Προοπτικές για το μέλλον της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Κριτική προσέγγιση των πέντε σεναρίων της Λευκής Βίβλου για το μέλλον της Ευρώπης.

Με αφορμή την επέτειο για τα 60 χρόνια της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, η Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή εξέδωσε την 1η Μαρτίου 2017 τη Λευκή Βίβλο για το Μέλλον της Ευρώπης. Σύμφωνα με τον Jean-Claude Juncker, η Λευκή Βίβλος είναι η συμβολή της Επιτροπής σε ένα νέο κεφάλαιο του ευρωπαϊκού εγχειρήματος που ανοίγεται και έχει ως στόχο να δρομολογήσει τη διαδικασία με την οποία η Ευρώπη θα καθορίσει την μελλοντική της πορεία. Με αφετηρία τη Λευκή Βίβλο θα διεξαχθεί σε ολόκληρη την Ευρώπη μια ευρεία συζήτηση, στην οποία θα συμμετέχουν οι ευρωπαϊκοί θεσμοί, τα κράτη-μέλη και οι πολίτες των κρατών-μελών της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία έχει σα στόχο τη συμμετοχή σε αυτή τη συζήτηση. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο περιλαμβάνει μία συνοπτική ιστορική αναδρομή της διαδικασίας της ευρωπαϊκής ολοκλήρωσης. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο προσδιορίζονται οι προκλήσεις, που καλείται να αντιμετωπίσει το ευρωπαϊκό εγχείρημα, και αναφέρονται κάποιες από τις προτάσεις για την αντιμετώπισή τους. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο γίνεται επισκόπηση των πέντε σεναρίων της Λευκής Βίβλου για το Μέλλον της Ευρώπης. Τέλος, στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο παρατίθενται τα συμπεράσματα που προκύπτουν. Τα ερωτήματα που τίθενται στην εργασία και απαντώνται στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο είναι τα εξής: (α) Ποιο σενάριο για το μέλλον της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης αντιμετωπίζει πιο αποτελεσματικά τις προκλήσεις; (β) Ποιο σενάριο είναι προς το συμφέρον της να υποστηρίξει η Ελλάδα; H άποψη που υποστηρίζεται στην παρούσα εργασία είναι ότι το σενάριο που αντιμετωπίζει πιο αποτελεσματικά τις προκλήσεις είναι το Σενάριο 5: «Κάνουμε μαζί πολύ περισσότερα». Το σενάριο αυτό θα πρέπει να περιλαμβάνει όμως και προβλέψεις για κράτη, τα οποία δεν είναι διατεθειμένα στη παρούσα χρονική συγκυρία να προχωρήσουν σε μεγαλύτερο βαθμό ενοποίησης ή απώλειας εθνικής κυριαρχίας. To προτεινόμενο σενάριο θα πρέπει επίσης να αντιμετωπίσει το ζήτημα υποστήριξης στο ευρωπαϊκό εγχείρημα από το πολιτικό κατεστημένο και την κοινή γνώμη. Το Σενάριο 5 είναι επίσης και το επιθυμητό για την Ελλάδα, ενώ σε καμιά περίπτωση δεν πρέπει να υιοθετηθεί ένα σενάριο το οποίο θα αποκλείει κράτη παρά τη βούλησή τους.On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the European Union, the European Commission adopted on 1 March 2017 the White Paper on the Future of Europe. According to Jean-Claude Juncker, the White Paper is the contribution of the European Commission to the opening of a new chapter of the European venture and aims to launch a process by which Europe will determine its future course. In the light of this text, a broad debate will take place throughout Europe, involving the European institutions, the member-states and the citizens of the European Union. This paper aims to participate in this discussion. The first chapter contains a brief historical review of the process of European integration. The second chapter identifies the challenges facing the European project and explores some of the proposals to address them. The third chapter reviews the five scenarios of the White Paper on the Future of Europe. Finally, the fourth chapter outlines the resulting conclusions. The questions raised in this paper and answered in the fourth chapter are as follows: (a) Which scenario addresses the challenges facing European Union more effectively? (b) Which scenario is in Greece's best interest? The opinion supported by this paper is that the most effective scenario to address the challenges facing the European project is Scenario 5: "Doing much more together". However, this scenario should also include provisions for states that are not prepared to go a long way towards consolidation or loss of national sovereignty. The proposed scenario should also address the issue of limited public and political support for the European project. Scenario 5 is also desirable for Greece, and in no case, should a scenario be adopted that will exclude states against their will

Enhancing diversity of clinical trial populations in multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Demographic characteristics, social determinants of health (SDoH), health inequities, and health disparities substantially influence the general and disease-specific health outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Participants in clinical trials do not represent all people with MS treated in practice. Objective: To provide recommendations for enhancing diversity and inclusion in clinical trials in MS. METHODS: We held an international workshop under the Auspices of the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS (the “Committee”) to develop recommendations regarding diversity and inclusivity of participants of clinical trials in MS. Workshop attendees included members of the Committee as well as external participants. External participants were selected based on expertise in trials, SDoH, health equity and regulatory science, and diversity with respect to gender, race, ethnicity, and geography. RESULTS: Recommendations include use of diversity plans, community engagement and education, cultural competency training, biologically justified rather than templated eligibility criteria, adaptive designs that allow broadening of eligibility criteria over the course of a trial, and logistical and practical adjustments to reduce study participant burden. Investigators should report demographic and SDoH characteristics of participants. CONCLUSION: These recommendations provide sponsors and investigators with methods of improving diversity and inclusivity of clinical trial populations in MS

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Abdominal pain in an adult with Type 2 diabetes: A case report

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Measurement of the charm and beauty structure functions using the H1 vertex detector at HERA

Inclusive charm and beauty cross sections are measured in e − p and e + p neutral current collisions at HERA in the kinematic region of photon virtuality 5≤Q 2≤2000 GeV2 and Bjorken scaling variable 0.0002≤x≤0.05. The data were collected with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 189 pb−1. The numbers of charm and beauty events are determined using variables reconstructed by the H1 vertex detector including the impact parameter of tracks to the primary vertex and the position of the secondary vertex. The measurements are combined with previous data and compared to QCD predictions