Contextualising the Notion of Context in Jurilinguistic Studies

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Context is a notion that is commonly invoked in many linguistic studies, either with very...     

The Crisis of Central-local government relations: The British experience

The Case for Local Government. By G. Jones and J. Stewart eds. The Politics of Local Spending. By A. Midwinter . Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. Abolition or Reform? The GLC and the Metropolitan Counties. By N. Flynn , S. Leach and C. Vielba .     

Metal and metalloid multi-elementary ICP-MS validation in whole blood, plasma, urine and hair. Reference values

Four multi-elementary metal and metalloid quantification methods using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were developed and validated in human whole blood, plasma, urine and hair by means of a single preparation procedure for each sample. The ICP-MS measurements were performed using a Thermo Elemental X7CCT series and PlasmaLab software without a dynamic reaction cell. With this procedure 27-32 elements can be simultaneously quantified in biological matrices: Li, Be, B, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Pd, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Te, Ba, W, Pt, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, U. Whole blood, plasma and urine samples (0.4 ml each) were diluted with purified water, acid, triton X100 and butanol. Rhodium was used as internal standard. The urine sample results were corrected for enzymatic creatinine determination. Twenty-five milligrams hair samples were acid mineralized after a decontamination procedure and diluted as previously described for biological fluids. To be validated, each element had to show linearity with a correlation coefficient higher than 0.99. The intra-assay and inter-assay inaccuracy, measured as the variation coefficient, were below 5 and 10% respectively. Global performance was assessed by a quality control program. Our laboratory is a registered participant of the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (Sainte-Foy, Canada) inter-laboratory comparison program for whole blood, urine, and beard hair of non-occupationally exposed individuals spiked with selected elements. In our study multi-element metal and metalloid analysis was assessed for 27 elements in whole blood, 27 elements in plasma, 30 elements in urine and 32 elements in hair, from 0 to 25, or 250 to 1000 ng/ml, depending on the element. Quantification limits ranged from 0.002 ng/ml (U) to 8.1 ng/ml (Al) for whole blood, from 0.002 ng/ml (U) to 7.7 ng/ml (Al) for plasma, from 0.001 ng/ml (U) to 2.2 ng/ml (Se) for urine, and from 0.2 pg/mg (Tl) to 0.5 ng/mg (B) for hair. Normal values were determined in whole blood (n=100), plasma (n=100), urine (n=100), and hair (n=45) of healthy volunteers, leading to approximately 10,000 analyses. All results are presented and discussed. Clinical toxicology and forensic toxicology applications are also reported. ICP-MS has made significant advances in the field of clinical biology, particularly in toxicological analysis. This is due to the use of extremely effective equipment that permits better clinical and forensic toxicological analysis of metal and metalloid status of each individual patient.     

Bodenschutz außerhalb der Bodenschutzgesetze – der Beitrag des Naturschutzrechts

Den Gründer und langj?hrigen Hauptschriftleiter Claus Carlsen hat seit vielen Jahren das Naturschutzrecht in all seinen Facetten interessiert. Der Gegenstand des Naturschutzrechts, der nach der subjektiven Beobachtung des Verfassers dieser Zeilen als Hauptgegenstand des Naturschutzrechts betrachtet zu werden scheint, ist der Schutz, die Pflege, die Entwicklung und die Wiederherstellung der Tier- und Pflanzenwelt, § 1 Nr. 3 BNatSchG. Dieser Beitrag m?chte den Blick auf ein anderes Ziel des Naturschutzes und der Landschaftspflege lenken: auf den Naturhaushalt nach § 1 Nr. 1 BNatSchG und dessen Bestandteil: den Boden. Genauso, wie es Naturschutz au?erhalb der Naturschutzgesetze1 gibt, existiert Bodenschutz au?erhalb der Bodenschutzgesetze. Den Beitrag des Naturschutzrechts für den Bodenschutz m?chte dieser Aufsatz aufzeigen.     

Oubliez Critique

Critique has been shaped according to legal protocols and techniques. From Kant to Hegel and Marx, critics have tended to adopt one of the roles available in court procedure. This internal connection is most evident in American CLS of a psychoanalytical nature. If critique recognises itself in the juridical, psychoanalysis asks us to believe in the law. British critical legal scholars have followed a more political and aesthetic strategy, which today may ask us to abandon traditional critique for acts of critical resistance.