Manifestations of spatial injustice and institutional practices (re)producing them

To address the manifestations of spatial injustices as illustrations of territorial underdevelopment, I utilize the divergent development framework that emphasizes the centrality of the state to development outcomes. By highlighting institutional practices, I stress the contribution of both the top-down and bottom-up agencies in making andpreserving some spaces in a deprived condition despite the agencies' declarative aim of offering solutions to reduce deprivations. Based on the RELOCAL research material, the ultimate aim of the article is to make a theoretical contribution to the interpretation of territorial underdevelopment as the result of a neoliberal spatial planning regime. After discussing its conceptual frameworks(in section 1), the article presents the brief historical summary of territorial inequalities in Romania (section 2) and the national territorial development policies (section 3). Afterwards, it examines some manifestations of territorial unevenness at the local level (section 4) and the local actions tackling spatial injustice (section 5).

On Laws and Their Spirit

The Orthodox Christianity had in some respects divergent development from that of the West, which also resulted in several conceptions that might have had an impact on the contemporary legal situations in the predominantly Orthodox countries. In this contribution we aim at examining the impact of two major points of divergence. One is the cooperative Church–state separation, that is sometimes dubbed as the symphonia of the two. Another set of concepts that arguably marked Orthodox church’s understanding of the rule of law, at least in its internal procedures, is the principle of leniency (oikonomia). It allows for an interpretation of the laws in the interest of the person to which those are to be applied. We want to investigate which pieces of legislation might have been affected by these considerations and whether contemporary challenges of the legal system in Serbia can be traced to some of the Orthodox doctrines. We conclude that while the contemporary Church–state relationship, as envisioned in the corresponding law of the country, demonstrates many traits that can be traced to the symphonia tradition, there is hardly any evidence that would support the claim that the decision-making processes in Serbian courts were marked by conscious application of the principle of oikonomia.

The ‘Person of Northern Ireland’: A Vestigial Form of EU Citizenship?

Northern Ireland – United Kingdom – Republic of Ireland – Divergent development of Irish and British nationality law – Citizenship of the European Union – Good Friday Agreement – Brexit – Emma DeSouza – Family unity as a source of constitutional conflict – Reverse discrimination – Cross-border equality as a means of representation reinforcement – Richard Plender

The role of epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation, in the evolution of caste in insect societies

Eusocial insects can be defined as those that live in colonies and have distinct queens and workers. For most species, queens and workers arise from a common genome, and so caste-specific developmental trajectories must arise from epigenetic processes. In this review, we examine the epigenetic mechanisms that may be involved in the regulation of caste dimorphism. Early work on honeybees suggested that DNA methylation plays a causal role in the divergent development of queen and worker castes. This view has now been challenged by studies that did not find consistent associations between methylation and caste in honeybees and other species. Evidence for the involvement of methylation in modulating behaviour of adult workers is also inconsistent. Thus, the functional significance of DNA methylation in social insects remains equivocal. This article is part of the theme issue ‘How does epigenetics influence the course of evolution?’

The Private Law of the Principality of Transylvania (1540−1690)

In the period between AD 1540 and 1690, Transylvania enjoyed a high degree of independence in conducting its internal and also, at times, external affairs. This led to the divergence of Transylvanian private law from that of the Kingdom of Hungary, the sovereignty of which ceased in the sense of international law following the defeat at the Battle of Mohács. This divergent development is examined in the present study from the perspective of private law along with the later convergence of legal norms to those of the Habsburg Monarchy during the latter half of the 17th century. The sources of private law as well as private law norms governing the status of persons, immovable and movable property, obligations, and inheritance are examined in detail for this period. The specific laws applicable to the Szekler, Saxon, and Romanian inhabitants of Transylvania are also presented.

Mutational and phylogenetic status of west siberian strains of BLV

The study is devoted of full-genome BLV sequences circulating in cattle populations of the Novosibirsk region, Russia. The phylogenetic tree shows that the West Siberian isolates are quite closely related to such previously isolated strains as AF399704 (Brazil), AP018007, AP018016, AP018019, LC007988, LC007991 (Japan) and EF065638 (Belgium) we calculations show that the number of mutations that could independently occur in parallel evolving BLV strains significantly exceeds the expected number based on the probability of corresponding substitutions. It was also found that the studied isolates have some mutations, the presence of which, at first glance, is possible only with their divergent development in different independently evolving branches. However, calculations show that the probability of an independent origin of an identical mutation is extremely small, which indicates the possibility of exchanging RNA sites between isolates circulating in West Siberian cattle populations.

Polarization and the Emergence of a Written Marker. A Diachronic Corpus Study of the Adnominal Genitive in German

This article investigates the diachrony of the adnominal genitive in written German by analyzing its usage in a diachronic corpus of sermons from the Upper German dialect area spanning the time from the 9th to the 19th century. The wide temporal scope allows for a better assessment of the events relating to the genitive’s disappearance from spoken German in Early New High German and the successive rise of its adnominal form in written German. Sermons make it possible to study the phenomenon over a long time because they provide a relatively consistent data basis in terms of genre and region. At the same time, as a genre that has characteristics of both spoken and written language, sermons show signs of changing stylistic trends, which makes them valuable for gaining insights in the divergent development of genitive use in spoken and written German. In order to characterize this divergence better, I use the concept of polarization, which describes the differentiation of linguistic usage between disparate contexts such as speech and writing. It becomes clear that the changes in genitive use found in the corpus cannot be viewed independently of sociopragmatic factors and their impact on the stylistic shape of the texts.*