Introduction:strategy in EU foreign policy

The point of departure for the special collection is provided by the observation that the growing complexity of the crises in the neighbourhood and the internal ones faced by the Union provides a sense of urgency to any type of strategic thinking that the EU might embrace. Against this backdrop, the recent shift towards geopolitics and strategic thinking is contextualized and the understanding of key aspects of ways in which the shift is translated into strategies by EU actors is put forward. The analysis recognizes the recent developments within the institutional dimension of EU’s foreign and security policy, yet it confirms the fundamental meaning of the member states’ willingness to invest resources and harmonize their foreign policy strategies at the EU level

A Multicenter Investigation of Factors Influencing Women\u27s Participation in Clinical Trials.

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors that influence women\u27s participation in clinical research. METHODS: We administered a survey in outpatient and inpatient populations of Obstetrics and Gynecology facilities of six institutions located in four states. The survey included questions regarding any of the participant\u27s past experiences in clinical research and the factors that would influence their participation in clinical research. Analyses included descriptive statistics and a Principal Component Analysis. RESULTS: The analysis included 3,773 respondents; 2,477 (68.1%) were pregnant. The majority of participants were Caucasian (1,453, 40.2%), followed by Hispanic (933, 25.8%), African American/black (744, 20.6%), other minorities (270, 7.5%), and multiracial (212, 5.9%). Ten potential motivating factors and 10 potential barriers were assessed. The greatest motivating factor was how well research is explained (mean = 2.87) while risk of unknown side effects was the greatest barrier (mean = 3.07) for women\u27s participation in clinical trials. Among six helpful resources assessed, material in my own language was scored as the highest (mean = 2.8) in facilitating women\u27s decision to participate. For risk to the fetus/future fertility as a barrier, pregnant women\u27s score (mean = 3.25) was significantly higher than nonpregnant women\u27s score (mean = 2.37). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the risk of unknown side effects discourages women in general, and the risk to the fetus/future fertility discourages pregnant women the most from participating in clinical trials. However, explaining a study well and providing written material in the patients\u27 own language may increase their willingness to participate

Electro-tunable optical diode based on photonic bandgap liquid-crystal heterojunctions

An optical heterojunction photonic bandgap (PBG) structure consisting of an anisotropic nematic layer sandwiched between two cholestric liquid-crystal layers with different helical pitches was investigated. A half-wave phase retarders layer made of planar nematic liquid crystal (NLC) was sandwiched two PBG CLC layers with the same sense of helix handedness but different pitches. The optical diode action in the optical heterojunction anisotropic structure (OHAS) was analyzed. With its advantages of easy fabrication and electro-tunability, it was found that the structure has wide potential application in photonic devices that make use of propagation-direction dependent operation.close14514