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Legal practical limits of the UEFA financial sustainibility regulations. Evaluation of the UEFA FSR under EU law ans its capacity to protect competitiveness
No full textFootball is special, inherently different from other industries. That is what
UEFA, a private organisation with the regulatory monopoly over European
continental football, argues whenever it implements its regulations. One of
these regulations are the new UEFA Financial Sustainability Regulations
(FSR), the successor of Financial Fair Play, aimed to protect the financial
stability and competitive balance within European football. But they also
carry various restrictive effects for both clubs and players and might infringe
EU competition law as well as certain EU freedoms. Nonetheless, any
infringement might be exempted or justified under one of the doctrines
developed and/or applied by the ECJ. After establishing the applicability of
EU law to sports, this thesis will therefore - as its primary objective -
evaluate the compatibility of the UEFA FSR with EU law. During the course
of finding this answer, this thesis will also explore the general nature of lex
sportiva, the tension between private and public regulation of European
football, the special characteristics of sport and the evolution of the ECJ
sports case law. Besides the legal evaluation, this thesis will also offer a
practical assessment of the effectiveness of the current regulatory
approaches with regard to the competitiveness problems that are present in
European football - and aims to develop proposals for additional approaches
by UEFA and by the EU itself.El fútbol es especial, intrínsecamente diferente de otras industrias. Eso es lo
que argumenta la UEFA, una organización privada con el monopolio
regulador del fútbol continental europeo, cada vez que aplica sus
reglamentos. Uno de estos reglamentos es el nuevo UEFA Financial
Sustainability Regulations (FSR), sucesor del Financial Fair Play, cuyo
objetivo es proteger la estabilidad financiera y el equilibrio competitivo en el
fútbol europeo. Pero también conllevan diversos efectos restrictivos tanto
para los clubes como para los jugadores y podrían infringir la legislación de
la UE en materia de competencia, así como determinadas libertades de la
UE. No obstante, cualquier infracción podría quedar exenta o justificada en
virtud de una de las doctrinas desarrolladas y/o aplicadas por el TJCE. Tras
establecer la aplicabilidad del Derecho de la UE al deporte, esta tesis
evaluará -como objetivo principal- la compatibilidad del FSR de la UEFA con
el Derecho de la UE. En el curso de la búsqueda de esta respuesta, esta
tesis también explorará la naturaleza general de la lex sportiva, la tensión
entre la regulación privada y pública del fútbol europeo, las características
especiales del deporte y la evolución de la jurisprudencia deportiva del
TJCE. Además de la evaluación jurídica, esta tesis también ofrecerá una
evaluación práctica de la eficacia de los enfoques reguladores actuales con
respecto a los problemas de competitividad presentes en el fútbol europeo,
y aspira a desarrollar propuestas de medidas adicionales por parte de la
UEFA y de la propia UE.Programa de Doctorat en Dre
Air pollution and fetal brain morphological development: a prospective cohort study
No full textBackground: There is a scarcity of evidence of the influence of exposure to air pollution during pregnancy on the human fetal brain characterised prenatally. We aimed to evaluate the association of exposure to air pollution with fetal brain morphology. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we used data from the Barcelona Life Study Cohort, Spain, which recruited 1080 pregnant women at 8-14 weeks of gestation between Oct 16, 2018, and April 14, 2021, from three major university hospitals in Barcelona. Eligible participants were aged 18-45 years, had a singleton pregnancy, and had a fetus without major congenital anomalies. Third-trimester transvaginal neurosonography was applied to evaluate fetal brain morphological development. We integrated comprehensive data on time-activity patterns with land use regression, dispersion, and hybrid models to estimate exposure to NO2, PM2·5, and black carbon at home, workplace, and commuting routes during pregnancy until the neurosonography date. Single-pollutant linear mixed regression models and multipollutant ridge regression models were applied to estimate the associations between air pollutants and fetal brain outcomes, controlled for confounders. Distributed lag linear models were used to identify the vulnerable windows. Findings: Among 1080 participants recruited at baseline, 954 attended the follow-up for the neurosonographic examination, 754 of whom were included in this study. In single-pollutant models, we found that prenatal exposure to NO2, PM2·5, and black carbon was associated with a wider anterior horn of lateral ventricles, wider cisterna magna, and larger cerebellar vermis. We also observed that higher exposure to black carbon was related to a shallower Sylvian fissure. No clear pattern or associations were observed between air pollution and other structures of brain morphology. Multipollutant models showed that these associations with black carbon remained significant, whereas associations with PM2·5 and NO2 lost significance for some indicators. A potential vulnerability window in mid-to-late pregnancy was identified for these associations. Interpretation: Exposure to air pollution might affect brain morphological development as early as the fetal stage. Our findings could have important policy implications as they highlight the need to mitigate exposure of pregnant individuals to air pollution in urban areas to protect fetal brain development. Funding: European Research Council.We acknowledge support from the grant CEX2023-0001290-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Programme. We thank all the participants and their families for their generous collaboration. Thanks to all the researchers who work with the BiSC cohort. A full list of BiSC researchers can be found at https://projectebisc.org/en/team/. We extend our acknowledgment to the European Research Council under the EU's Horizon 2020 (H2020) research and innovation programme (785994: AirNB project); the Health Effects Institute (4959-RFA17-1/18-1; FRONTIER project); H2020-EU.3.1.2. (874583; ATHLETE project), H2020-EU.3.1.1. (GA964827; AURORA project), the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement (886121); Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de L'alimentation, de L'environnement et du Travail (2019/01/039; HyPAXE project); AXA Research Fund (MOOD-COVID project); the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Regional Development Fund—Maternal and Child Health and Development Network (RD16/0022/0014 and RD16/0022/0015); the AGAUR-Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris de Recerca (2017 SGR 826; Population Neuroscience group); the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CB06/02/0041); and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Union Next Generation EU—Primary Care Interventions to Prevent Maternal and Child Chronic Diseases of Perinatal and Developmental Origin Network (RD21/0012/0001 and RD21/0012/0003) for funding the BiSC cohort. This publication is part of the fellowship RYC2021-032781-I awarded to IR
La multipropietat de clubs al futbol professional: anàlisi de la seva regulació i incidència sobre la integritat i el balanç competitiu
No full textTreball de Fi de Grau en Dret. Curs 2024-2025Tutor: José Luis Pérez TriviñoEl present treball analitza el fenomen creixent de la multipropietat de clubs al futbol professional, centrant-se en les seves implicacions sobre dos dels principis fonamentals del sistema esportiu: la integritat i el balanç competitiu. L’estudi parteix de la constatació que el futbol contemporani ha esdevingut un entorn altament mercantilitzat, on els models de control de clubs s’han privatitzat i internacionalitzat, afavorint l’aparició d’estructures de propietat de grups empresarials amb participació simultània en diversos clubs. A partir d’una aproximació doctrinal, normativa i pràctica, s’examinen tant els avantatges estratègics d’aquest model, com els riscos estructurals que comporta. Així mateix, de l’anàlisi crítica del marc regulador establert per la UEFA i la FIFA, es constata que la normativa actual resulta ambigua i insuficient per fer front de manera efectiva a les disfuncions associades a la multipropietat. En aquest context, el treball planteja la necessitat d’impulsar una reforma reguladora més clara, contundent i efectiva, capaç de garantir un equilibri entre l’atractiu per a la inversió i la protecció dels valors essencials de l’esport, evitant que la flexibilitat normativa vigent derivi en problemàtiques estructurals difícils de revertir
QuantumBind-RBFE: Accurate relative binding free energy calculations using neural network potentials
No full textAccurate prediction of protein-ligand binding affinities is crucial in drug discovery, particularly during hit-to-lead and lead optimization phases, however, limitations in ligand force fields continue to impact prediction accuracy. In this work, we validate relative binding free energy (RBFE) accuracy using neural network potentials (NNPs) for the ligands. We utilize a novel NNP model, AceFF 1.0, based on the TensorNet architecture for small molecules that broadens the applicability to diverse drug-like compounds, including all important chemical elements and supporting charged molecules. Using established benchmarks, we show overall improved accuracy and correlation in binding affinity predictions compared with GAFF2 for molecular mechanics and ANI2-x for NNPs. Slightly less accuracy but comparable correlations with OPLS4. We also show that we can run the NNP simulations at 2 fs time step, at least two times larger than previous NNP models, providing significant speed gains. The results show promise for further evolutions of free energy calculations using NNPs while demonstrating its practical use already with the current generation. The code and NNP model are publicly available for research use
Ex vivo and in vitro proteomic approach to elucidate the relevance of IL-4 and IL-10 in intervertebral disc pathophysiology
No full textBackground. This study investigates the native presence and potential anabolic effects of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-10 in the human intervertebral disc (IVD). Methods. Human nucleus pulposus (NP) cells cultured in 3D from trauma and degenerate IVDs and NP explants were stimulated with 10 ng/mL IL-4, IL-10, or each in combination with 1 ng/mL IL-1β stimulation. The role of IL-4 and IL-10 in the IVD was evaluated using immunohistochemistry, gene expression, and Luminex multiplex immunoassay proteomics (73 secreted) and phosphoproteomics (21 phosphorylated proteins). Results. IL-4, IL-4R, and IL-10R expression and localization in human cartilage endplate tissue were demonstrated for the first time. No significant gene expression changes were noted under IL-4 or IL-10 stimulation. However, IL-1β stimulation significantly increased MMP3, COX2, TIMP1, and TRPV4 expression in NP cells from trauma IVDs. Combined IL-4 and IL-1β treatment induced a significant increase in protein secretion of IL-1α, IL-7, IL-16, IL-17F, IL-18, IFNγ, TNF, ST2, PROK1, bFGF2, and stem cell factor exclusively in NP cells from degenerated IVDs. Conversely, the secretome profile of explants revealed an IL-4–mediated decrease in CXCL13 following treatment with IL-1β. Combined IL-10 and IL-1β treatment increased neurotrophic growth factor secretion compared with IL-10 baseline. Conclusions. The NP cell phenotype affects the pleiotropic role of IL-4, which can induce a pro-inflammatory response in the presence of catabolic stimuli and enhance the effects of IL-1β in degenerated IVDs. Environmental factors, including 3D culture and hypoxia, may alter IL-4's role. Finally, IL-10's potential neurotrophic effects under catabolic stimuli warrant further investigation to clarify its role in IVD degeneration.Financial support was received from the Marie Skłodowska Curie International Training Network (ITN) “disc4all” (https://disc4all.upf.edu, accessed on 10 May 2022) grant agreement #955735 (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/955735, accessed on 26 Sept 2024)
Evaluating the accuracy and reliability of real-world digital mobility outcomes in older adults after hip fracture: Cross-sectional observational study
No full textBackground: Algorithms estimating real-world digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) are increasingly validated in healthy adults and various disease cohorts. However, their accuracy and reliability in older adults after hip fracture, who often walk slowly for short durations, is underexplored. Objective: This study examined DMO accuracy and reliability in a hip fracture cohort considering walking bout (WB) duration, physical function, days since surgery, and walking aid use. Methods: In total, 19 community-dwelling participants were real-world monitored for 2.5 hours using a lower back wearable device and a reference system combining inertial modules, distance sensors, and pressure insoles. A total of 6 DMO estimates from 164 WBs from 58% (11/19) of the participants (aged 71-90 years; assessed 32-390 days after surgery; Short Physical Performance Battery [SPPB] scores of 3-12; gait speed range 0.39-1.34 m/s) were assessed against the reference system at the WB and participant level. We stratified by WB duration (all WBs, WBs of >10 seconds, WBs of 10-30 seconds, and WBs of >30 seconds) and lower versus higher SPPB scores and observed whether days since surgery and walking aid use affected DMO accuracy and reliability. Results: Across WBs, walking speed and distance ranged from 0.25 to 1.29 m/s and from 1.7 to 436.5 m, respectively. Estimation of walking speed, cadence, stride duration, number of steps, and distance stratified by WB duration showed intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranging from 0.50 to 0.99 and mean relative errors (MREs) from -6.9% to 12.8%. Stride length estimation showed poor reliability, with ICCs ranging from 0.30 to 0.49 and MREs from 6.1% to 13.2%. Walking speed and distance ICCs in the higher-SPPB score group ranged from 0.85 to 0.99, and MREs ranged from -10.1% to -1.7%. In the lower-SPPB score group, walking speed and distance ICCs ranged from 0.17 to 0.99, and MREs ranged from 13.5% to 32.6%. There was no discernible effect of time since surgery or walking aid use. Conclusions: In total, 5 accurate and reliable real-world DMOs were identified in older adults after hip fracture: walking speed, cadence, stride duration, number of steps, and distance. Accuracy and reliability of most DMOs improved when excluding WBs of <10 seconds and were higher for WBs of >30 seconds than for WBs of 10 to 30 seconds and for participants with higher physical function. DMOs capture daily gait as early as 1 month after surgery also in people using walking aids. However, as most WBs in this cohort were short, there was a trade-off between improving accuracy and reliability by excluding short WBs and losing a substantial amount of data. These results have important implications for establishing the clinical validity of DMOs and evaluating the effects of interventions on daily-life gait, thereby facilitating the design of optimal care pathways.This work was supported by the Mobilise-D project that has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) 2 Joint Undertaking under grant 820820. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. The authors thank the Mobilise-D technical validation study team of work package 2, all participants who devoted their time and energy to this taxing protocol in times of COVID-19, and Miriam Dinger at the Robert Bosch Foundation for Medical Research and Dr Tim Klüter at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein for their indispensable help in recruiting patients. MAB acknowledges ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence model by OpenAI, for suggestions that helped improve the clarity of some sentences in this paper. SDD and LR were also supported by the Identifying Digital Endpoints to Assess Fatigue, Sleep, and Activities in Daily Living in Neurodegenerative Disorders and Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases project that has received funding from the IMI 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement 853981. LR is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) senior investigator. Both SDD and LR were supported by the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre based at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust; Newcastle University; and the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne, and Wear NHS Foundation Trust. SDD and LR were also supported by the NIHR and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility infrastructure at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. SDD was supported by the UK Research and Innovation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant reference EP/X031012/1 and EP/X036146/1). The Barcelona Institute for Global Health acknowledges support from grant CEX2018-000806-S funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and the State Research Agency (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and support from the Government of Catalonia through the Research Centers of Catalonia program. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the IMI, the European Union, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, any associated partners, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care, who are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein
Associations of family affluence with cortisol production and telomere length in European children
No full textBackground: Shorter telomere length is associated with environmental stressors and has been proposed to underlie health inequalities in ageing trajectories. However, the relationship between socioeconomic position, psychosocial stress and telomere length is understudied in childhood, when ageing trajectories may be first defined. We aimed to examine the associations between family affluence, cortisol production and telomere length in a large cross-sectional study of European children. Methods: 1160 children, aged 5-12 years, participating in the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project, were recruited from cohorts in the UK, France, Spain, Norway, Lithuania, and Greece. Family material wealth was assessed using the international family affluence scale (FAS), psychosocial stress was defined by total urinary cortisol production, and leucocyte telomere length was measured through qPCR. Associations of FAS with cortisol production and telomere length were analysed using sequentially adjusted multivariable linear regression. The mediating role of cortisol production in the association between FAS and telomere length was examined using natural effects models. Findings: Compared to children of low FAS, children with high FAS had 4.94% (95% CI: 1.2%, 8.8%) longer telomeres after adjustment for sex, age, ethnicity and cohort. Estimates were similar upon further adjustment for perinatal, child health, and other socioeconomic factors. Additionally, children of medium and high FAS had significantly lower levels of cortisol production than children of low FAS (medium FAS: -20.8%, 95% CI: -31%, -8.5%; high FAS: -16.6% SD, 95% CI: -28%, -3.4%). However, cortisol production was not associated with telomere length, and no significant mediation of cortisol production and other tested mediators was found for the relationship between FAS and telomere length. Interpretation: The impacts of economic disadvantage are biologically observable in children and have implications for understanding health inequalities, both in child development and the onset of later age-related disease. Given the lack of mediation by cortisol production levels, as assessed via spot urine samples, further research should investigate alternative mechanisms underlying the association between affluence and telomere length. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Grants: MR/S03532X/1, MR/Y02012X/1), European Community (Grants: 874583, 308333)
Violencia obstétrica: identificando mecanismos jurídicos de protección y la incidencia de la garantía de acceso a la justicia en su efectividad
No full textTreball de Fi de Màster: Màster Avançat en Ciències Jurídiques. Curs 2024-2025Tutor: Josep Joan MoresoLa violencia obstétrica (VO) es un fenómeno social complejo, reconocido como una manifestación de la violencia contra la mujer. Con origen principalmente en América Latina y una incipiente pero creciente atención en Europa, la VO proviene de problemas estructurales profundamente arraigados en los sistemas biomédicos, afectando los derechos fundamentales de las mujeres durante el período perinatal, a través de la medicalización y patologización de procesos naturales basado en la autoridad médica, que finalmente aumenta la vulnerabilidad de las personas gestantes. Este enfoque paternalista afecta la autonomía y la capacidad de decisión de las mujeres, revelando la VO como una fuente patológica de vulnerabilidad y una forma de injusticia epistémica.
Esta investigación analiza los mecanismos jurídicos de protección: sanción, prevención y reparación. Aunque la penalización de la VO, implementada en Venezuela y algunos estados de México, ofrece un recurso judicial y condena social, su alcance es limitado para abordar las raíces estructurales del problema. La prevención, mediante políticas integrales, formación con perspectiva de género y derechos, y un monitoreo robusto, tiene un mayor potencial de cambio sistémico, requiriendo una voluntad gubernamental y asignación de recursos significativas.
Respecto a la reparación, la búsqueda de un resarcimiento integral más allá de la compensación económica es crucial para la protección a las víctimas. Finalmente, concluye que la efectividad de dichos mecanismos de protección dependen, en gran parte, de la suficiencia de la garantía de acceso a la justicia
Geopolitical EU? The EU's wartime assistance to Ukraine
No full textThis article explores the European Union's (EU's) assistance to Ukraine through the lens of critical geopolitics with a view to ascertaining whether the EU has become more geopolitical in its thinking and actions towards Eastern Europe. Our findings point to a mixed picture. Whilst the EU ‘mindscape’ appears to have shifted in relation to Eastern Europe, Ukraine and itself as an actor in the region, it is less apparent that the EU's foreign and security policy action has become geopoliticised. The 2022 Russian invasion has certainly seen a step change from the hesitant and self-conscious approach that characterised the EU's engagement with Eastern Europe prior to 2022. However, declarations such as that by the High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission (HRVP) around the ‘birth of geopolitical Europe’ appear to be somewhat premature, as there is limited evidence at this stage that the EU is willing to provide leadership on the geospatial (re)ordering of the region.The authors wish to acknowledge financial support for this work from the National Grant research project Institutional responses to the changing European security order (inRESPONSE), PID2022-140133NB-I00, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain
From Noise to Aura: Haptic Audio-vision and Cinematic Perception in Un Lac (2008) and Leviathan (2012)
No full textTreball de fi de màster en Estudis de Cinema i Audiovisual ContemporanisTutor: Santiago FillolThis thesis explores how digital sound technologies—particularly the aesthetic use of noise and Dolby multichannel systems—have reconfigured cinema’s sensory capacities. Through a comparative analysis of Un Lac (2008) and Leviathan (2012), I investigate how sound becomes not mere accompaniment but the primary structuring force of perceptual experience, crafting haptic, affective time-images that foster tactile intimacy between spectator and film. In this zone of tension—this close-farness—the f ilms' sensory outreach meets the spectator's longing (Marks, 1999), dissolving the boundaries between seeing and being seen (Merleau-Ponty, 1968). Grounded in Marks' haptic visuality, Deleuze's affect theory, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, this thesis traces how cinematic sound—especially noise—produces an immersive, vibratory field that disorients representational logic and opens up new forms of sensorial cinema