A study of the properties and13C NMR spectra of pinifolic acid and its derivatives
The properties and13C NMR spectra of pinifolic acid (13S-labd-8,17-ene-15,18-dioic acid), its monomethyl ester, its dimethyl ester, its dicyclohexylammonium salt, dihydropinifolic acid, 18-hydroxy-13S-labd-8(17)-en-15-oic acid, the cyclohexylammonium salt of the monomethyl ester, the bis(diethylammonium) salt, pinifodiol (13S-labd-8(17)-ene-15,18-diol), the acetate of 18-hydroxy-13S-labd-8(17)-en-15-oic acid, and the diacetate of pinifodiol have been studied.
Tight insect–host phenological synchrony constrains the life‐history strategy of European pine sawfly
The synchronization of insect and plant phenologies may impose ecological constraints on host specialization and the evolution of life histories. European pine sawfly Neodiprion sertifer (Geoffroy) feeds on mature foliage of Scots pine Pinus sylvestris L. during a limited temporal period in early spring and is univoltine despite the continual presence of this resource throughout the growing season. Reciprocal manipulation of host and insect phenologies demonstrated that larval performance was highest in mid‐April, with the window of host susceptibility closing rapidly thereafter. As the host phenology advanced, the foliar concentration of nitrogen, amino acids and soluble carbohydrates decreased, whereas that of terpenoids increased. As the foliar quality declined, larvae ate more in an attempt to compensate, although they were less efficient at converting consumed foliage to body mass. The phenological window for larval development began to reopen late in the growing season as the quality of mature foliage started to improve until it once again supported larval development during the next spring. Neodiprion sertifer must synchronize its life cycle with an ephemeral phenological window of host suitability that closes too early and reopens too late to permit a second generation.
Law in a law-governed union (Recht in einer Rechtsunion) : the Court of Justice of the European Union and the free law doctrine
The Court of Justice of the European Union characterizes the Union as a Rechtsunion: a law-governed union. The conception of “the law” in Article 19 paragraph 1 of the Treaty on European Union transcends the Treaties, according to the Vice-President of the Court of Justice, Koen Lenaerts. This thesis demonstrates with reference to the work of Georg Jellinek that the Union is a non-sovereign state and, with reference to the work of Eugen Ehrlich in particular, that the state-based perception of law is a misperception. Not all production of law is reserved to the state and not all law is state-recognized law. There is extra-state law. It has been alleged that the Court of Justice of the European Union has had “a free law attitude”. The author discusses the free law doctrine developed at the beginning of the twentieth century and has made literal translations of writings in German, French and Italian by the main representatives of the free law movement. The free law doctrine provides a descriptive framework for the case-law of courts. The author describes the creation by the Court of Justice of four constitutional principles of Union law through its case-law. He concludes that every court is, to quote Hermann Kantorowicz, praeter legem law-creatively active and has, in that sense, a free law attitude. The decisions of judges are often volitional decisions. How the law will be applied should be predictable but volitional decisions, because they are unpredictable, are inconsistent with the principle of legal certainty. In the Union and its member states the judiciary and not the statute or “the law” is pre-eminent. The author suggests how the concept of law should be defined in a material Rechtsunion. He argues that societal legal norms could be provided with an appropriate position consistent with the principle of legal certainty by making the validity of a societal legal norm contingent on its material lawfulness.