48 research outputs found
Turkish Accession and Defining the Boundaries of Nationalism and Supranationalism: Discourses in the European Commission
The European Union in general and the European Commission in particular are
characterised by supranational governance. The enlargement policy gives the Commission
the opportunity to export and promote supranational norms and define the boundaries of
Europe as a supranational polity through the conditionality of membership and intensive
contact with the candidate countries. This article analyses the discourses of the
Commission on Turkey and gives us insights into how well Turkey fits the supranational
model in the eyes of Commission officials. It demonstrates how the boundaries of
supranationalism are set and even challenged by the prospects of Turkey’s accession
Mechanisms of leukocyte migration across the blood–retina barrier
Immune-mediated inflammation in the retina is regulated by a combination of anatomical, physiological and immuno-regulatory mechanisms, referred to as the blood–retina barrier (BRB). The BRB is thought to be part of the specialised ocular microenvironment that confers protection or “immune privilege” by deviating or suppressing destructive inflammation. The barrier between the blood circulation and the retina is maintained at two separate anatomical sites. These are the endothelial cells of the inner retinal vasculature and the retinal pigment epithelial cells on Bruch’s membrane between the fenestrated choroidal vessels and the outer retina. The structure and regulation of the tight junctions forming the physical barrier are described. For leukocyte migration across the BRB to occur, changes are needed in both the leukocytes themselves and the cells forming the barrier. We review how the blood–retina barrier is compromised in various inflammatory diseases and discuss the mechanisms controlling leukocyte subset migration into the retina in uveoretinitis in more detail. In particular, we examine the relative roles of selectins and integrins in leukocyte interactions with the vascular endothelium and the pivotal role of chemokines in selective recruitment of leukocyte subsets, triggering adhesion, diapedesis and migration of inflammatory cells into the retinal tissue
Reflex circuitry originating from the muscle spindles to the tibialis anterior muscle
In this study we investigated whether the reflex excitatory and inhibitory inputs to motor neuron pools are uniformly or differentially distributed. We found that the distribution of monosynaptic excitatory (H-reflex) and reciprocal inhibitory inputs to different size motor neurons fitted gamma distributions with different skew values. This result can be interpreted as due to a differential distribution of afferent inputs on motor neurons