Conceptual Framework for the Project <i>Separation of Powers for 21st Century Europe (SepaRope)</i>

The SepaRope project aims to provide an understanding of how the different branches of government, from different levels of governance, co-determine each other’s powers within the EU. The project takes inspiration from Christoph Möllers’ conceptualisation of separation of powers derived from individual and collective self-determination as the central element of the justification of public authority. We build on this and aim to identify how the interactions between different branches within the EU contribute to or hinder democratic will-formation, and manage or fail to control the exercise of public power

Sleep disturbance, depression and pain in adults with sickle cell disease

Background Sleep disturbance and depression are commonly encountered in primary care. In sickle cell disease, depression is associated with pain, poor treatment compliance, and lower quality of life. The prevalence of sleep disturbance and its effect upon quality of life in adults with sickle cell disease is unknown. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of sleep disturbance and if it is associated with pain and depression in sickle cell disease. Methods Three hundred twenty eight adults with sickle cell disease enrolled on the Bethesda Sickle Cell Cohort Study were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Beck Depression Inventory II screening measures as a cross-sectional survey. Scores greater than 5 (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and 16 (Beck Depression Inventory II) defined sleep disturbance and depression, respectively. Clinical and laboratory parameters were also assessed. Results The mean Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was 8.4 (SD ± 4.2) indicating a 71.2% prevalence of sleep disturbance. The mean Beck Depression Inventory II score was 8.0 (SD ± 8.9). Sixty five (20.6%) participants had a score indicating depression, and half of these (10.0%) had thoughts of suicide. Both Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Beck Depression Inventory II scores were significantly correlated (p \u3c .001). The number of days with mild/moderate pain (p = .001) and a history of headaches (p = .005) were independently associated with depression by multivariate regression analysis. Patients with sleep disturbance were older (p = .002), had higher body mass index (p = .011), had more days of pain (p = .003) and more frequent severe acute painful events (emergency room visits and hospitalizations) during the previous 12 months (p \u3c .001). Conclusions More than 70 percent of adults with sickle cell disease had sleep disturbance, while 21 percent showed evidence of clinical depression. Sleep disturbance and depression were correlated, and were most common among those with more frequent pain. Providers caring for adults with sickle cell disease and frequent pain should consider screening for these common co-morbidities. Additional study is needed to confirm these findings and to determine if treatments for pain, depression or sleep disturbances will improve quality of life measures in this patient population

Beyond Prejudice as Simple Antipathy: Hostile and Benevolent Sexism Across Cultures

The authors argue that complementary hostile and benevolent componen:s of sexism exist ac ro.ss cultures. Male dominance creates hostile sexism (HS). but men's dependence on women fosters benevolent sexism (BS)-subjectively positive attitudes that put women on a pedestal but reinforce their subordination. Research with 15,000 men and women in 19 nations showed that (a) HS and BS are coherenl constructs th at correlate positively across nations, but (b) HS predicts the ascription of negative and BS the ascription of positive traits to women, (c) relative to men, women are more likely to reject HS than BS. especially when overall levels of sexism in a culture are high, and (d) national averages on BS and HS predict gender inequal ity across nations. These results challenge prevailing notions of prejudice as an antipathy in that BS (an affectionate, patronizing ideology) reflects inequality and is a cross-culturally pervasive complement to HS

Externalising tacit overview knowledge: A model-based approach to supporting design teams

Successful realization of large-scale product development programs is challenging because of complex product and process dependencies and complicated team interactions. Proficient teamwork is underpinned by knowledge of the manner in which tasks performed by different design participants fit together to create an effective whole. Based on an extensive industrial case study with a diesel engine company, this paper first argues that the overview and experience of senior designers play an important part in supporting teamwork by coordinating activities and facilitating proactive communication across large project teams. As experts move on and novices or contractors are hired, problems are likely to occur as tacit overview knowledge is lost. If informal, overview-driven processes break down, the risk of costly oversights will increase, and greater management overhead will be required to realize successful product designs. Existing process models provide a means to express the connectivity between tasks and components thus to compensate partially for the loss of tacit overview. This paper proposes the use of design confidence, a metric that reflects the designer's belief in the maturity of a particular design parameter at a given point in the process, to address the limitations of existing models. The applicability of confidence-based design models in providing overview, as well as their shortcomings, will be demonstrated through the example of a diesel engine design process. Confidence can be used to make overview knowledge explicit and convey additional information about the design artifact, thereby informing communication and negotiation between team

Investigating possible ethnicity and sex bias in clinical examiners: an analysis of data from the MRCP(UK) PACES and nPACES examinations

Bias of clinical examiners against some types of candidate, based on characteristics such as sex or ethnicity, would represent a threat to the validity of an examination, since sex or ethnicity are 'construct-irrelevant' characteristics. In this paper we report a novel method for assessing sex and ethnic bias in over 2000 examiners who had taken part in the PACES and nPACES (new PACES) examinations of the MRCP(UK)

Role of cellular senescence and NOX4-mediated oxidative stress in systemic sclerosis pathogenesis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of skin and numerous internal organs and a severe fibroproliferative vasculopathy resulting frequently in severe disability and high mortality. Although the etiology of SSc is unknown and the detailed mechanisms responsible for the fibrotic process have not been fully elucidated, one important observation from a large US population study was the demonstration of a late onset of SSc with a peak incidence between 45 and 54 years of age in African-American females and between 65 and 74 years of age in white females. Although it is not appropriate to consider SSc as a disease of aging, the possibility that senescence changes in the cellular elements involved in its pathogenesis may play a role has not been thoroughly examined. The process of cellular senescence is extremely complex, and the mechanisms, molecular events, and signaling pathways involved have not been fully elucidated; however, there is strong evidence to support the concept that oxidative stress caused by the excessive generation of reactive oxygen species may be one important mechanism involved. On the other hand, numerous studies have implicated oxidative stress in SSc pathogenesis, thus, suggesting a plausible mechanism in which excessive oxidative stress induces cellular senescence and that the molecular events associated with this complex process play an important role in the fibrotic and fibroproliferative vasculopathy characteristic of SSc. Here, recent studies examining the role of cellular senescence and of oxidative stress in SSc pathogenesis will be reviewed

Quality Management Initiatives in Europe: an Empirical Analysis according to Their Structural Elements

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Total Quality Management and Business Excellence on 10 June 2010, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14783363.2010.483064."In recent years, managers have opted for implementing Quality Management in their firms. The market offers different alternatives for QM implementation, such as EFQM model, ISO standards, Malcolm Baldrige or the recent Six Sigma methodology. Implementation difficulty of each initiative varies from case to case. This article designs a criterion for choosing among four alternatives (Quality Control, EFQM, Six Sigma and ISO 9000), according to the degree of development required for the elements that structure the alternatives. To do so, using an ANOVA analysis and mean comparison T-tests, it analyses 234 organizations in Europe that have implemented the four alternatives mentioned and observes the degree of development of nine of the elements that compose them. From the research, one can conclude that Quality Control is the simplest initiative, followed by ISO 9000 and, finally, the EFQM model and Six Sigma methodology