vehicle, insulin-like growth factor 1, or a combination of insulin-like growth factor 1 and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 4. Subsequently, we assessed their cellular composition, viability, proliferation, and growth factor expression. Moreover, cultivated adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments were seeded onto collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffolds, which were implanted into dorsal skinfold chambers to study their vascularization and incorporation. Insulin-like growth factor 1 increased the viability and growth factor expression of adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments without affecting their cellular composition and proliferation. Accordingly, scaffolds containing insulin-like growth factor 1-stimulated adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments exhibited an enhanced in vivo vascularization and incorporation. These positive insulin-like growth factor 1 effects were reversed by additional exposure of adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments to insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 4. Our findings indicate that insulin-like growth factor 1 stimulation of adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments is suitable to improve their vascularization capacity

Modification of spintronic terahertz emitter performance through defect engineering

Spintronic ferromagnetic/non-magnetic heterostructures are novel sources for the generation of THz radiation based on spin-to-charge conversion in the layers. The key technological and scientific challenge of THz spintronic emitters is to increase their intensity and frequency bandwidth. Our work reveals the factors to engineer spintronic Terahertz generation by introducing the scattering lifetime and the interface transmission for spin polarized, non-equilibrium electrons. We clarify the influence of the electron-defect scattering lifetime on the spectral shape and the interface transmission on the THz amplitude, and how this is linked to structural defects of bilayer emitters. The results of our study define a roadmap of the properties of emitted as well as detected THz-pulse shapes and spectra that is essential for future applications of metallic spintronic THz emitters.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figure

Protein Kinase CK2 Controls CaV2.1-Dependent Calcium Currents and Insulin Release in Pancreatic β-cells

The regulation of insulin biosynthesis and secretion in pancreatic β-cells is essential for glucose homeostasis in humans. Previous findings point to the highly conserved, ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine kinase CK2 as having a negative regulatory impact on this regulation. In the cell culture model of rat pancreatic β-cells INS-1, insulin secretion is enhanced after CK2 inhibition. This enhancement is preceded by a rise in the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration. Here, we identified the serine residues S2362 and S2364 of the voltage-dependent calcium channel CaV2.1 as targets of CK2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that CaV2.1 binds to CK2 in vitro and in vivo. CaV2.1 knockdown experiments showed that the increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, followed by an enhanced insulin secretion upon CK2 inhibition, is due to a Ca2+ influx through CaV2.1 channels. In summary, our results point to a modulating role of CK2 in the CaV2.1-mediated exocytosis of insulin

A Detailed Study of the Lobes of Eleven Powerful Radio Galaxies

Radio lobes of a sample of eleven very powerful classical double radio galaxies were studied. Each source was rotated so that the symmetry axis of the source was horizontal, and vertical cross-sectional cuts were taken across the source at intervals of one beam size. These were used to study the cross-sectional surface brightness profiles, the width of each slice, radio emissivity as a function of position across each slice, the first and second moments, and the average surface brightness, minimum energy magnetic field strength, and pressure of each slice. A Gaussian provides a good description of the surface brightness profile of cross-sectional slices. The Gaussian FWHM as a function of distance from the hot spot first increases and then decreases with distance from the hot spot. The width as a function of distance from the hot spot is highly symmetric on each side of the source. The radio emissivity is often close to flat across a slice, indicating a roughly constant emissivity and pressure for that slice. Some slices show variations in radio emissivity that indicate an ``edge-peaked'' pressure profile for that slice; these often occur in slices near the local maxima of the bridge width. The emissivity does not exhibit any signature of emission from a jet. The first moment is generally quite close to zero indicating only small excursions of the ridge line from the symmetry axis of the source. The second moment indicates the same source shape as is found using the Gaussian FWHM. The average magnetic field strength and pressure decrease with increasing distance from the hot spot, reaching a roughly constant value at a location that is typically just before the location of a local maximum of the bridge width. These results are interpreted in terms of a heuristic model for the radio lobes.Comment: 102 pages, 136 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Supplement Serie

Warped discs and the directional stability of jets in Active Galactic Nuclei

Warped accretion discs in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) exert a torque on the black hole that tends to align the rotation axis with the angular momentum of the outer disc. We compute the magnitude of this torque by solving numerically for the steady state shape of the warped disc, and verify that the analytic solution of Scheuer and Feiler (1996) provides an excellent approximation. We generalise these results for discs with strong warps and arbitrary surface density profiles, and calculate the timescale on which the black hole becomes aligned with the angular momentum in the outer disc. For massive holes and accretion rates of the order of the Eddington limit the alignment timescale is always short (less than a Myr), so that jets accelerated from the inner disc region provide a prompt tracer of the angular momentum of gas at large radii in the disc. Longer timescales are predicted for low luminosity systems, depending on the degree of anisotropy in the disc's hydrodynamic response to shear and warp, and for the final decay of modest warps at large radii in the disc that are potentially observable via VLBI. We discuss the implications of this for the inferred accretion history of those Active Galactic Nuclei whose jet directions appear to be stable over long timescales. The large energy deposition rate at modest disc radii during rapid realignment episodes should make such objects transiently bright at optical and infrared wavelengths.Comment: MNRAS, in press. Revised to match accepted version, with one new figure showing alignment timescale as a function of black hole mas