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

A new horizon in European sports law : the application of the EU state aid rules meets the specific nature of sport

A recent influx of cases on state aid granted to sport undertakings in several EU Member States has brought to the fore the debate on the interpretation and application of this particular competition policy provision to the sports sector. This article reviews the recent Commission decisions on state aid in order to discuss the extent to which a coherent approach by the Commission can be found. The article notes the Commission’s readiness to treat support for sports infrastructure as an aspect of “state responsibility”, which tends to generate a positive assessment under EU state aid law and contrasts this with its critical scrutiny of financial support granted to ailing sports clubs, where the Commission has been more cautious. It also discusses the wider political and policy implications of the application of European state aid rules to sport. Its core inquiry is how convincing is the case that sport deserves to be treated as a special case, distinct from other areas of economic activity

Engaging with the EU in order to minimise its impact: sport and the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon

The absence of explicit reference to sport in the EU Treaties has allowed the Court and the Commission room to require sport to adjust to the standards required by EU law. Sporting federations typically assert a need for a wider zone of autonomy than the Court and Commission have been prepared to grant, but, unable to persuade the Member States that they deserve exemption from the application of the Treaty, sports bodies have increasingly been induced to develop strategies of co-existence with the EU. This article shows how they were able to exert influence in both the Convention on the Future of Europe and the subsequent intergovernmental conference in order to secure recognition of sport’s special characteristics within the Treaty, albeit in ambiguous form. Sports bodies engage with the EU precisely in order to minimise its impact. The relevant provisions of Treaty of Lisbon dealing with sport are examined to show that they leave open scope for future contestation about the interaction between EU law and policy and systems of sports governance

Automatic sizing functions for unstructured surface mesh generation

Accurate sizing functions are crucial for efficient generation of high-quality meshes, but to define the sizing function is often the bottleneck in complicated mesh generation tasks because of the tedious user interaction involved. We present a novel algorithm to automatically create high-quality sizing functions for surface mesh generation. First, the tessellation of a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model is taken as the background mesh, in which an initial sizing function is defined by considering geometrical factors and user-specified parameters. Then, a convex nonlinear programming problem is formulated and solved efficiently to obtain a smoothed sizing function that corresponds to a mesh satisfying necessary gradient constraint conditions and containing a significantly reduced element number. Finally, this sizing function is applied in an advancing front mesher. With the aid of a walk-through algorithm, an efficient sizing-value query scheme is developed. Meshing experiments of some very complicated geometry models are presented to demonstrate that the proposed sizing-function approach enables accurate and fully automatic surface mesh generation

Efficiency and safety of varying the frequency of whole blood donation (INTERVAL): a randomised trial of 45 000 donors

Background: Limits on the frequency of whole blood donation exist primarily to safeguard donor health. However, there is substantial variation across blood services in the maximum frequency of donations allowed. We compared standard practice in the UK with shorter inter-donation intervals used in other countries. Methods: In this parallel group, pragmatic, randomised trial, we recruited whole blood donors aged 18 years or older from 25 centres across England, UK. By use of a computer-based algorithm, men were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 12-week (standard) versus 10-week versus 8-week inter-donation intervals, and women were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 16-week (standard) versus 14-week versus 12-week intervals. Participants were not masked to their allocated intervention group. The primary outcome was the number of donations over 2 years. Secondary outcomes related to safety were quality of life, symptoms potentially related to donation, physical activity, cognitive function, haemoglobin and ferritin concentrations, and deferrals because of low haemoglobin. This trial is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN24760606, and is ongoing but no longer recruiting participants. Findings: 45 263 whole blood donors (22 466 men, 22 797 women) were recruited between June 11, 2012, and June 15, 2014. Data were analysed for 45 042 (99·5%) participants. Men were randomly assigned to the 12-week (n=7452) versus 10-week (n=7449) versus 8-week (n=7456) groups; and women to the 16-week (n=7550) versus 14-week (n=7567) versus 12-week (n=7568) groups. In men, compared with the 12-week group, the mean amount of blood collected per donor over 2 years increased by 1·69 units (95% CI 1·59–1·80; approximately 795 mL) in the 8-week group and by 0·79 units (0·69–0·88; approximately 370 mL) in the 10-week group (p<0·0001 for both). In women, compared with the 16-week group, it increased by 0·84 units (95% CI 0·76–0·91; approximately 395 mL) in the 12-week group and by 0·46 units (0·39–0·53; approximately 215 mL) in the 14-week group (p<0·0001 for both). No significant differences were observed in quality of life, physical activity, or cognitive function across randomised groups. However, more frequent donation resulted in more donation-related symptoms (eg, tiredness, breathlessness, feeling faint, dizziness, and restless legs, especially among men [for all listed symptoms]), lower mean haemoglobin and ferritin concentrations, and more deferrals for low haemoglobin (p<0·0001 for each) than those observed in the standard frequency groups. Interpretation: Over 2 years, more frequent donation than is standard practice in the UK collected substantially more blood without having a major effect on donors' quality of life, physical activity, or cognitive function, but resulted in more donation-related symptoms, deferrals, and iron deficiency. Funding: NHS Blood and Transplant, National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council, and British Heart Foundation

Plutonium(IV) Sorption during Ferrihydrite Nanoparticle Formation

Understanding interactions between iron (oxyhydr)oxide nanoparticles and plutonium is essential to underpin technology to treat radioactive effluents, in cleanup of land contaminated with radionuclides, and to ensure the safe disposal of radioactive wastes. These interactions include a range of adsorption, precipitation, and incorporation processes. Here, we explore the mechanisms of plutonium sequestration during ferrihydrite precipitation from an acidic solution. The initial 1 M HNO3 solution with Fe(III)((aq)) and Pu-242(IV)((aq)) underwent controlled hydrolysis via the addition of NaOH to pH 9. The majority of Fe(III)((aq)) and Pu(IV)((aq)) was removed from solution between pH 2 and 3 during ferrihydrite formation. Analysis of Pu-ferrihydrite by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy showed that Pu(IV) formed an inner-sphere tetradentate complex on the ferrihydrite surface, with minor amounts of PuO2 present. Best fits to the EXAFS data collected from Pu-ferrihydrite samples aged for 2 and 6 months showed no statistically significant change in the Pu(IV)-Fe oxyhydroxide surface complex despite the ferrihydrite undergoing extensive recrystallization to hematite. This suggests the Pu remains strongly sorbed to the iron (oxyhydr)oxide surface and could be retained over extended time periods.Peer reviewe