More than a Market? The Regulation of Sport in the European Union

The explanatory capacity of ideas has been contested on two grounds. First, ideas have been dismissed as epiphenomenal. Second, ideational explanations have been criticized for limited importance that they ascribe to agency. This article examines the involvement of the European Commission in previously unchartered territory, namely the regulation of professional sport in Europe. It demonstrates that in conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty created by the need to implement broad Treaty-based principles in new areas of socio-economic activity, ideas, first, act as road maps that direct the executive activity of the European Commission, legitimize it, and set limits to it by identifying the relevant deeply embedded conceptions of the nature of a given activity and by linking them to a wider, historically defined normative order. Second, ideas are also powerful political weapons used by political actors in their quest to advance their interests

A users guide for A344: A program using a finite difference method to analyze transonic flow over oscillating airfoils

The design and usage of a pilot program for calculating the pressure distributions over harmonically oscillating airfoils in transonic flow are described. The procedure used is based on separating the velocity potential into steady and unsteady parts and linearizing the resulting unsteady differential equations for small disturbances. The steady velocity potential which must be obtained from some other program, was required for input. The unsteady equation, as solved, is linear with spatially varying coefficients. Since sinusoidal motion was assumed, time was not a variable. The numerical solution was obtained through a finite difference formulation and either a line relaxation or an out of core direct solution method

Is constitutional finality feasible or desirable? On the cases for European constitutionalism and a European Constitution

This contribution begins with reciting the facts behind the resignation of the European Commission under Jacques Santer, followed by theoretical considerations on the significance of trust and reputation from the principal-agent-theory perspective. The third part puts the emphasis on discussing as to which extent a loss of trust and reputation had an influence in the resignation of the Santer-Commission. The author concludes that the Santer-Commission underestimated the increased power of the European Parliament. The inadequate information policy and the increasing practice of manipulating documents led to a loss of trust. After the threshold had been crossed in connection with the BSE-scandal further violations finally led to the destruction of reputation of the Santer-Commission.institutions; enlargement; majority voting; Council of Ministers; European Parliament

Polarization spectroscopy of an excited state transition.

We demonstrate polarization spectroscopy of an excited state transition in room-temperature cesium vapor. An anisotropy induced by a circularly polarized pump beam on the D2 transition is observed using a weak probe on the 6P3/2→7S1/2 transition. At high pump power, a subfeature due to Autler-Townes splitting is observed that theoretical modeling shows is enhanced by Doppler averaging. Polarization spectroscopy provides a simple modulation–free signal suitable for laser frequency stabilization to excited state transitions

Computational brain anatomy in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

BACKGROUND Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a frequent type of focal epilepsy that constitutes 30% to 50% of all epileptic syndromes. This medical condition is often associated with hippocampal sclerosis, however it can be due to cortical dysplasia, brain tumour, vascular malformation or without any evidence for pathology (cryptogenic). Even though the main symptoms are the seizures, epilepsy sometimes interferes with cognitive functions such as visual or verbal memory, language or attention. TLE is frequently pharmaco-­‐resistant and only a hippocampal resection helps patients to become seizure-­‐free. Temporal lobe epilepsy is also described as a progressive disorder that causes chronic brain tissue damages. History of febrile seizures and status epilepticus, frequency of seizures and age at onset of seizure, as well as epilepsy duration or years of anti-­‐epileptic drugs use are all factors that impact the gravity of the brain structure's damage. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has undergone a considerable development and, nowadays, has become an essential clinical tool in the diagnosis of TLE. It is currently used to reveal precisely cerebral abnormalities that may induce seizures. PURPOSE The aim of this cross-­‐sectional study is to investigate the pattern of microstructural brain tissue characteristics (grey and white matter volumes) occurring in three clinically distinctive TLE entities: mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS), focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) and cryptogenic epilepsy. By comparing them to each other, we want to acquire in-­‐depth knowledge of their pathological mechanism. We use well-­‐established computational anatomy methodology -­‐ voxel-­‐ based morphometry (VBM) to investigate brain anatomy changes related to the present clinical phenotype. CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY In the past few years, there has been a lot of controversy concerning structural MRI findings in TLE. Most of the studies looked for informative brain changes in epilepsy with MTS compared with healthy controls. This study is the first to take into consideration all clinical aspects of TLE together -­‐ mesial temporal sclerosis, focal cortical dysplasia and cryptogenic epilepsy. MATERIAL AND METHODS In-­‐vivo anatomical brain imaging data (MRI at 1.5T) was acquired in patients with clinical diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. TLE patients were divided in three groups according to radiological description of brain MRI findings -­‐ mesial temporal sclerosis [MTS_group], focal cortical dysplasia [Dysplasia_group] and cryptogenic epilepsy [NoMRI_group] and compared with healthy volunteers. VBM technique was used to identify brain tissues alterations (GM and WM). RESULTS We demonstrate that MTS showed similar grey and white matter volumes reduction in the hippocampus, thalamus and cerebellum ipsilateral to the epileptogenic focus when compared with cryptogenic epilepsy patients and healthy controls. The focal cortical dysplasia patients showed grey matter volume loss restricted to the thalamus

The practical application of a finite difference method for analyzing transonic flow over oscillating airfoils and wings

Separating the velocity potential into steady and unsteady parts and linearizing the resulting unsteady equations for small disturbances was performed. The steady velocity potential was obtained first from the well known nonlinear equation for steady transonic flow. The unsteady velocity potential was then obtained from a linear differential equation in complex form with spatially varying coefficients. Since sinusoidal motion is assumed, the unsteady equation is independent of time. The results of an investigation into the relaxation-solution-instability problem was discussed. Concepts examined include variations in outer boundary conditions, a coordinate transformation so that the boundary condition at infinity may be applied to the outer boundaries of the finite difference region, and overlapping subregions. The general conclusion was that only a full direct solution in which all unknowns are obtained at the same time will avoid the solution instabilities of relaxation. An analysis of the one-dimensional form of the unsteady transonic equation was studied to evaluate errors between exact and finite difference solutions. Pressure distributions were presented for a low-aspect-ratio clipped delta wing at Mach number of 0.9 and for a moderate-aspect-ratio rectangular wing at a Mach number of 0.875