Account-Holding Intensity in the EU Accountability Landscape: A Comprehensive Review of EU agencies' Institutional Accountability Relationships.

In this article, we propose a novel conceptualization of account-holding intensity - defined as both the frequency and diligence of account-holding - as an instrument for analysing the behaviour of account-holders in the accountability landscape of EU agencies. We examine the account-holding intensity of six major institutional EU account-holders through a complementary mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data collected from directors and senior managers of EU agencies. Account-holding intensity is measured through the survey data, with the interview data providing detailed insight into why some account-holders are more/less active and/or diligent than others. The survey and interview data are furthermore triangulated with in-depth interviews with account-holders and unobtrusive indicators of account-holding intensity. This amounts to a comprehensive empirical review of the EU agencies' institutional accountability relationships, which reveals how different account-holders are driven by different institutional logics that are associated with different account-holding intensities.

Above- and below-ground vertebrate herbivory may each favour a different subordinate species in an aquatic plant community.

At least two distinct trade-offs are thought to facilitate higher diversity in productive plant communities under herbivory. Higher investment in defence and enhanced colonization potential may both correlate with decreased competitive ability in plants. Herbivory may thus promote coexistence of plant species exhibiting divergent life history strategies. How different seasonally tied herbivore assemblages simultaneously affect plant community composition and diversity is, however, largely unknown. Two contrasting types of herbivory can be distinguished in the aquatic vegetation of the shallow lake Lauwersmeer. In summer, predominantly above-ground tissues are eaten, whereas in winter, waterfowl forage on below-ground plant propagules. In a 4-year exclosure study we experimentally separated above-ground herbivory by waterfowl and large fish in summer from below-ground herbivory by Bewick's swans in winter. We measured the individual and combined effects of both herbivory periods on the composition of the three-species aquatic plant community. Herbivory effect sizes varied considerably from year to year. In 2 years herbivore exclusion in summer reinforced dominance of Potamogeton pectinatus with a concomitant decrease in Potamogeton pusillus, whereas no strong, unequivocal effect was observed in the other 2 years. Winter exclusion, on the other hand, had a negative effect on Zannichellia palustris, but the effect size differed considerably between years. We suggest that the colonization ability of Z. palustris may have enabled this species to be more abundant after reduction of P. pectinatus tuber densities by swans. Evenness decreased due to herbivore exclusion in summer. We conclude that seasonally tied above- and below-ground herbivory may each stimulate different components of a macrophyte community as they each favoured a different subordinate plant species.

Synthesis and in vitro muscarinic activities of a series of 1,3-diazacycloalkyl carboxaldehyde oxime derivatives.

A series of 1,3-diazacycloalkyl carboxaldehyde oxime derivatives was synthesized and tested for muscarinic activity in receptor binding assays using [3H]-oxotremorine-M (OXO-M) and [3H]-pirenzepine (PZ) as ligands. Potential muscarinic agonistic or antagonistic properties of the compounds were determined using binding studies measuring their potencies to inhibit the binding of OXO-M and PZ. Preferential inhibition of OXO-M binding was used as an indicator for potential muscarinic agonistic properties; this potential was confirmed in functional studies on isolated organs.