The chapter deals with the meaning of Union citizenship in the EU's external relations and, more specifically, the relations with Turkey and with Switzerland.
An ad hoc Panel of Experts has determined for the first time that a free trade partner of the European Union violated sustainable development obligations under the new generation of free trade... Show moreAn ad hoc Panel of Experts has determined for the first time that a free trade partner of the European Union violated sustainable development obligations under the new generation of free trade agreements. The Republic of Korea was the EU’s first trading partner to ratify such an agreement.2 After a European Commission non-paper in 2018 promised “more assertive” use of the soft dispute mechanism for “trade and sustainable development” issues in free trade agreements, the EU filed formal proceedings against Korea.3The Panel’s report is a milestone decision that will likely serve as a precedent for future ad hoc panels. Show less
Osteoarthritis (OA) mainly affects the articular cartilage covering the bones. In this thesis we investigated the relation between levels of inflammatory mediators, genes involved in their... Show moreOsteoarthritis (OA) mainly affects the articular cartilage covering the bones. In this thesis we investigated the relation between levels of inflammatory mediators, genes involved in their regulation and the disease status of OA. We investigated the role of genetic variation at the interleukin(IL)-1 gene cluster in the innate bio-availability of IL-1beta. A haplotype that associated to low innate bio-availability also associated to higher hand OA scores. Although this is counterintuitive with respect to the generally accepted hypothesis that a pro-inflammatory status is detrimental to the cartilage it underlines a complex relationship between inflammation and OA. For the C-reactive protein we identified a haplotype associated to high CRP levels as well as to severe hand OA, which is more in line with expected directions of associations. Analysis of baseline cytokine and chemokine levels indicated that chemokine levels associated to hand OA scores, again with low levels associated to high OA scores. In a follow up functional genomic analysis of a previously identified OA susceptibility gene (DIO2) in our studies we show that the risk allele of this gene is transcribed at higher levels as compared to the non-risk allele. Furthermore, we showed increased DIO2 protein presence in OA affected cartilage. Show less
In the first part of this thesis, polyelectrolyte copolymer micelles are studied to elucidate the role of the micelle concentration on the intermicelle correlation and the extension of the... Show moreIn the first part of this thesis, polyelectrolyte copolymer micelles are studied to elucidate the role of the micelle concentration on the intermicelle correlation and the extension of the polyelectrolyte chains in the coronal layer. With increasing packing fraction the corona shrinks and/or interpenetrates in order to accommodate the micelles in the increasingly crowded volume. It is shown that interpenetration of the polyelectrolyte brushes controls the fluid rheology: the viscosity increases dramatically and the dynamic moduli show the formation of a physical gel. In the second part, we study giant vesicles as a superstructure self-assembled by dsDNA fragments, pUC18 or pEGFP-N1 and oppositely charged cationic diblock copolymer poly(butadiene-b-N-methyl 4-vinyl pyridinium. Under a preparation, the PBd brush collapses and a capsule is formed. The compaction of DNA is shown by the appearance of liquid crystalline textures under crossed polarizers and the increase in fluorescence intensity of labelled DNA. To form vesicles, the capsules are dispersed in aqueous medium supported by an osmotic agent. The integrity of the DNA after encapsulation and subsequent release was confirmed. We demonstrate ``reverse'' transfection of in vitro cultured HeLa cancer cells growing on plasmid-copolymer vesicles by the expressed green fluorescent protein in cultured cells. Show less
