1,721,198 research outputs found
Angry, Hungry T-Cells: How Are T-Cell Responses Induced in Low Nutrient Conditions?
No full textUpon activation, T-cells increase the uptake of glucose and glutamine to build the constituents of proliferating effectors. However, tumor and infected cells compete for the same nutrients. Several observations are consistently indicating that activated T-cells overcome this situation by engaging catabolic pathways. Here I discuss how these observations are reconciled with T-cells’ need of anabolic processes during activation
Neofunctionalism revisited : integration theory and varieties of outcomes in the Eurocrisis
Full text linkThe Euro crisis has produced a plethora of new institutions, policies, and projects to reform the Euro Area. This paper offers a theoretical and empirical contribution in the study of the New Economic Governance. By building on insights from classical Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism, the paper revisits the static component of Philippe Schmitter's 'Neo-Neofunctionalist' framework. Static Neo-Neofunctionalism is then applied as a means to provide a systemic interpretation of crisis-led integration in the Euro crisis. The large majority of episodes of crisis-led integration in the 2011-2016 years is included in the analysis. In assessing Neo-Neofunctionalist expectations on the New Economic Governance, the paper matches analysis of legal documents with the results of a dedicated Expert Survey on the EMU governance fielded in October 2018
On the Design of a European Health Union: Public Preferences, Trust, and Experience With the Covid‐19 Crisis
Full text linkDuring and following the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union (EU) is taking first steps toward a European Health Union (EHU). There is no set definition of what an EHU is, but in this paper, we explore the popular support for different designs of an EHU, including a pillar in which healthcare policy competences are shared between the EU and national governments, a risk-sharing, and a redistributive pillar among countries. The analysis draws on two conjoint experiments in which respondents are presented with policy packages, as well as on a follow-up survey on political attitudes. One of the experiments focuses on a central fiscal capacity that provides financial help to countries hit by adverse shocks, including financing of national healthcare spending, while the second focuses on joint procurement of medical countermeasures. The surveys were fielded in five EU countries at the end of March/beginning of April 2020, in July 2020, and in November 2022. Our findings are the following: there is support for all three pillars of an EHU, which moreover rises with trust in the EU; respondents tend to prefer a health-related fiscal capacity to other forms of EU fiscal capacity; direct experience with serious Covid-19 infection raises both trust in the EU and support for the EU sharing in social policy competences; and more trust has a larger positive effect on support for an EHU for those without serious Covid-19 experience than for those with. These findings suggest that to promote further EU integration, the European Commission may want to develop strategies to bolster trust in the EU
Collective Identities and the Integration of Core State Powers: Introduction to the Special Issue
Full text linkThis special issue explores the relationship between collective identities and the integration of core state powers, that is, the delegation of powers to a centralized institution in policy areas that are essential for the functioning of the modern state. In this introductory article we present the main conceptualizations of the contributions to the special issue that define our understanding of collective identities and core state powers. We discuss the multi-level nature of collective identities and we discuss theoretical expectations over the link between collective identities and core state powers. Finally, we briefly present each of the contributions to the issue and discuss how they relate to the broad research goals, the special issue and to each other
Hard-line Euroscepticism and the Eurocrisis: Evidence from a Panel Study of 108 Elections Across Europe
Full text linkThe 2014 European elections led to a sharp rise in the electoral consensus of parties and independent parliament members perceived as eurosceptic. This paper analyzes the interconnections between distressed economies and the electoral success of hard-line eurosceptic parties. On a panel of 108 elections between 2008 and 2015, the random-effects model shows the relative effect of long- and short-term political trust, economic performance indicators, and institutional variables in determining the rise of hard-line eurosceptic parties. In contrast with previous studies, which have tended to de-emphasize the effect of economic performance in determining the success of eurosceptic forces, the results of this paper detect both a direct and a mediated effect of the economic crisis on the electoral success of hard-line eurosceptic parties
A tale of two crises? A regional-level investigation of the joint effect of economic performance and migration on the voting for European disintegration
No full textHard-line Euroscepticism appears to be, nowadays, a persistent phenomenon of the later stages of European integration. However, it is unclear to what extent the joint effects of economic insecurities and growing numbers of immigrants play a role in determining the people’s choice to actually support hard-line Eurosceptic parties with their vote. Building upon the existing body of literature on the economic determinants of voting for anti-European parties, this study brings the analysis further by breaking down the electoral performance of strictly Eurosceptic parties for different types of elections at the regional level, accounting for within-country variations otherwise lost in national-level analysis. We build a dataset including the regionally distributed results of all electoral episodes (regional, national, European) between 2007 and 2016 in Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Italy for a total of 522 elections. Methodologically, the paper adopts panel-level econometrics
Democratic legitimacy in the era of fiscal integration
Full text linkWhile several countries still struggle to return to sustainable growth and Euroscepticism has shown growing strength ever since the 2014 European Elections, Europe is slowly advancing on the path of fiscal integration. This paper reassesses how legitimacy is provided and why the advancing economic and fiscal integration constitutes a ‘genetic change’ of the Union. The second section discusses the functional deadlock emerging from the interaction between demos democracy and redistribution, which invites the EMU to make a fundamental choice between ‘convergence of the identities’ and ‘convergence of the economies’
Clinical Ethics in the Context of Medical Humanities
No full textMedical humanities are vital for increasing clinical effectiveness. There is a crisis in medicine and bioethics as the epistemological status of medicine has been challenged and the goals of healthcare are often in tension. The medical humanities find their core in ethics reflections and have partially resolved the crisis which occurred in medicine by highlighting that the main focus of medicine is the care of the sick person through the doctor-patient relationship and in bioethics by highlighting that the individual patient and their history can strongly influence therapeutic decisions. There is an important relationship between medical humanities and the concept of acknowledgment. Clinical ethics consultations should be recognized as the main place where to redirect medical humanities into daily clinical practice empirically. Medical humanities training is taking place in Italy, and it discusses different dimensions of the contribution of medical humanities to biomedicine
Relationship between vaccination and nutritional status in children: Analysis of recent demographic and health surveys
No full textBACKGROUND A body of evidence suggests that vaccines support the development of the immune system and also improve overall health. OBJECTIVE To study the effect of the complete basic vaccination schedule (Bacille Calmette-Guerin, i.e., BCG; measles; polio 3; and Diphtheria, Tetanus toxoids, and Pertussis, i.e., DTP3) on nutritional status of children under 2 years of age. METHODS Recent DHS data from 16 countries conducted after 2013 were used. After a bivariate descriptive analysis, a logistic regression analysis was conducted to predict the likelihood of underweight, stunting, and wasting by immunization status. A combined odds ratio was computed and adjusted for background variables. RESULTS A significantly higher prevalence of underweight was found among children with incomplete vaccination schedules in seven countries. Similarly, wasting and stunting were frequently observed in under-vaccinated children in four countries. Moreover, logistic regression adjusted for background variables revealed a relation between incomplete vaccination and underweight in Angola, Chad, and Guatemala (95% CI lower bound > 1). Combining data of all countries, underweight (adjusted Odds Ratio, aOR 1.21, 95% CI 1.11-1.31), wasting (aOR 1.18, 95% CI 1.05-1.33), and stunting (aOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.00-1.14) were associated with poor vaccination status. The overall effect was consistent with both sexes except the results for wasting for females and stunting for males, though insignificant. CONTRIBUTION To our knowledge, this is the first paper assessing the relation between vaccination and nutritional status at a multi-country level with a huge dataset. Our analysis suggests a poor nutritional status in children with an incomplete vaccination schedule
Is european attachment sufficiently strong to support an EU fiscal capacity: Evidence from a conjoint experiment
Full text linkBased on a conjoint survey experiment with 10,000 respondents from France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain at the end of March/beginning of April 2020, we explore how individual characteristics shape support among Eurozone citizens for a European Union (EU) budgetary assistance instrument to combat adverse temporary or permanent economic shocks hitting EU Member States. We consider particularly the role of socioeconomic factors, such as income and education, covid fears and European attachment. Remarkably, how covid worries and European attachment affect the support for specific designs of the assistance instrument is not affected by other factors, in particular not by socioeconomic factors. These latter factors play an important role affecting support, independent of European attachment. Programs with European Commission monitoring (and recommendations) and cross-country redistribution, possibly even mandatory towards poor countries, can count on stronger support from those with higher European attachment. Those with strong covid fears are generally more in favour of EU budgetary assistance, mandatory spending of assistance on healthcare and redistribution to poor countries. Programs with Commission monitoring (and recommendations) receive extra support from high-income and highly-educated individuals. Also, the latter group specifically favors potential or mandatory cross-border redistribution. The independent role of individual European attachment suggests that instruments other than socioeconomic policies, e.g. better information provision about its use, may help raise support for an EU assistance instrument
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