THE POLITICISATION OF SOCIAL EUROPE. CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN THE POST-CRISIS DEBATE OVER EU SOCIAL AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

The bulk of the literature on \u2018Social Europe\u2019 has described the latest development of the social dimensions of the E(M)U in negative terms by referring to the absorption, the displacement, the decline and the marginalization of the EU social policies. Notably, the ruling of the European Court of Justice and the new post-crisis governance of the Economic and Monetary Union have contributed to increase the centrality of social issues in the European public debate, exacerbate the conflicts between political actors on EU social and employment policy and mount the dissensus towards the European integration process. While academic literature has broadly focused on the mobilization of political parties in defense of national welfare states against the EU \u201cintrusiveness\u201d into domestic decision-making and on the heightened politicization of EU affairs at the domestic level, less attention has been paid to the \u2018politicization of Social Europe\u2019, and especially to the configuration of the political conflicts over social integration at the EU level. Indeed, traditional literature on dimensions of politics in the European Parliament and the Council has ignored the specific conflict dynamics that characterize the political debate in this specific policy area. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to fill this gap, and especially so by focusing on the new conflict constellations that emerged in the aftermath of the EU crisis. Drawing on the \u201cclash syndrome\u201d theory elaborated by Ferrera, I argue that the political debate over EU social integration is characterized by the overlapping of four lines of conflict of a functional, normative and territorial nature. Contrary to traditional literature, which has described the conflict over EU integration as mainly one- or bi-dimensional, the main finding of this thesis is that the political confrontation over EU social and employment policy is characterised by the coexistence of multiple and criss-crossing divides, which differently combine according to the arena where the debate takes place, the actors involved, the rules of the decision-making process and the issue at stake. The way these political divides interact leads to the creation of different conflict constellations, which can hinder the adoption of specific social policy proposal, but that can also open possibility spaces for the emergence of new coalitions that facilitate the adoption of an ambitious Social policy agenda

Anelastic relaxation and 139^{139}La NQR in La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4 around the critical Sr content x=0.02

Anelastic relaxation and $^{139}$La NQR relaxation measurements in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ for Sr content x around 2 and 3 percent, are presented and discussed in terms of spin and lattice excitations and ordering processes. It is discussed how the phase diagram of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ at the boundary between the antiferromagnetic (AF) and the spin-glass phase (x = 0.02) could be more complicate than previous thought, with a transition to a quasi-long range ordered state at T = 150 K, as indicated by recent neutron scattering data. On the other hand, the $^{139}$La NQR spectra are compatible with a transition to a conventional AF phase around T = 50 K, in agreement with the phase diagram commonly accepted in the literature. In this case the relaxation data, with a peak of magnetic origin in the relaxation rate around 150 K at 12 MHz and the anelastic counterparts around 80 K in the kHz range, yield the first evidence in La$_{1.98}$Sr$_{0.02}$CuO$_4$ of freezing involving simultaneously lattice and spin excitations. This excitation could correspond to the motion of charged stripes.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Determinanti e strategie del post-vendita

L'articolo prende spunto dalle evidenze emerse da una ricerca condotta sul tema dei processi post-vendita nel contesto delle imprese operanti in diversi settori di beni durevoli. In particolare, l'articolo, dopo aver messo in luce il ruolo dei servizi post-vendita nel processo di creazione di valore aziendale, presenta ed analizza le diverse possibili configurazioni strategiche che tali attivit\ue0 possono assumere

Near-infrared spectroscopy study of tourniquet-induced forearm ischaemia in patients with coronary artery disease

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) can be employed to monitor local changes in haemodynamics and oxygenation of human tissues. A preliminary study has been performed in order to evaluate the NIRS transmittance response to induced forearm ischaemia in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The population consists in 40 patients with cardiovascular risk factors and angiographically documented CAD, compared to a group of 13 normal subjects. By inflating and subsequently deflating a cuff placed around the patient arm, an ischaemia has been induced and released, and the patients have been observed until recovery of the basal conditions. A custom LAIRS spectrometer (IRIS) has been used to collect the backscattered light intensities from the patient forearm throughout the ischaemic and the recovery phase. The time dependence of the near-infrared transmittance on the control group is consistent with the available literature. On the contrary, the magnitude and dynamics of the NIRS signal on the CAD patients show deviations from the documented normal behavior, which can be tentatively attributed to abnormal vessel stiffness. These preliminary results, while validating the performance of the IRIS spectrometer, are strongly conducive towards the applicability of the NIRS technique to ischaemia analysis and to endothelial dysfunction characterization in CAD patients with cardiovascular risk factors.Publisher PD

Editorial: Proteoglycans in the tumor microenvironment

Proteoglycans (PGs) are a family of heavily glycosylated proteins consisting of a core protein covalently attached to glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and present in diverse environments, such as cell membrane surface, extracellular matrix, and intracellular granules. Extracellular proteoglycans play crucial roles in promoting cell signaling and migration by interaction with growth factor and/or their receptors, intracellular enzymes, extracellular ligands, matrix components, inflammatory cytokines, and structural proteins. Besides regulating the normal behavior and turnover of tissues, proteoglycans can also encourage tumor-microenvironment interactions via the same dysregulated pathways and facilitating metastasis, thus becoming important markers in cancer progression. Proteoglycans play crucial roles in regulating tumor cell growth, proliferation, adhesion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. These functions are widely mediated through interaction between their GAGs chains and several bioactive proteins such as growth factors, morphogens, adhesion molecules, chemokines, and cytokines. The main goal of this Research Topic will be to provide a better understanding of the functional role of proteoglycans in all the aspects of carcinogenesis. In particular, the topics can be focused in, but not restricted to, to some aspects still debated such as the presence of proteoglycans in extracellular vesicle shared between cancer and normal tissue; the correlation between hormones and proteoglycans metabolism; the roles of PGs in cell cycle; changes in GAG composition and their roles in tumor development; epigenetics events that can lead to PGs alterations

The nature and rationale for European social rights

Over the last few years, the European Commission has repeatedly emphasized that, in the face of global uncertainty, the EU has to strengthen its social dimension and foster better working and living conditions for its citizens. To achieve this, the EU wants to strengthen social citizenship by advancing social rights, implementing the principles in the European Pillar of Social Rights at both the European and national level. The overarching objective of the EuSocialCit project, of which this paper is part, is to examine the state of EU social citizenship as well as possible policy scenarios that may strengthen it. This prompts initial foundational questions for the project: what is the nature of EU social citizenship and the social rights associated with it? And, what is the rationale for the EU to be involved in providing social rights? In order to understand the state and nature of EU social citizenship and the role that the EU plays in this now and in the future, we believe that it is necessary to ‘dissect’ the constitutive elements of social rights at the various levels (local, national and EU) at which they are provided. To this end, this paper develops a resource-based and multi-level conception of social rights. With regard to the rationale, we offer an overview of the main approaches that prevail in the long-standing debate on the justification and feasibility of a stronger EU social citizenship and present a synthesis of these approaches that may help further the debate