The Impact of the Accession of the Western Balkan Countries on Voting and Coalition Formation within the European Council of Ministers

This paper looks into the impact the accession of the Western Balkan countries of Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and FYROM would have on voting power in the EU Council. Particular attention is paid to the implications of a priori coalitions between member states. The Shapley-Shubik power index is used to estimate voting power and two scenarios are considered: accession under the Nice Treaty and the Reform Treaty rules. If the Western Balkans accede under the Nice Treaty rules then the efficiency and workability of the EU would deteriorate, although the “paradox of new members” might occur where the power of some existing members is increased. Conversely if the accession took place under the Reform Treaty rules then there would be little impact on the ability of the EU to act. The inefficiency of a priori coalition formation between countries of dissimilar size is revealed, as well as the likely occurrence of the “paradox of size” where some countries are made worse off through cooperation. The enlargement will not affect this.

Transient and long-term antioxidant gene responses in Medicago truncatula following application of exogenous nitric oxide

Nitric oxide (NO) is a bioactive molecule involved in many biological events that has been reported to act as both a prooxidant and an antioxidant in plants. Several reports exist which investigate the protective action of low (f.lM) concentrations of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a NO donor. It is now commonly accepted that NO acts as a signal molecule in plants possibly playing a role to induce/stabilize the expression of many antioxidant enzymes. This study attempts to provide novel insight into the effect of application of exogenous NO on transient and long-term antioxidant gene expression levels in the model plant Medicago truncatula following inhibition studies and a quantitative real-time peR approach. Our data suggest that exogenous NO leads to a transient (3hour) induction of several antioxidant genes examined including A ox, Apx and Cat, while expression levels appear to decline after 24 hours. NO- and ROS-dependent signalling pathways were detected to operate and differentially affect induction of the different antioxidant genes. Our data suggest that Cat expression is not affected directly by NO or ROS-signalling cascades. Aox induction by NO is affected by NO- and ROS-dependent signalling pathways while Apx induction by NO has NO-dependent but not ROS-dependent signalling components

Characterisation framework of key policy, regulatory and governance dynamics and impacts upon European food value chains: Fairer trading practices, food integrity, and sustainability collaborations. : VALUMICS project “Understanding Food Value Chains and Network Dynamics” funded by EU Horizon 2020 G.A. No 727243. Deliverable D3.3

The report provides a framework that categorises the different European Union (EU) policies, laws and governance actions identified as impacting upon food value chains in the defined areas of: fairer trading practices, food integrity (food safety and authenticity), and sustainability collaborations along food value chains. A four-stage framework is presented and illustrated with examples. The evidence shows that European Union policy activity impacting upon food value chain dynamics is increasing, both in terms of the impacts of policies upon the chains, and, in terms of addressing some of the more contentious outcomes of these dynamics. A number of policy priorities are at play in addressing the outcomes of food value chain dynamics. unevenness of the distribution of profit within food value chains, notably to farmers. Regulation of food safety and aspects of authenticity has been a key focus for two decades to ensure a functioning single market while ensuring consumer health and wellbeing. A food chain length perspective has been attempted, notably through regulations such as the General Food Law, and the rationalisation of the Official Controls on food and feed safety. However, there are still gaps in the effective monitoring and transparency of food safety and of food integrity along value chains, as exemplified by misleading claims and criminal fraud. This has led to renewed policy actions over food fraud, in particular. EU regulations, policies and related governance initiatives provide an important framework for national-level actions for EU member states and for EEA members. The more tightly EU-regulated areas, such as food safety, see fewer extra initiatives, but where there is a more general strategic policy and governance push, such as food waste reduction or food fraud, there is greater independent state-level activity. Likewise, there is much more variation in the application of both national and European (Competition) law to govern unfair trading practices impacting upon food value chains. This report presents the findings of a survey of members from the VALUMICS stakeholder platform, that were policy facing food value chain stakeholders across selected European countries, including both EU and EEA Member States. The survey was conducted to check the significance of the main policies identified in the mapping exercise at EU and national levels and so to incorporate the views of stakeholders in the research. The responses suggest the policy concerns identified in EU and national-level research resonate with food value chain stakeholders in participating nations. The report concludes by exploring in more detail how the themes of fairness and of transparency are being handled in the policy activities presented. Highlighted are the ways that both fairness and transparency can be extended within the existing frameworks of EU policy activity. The findings in this report provide an important context for further and detailed research analysis of the workings and dynamics of European food value chains under the VALUMICS project

Staffing Pharmaceuticals: The Case of Novartis

This theoretical study contributes to the research of pharmaceutical companies’ HR Management practices, and more specifically their staffing systems, through close examination of Novartis Consumer Health Division’s recruitment system. After an overview of the firm’s overall staffing philosophy, external and internal recruitment are also reviewed. E-Recruitment is explored due to its significant place in today’s staffing methods, as a result of technological advancements. Last but not least, the Equal Employment Opportunities of Novartis are examined, since Human Rights and Diversity & Inclusion receive great attention nowadays in most companies’ HR Management strategies. The findings of this study for each section are based on a comparison of the information which was provided through interviews of HR Department employees of the company, as well as my individual research, with the literature review. The most important conclusions that were drawn were, first, that Novartis closely follows Schneider’s Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ATA) model when it comes to its Person-Organization versus Person-Job fit, and second, that one of the main methods through which the company achieves organizational effectiveness, is through successful alignment of its HR systems with those of the other departments/line managers. Finally, recommendations for future research are also provided

Image Analysis and Processing with Applications in Proteomics and Medicine

This thesis introduces unsupervised image analysis algorithms for the segmentation of several types of images, with an emphasis on proteomics and medical images. Segmentation is a challenging task in computer vision with essential applications in biomedical engineering, remote sensing, robotics and automation. Typically, the target region is separated from the rest of image regions utilizing defining features including intensity, texture, color or motion cues. In this light, multiple segments are generated and the selection of the most significant segments becomes a controversial decision as it highly hinges on heuristic considerations. Moreover, the separation of the target regions is impeded by several daunting factors such as: background clutter, the presence of noise and artifacts as well as occlusions on multiple target regions. This thesis focuses on image segmentation using deformable models and specifically region-based Active Contours (ACs) because of their strong mathematical foundation and their appealing properties

Theoretical Investigation of Halogen-Oxygen Bonding and Its Implications in Halogen Chemistry and Reactivity

Trends in the properties of normal valent and multivalent halogen-oxygen bonding are examined for the isomers of the halogen polyoxide families of the types (YXO2) and (YXO3), Y = Cl, Br, I, H, CH3, X = Cl, Br, I. A qualitative model is formulated on the relationship between the X−O bond distance variations, the ionic character of the bonding, and the degree of halogen valence. The relative stability and enthalpy of formation of each species are also suggested to correlate with the ionic nature of the X−O bonding and the electrostatic character of the Y, YO fragments. In the model presented, halogen hypervalence is interpreted to be the result of partial p → d promotion of lone-pair valence electrons followed by the formation of two, four, or six additional pd hybrid bonds around the halogen atom