British influence in Brussels had been far greater than recognised

Britain had far greater influence in Brussels since 1973 than has been recognised. For decades the UK was a driving and liberalising force when it came to the Single Market, enlargement, competition and trade, as well as foreign policy. Jonathan Faull (Kings College London), Piers Ludlow (LSE), and Laurent Warlouzet (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale) outline the story of this significant and widespread British sway over the EU

Understanding living with tracheostomy ventilation for motor neuron disease and the implications for quality of life: a qualitative study protocol

Introduction: Home mechanical ventilation can be used to manage symptoms of breathlessness and sustain life for people living with motor neuron disease (plwMND). In the UK, less than 1% of plwMND use tracheostomy ventilation (TV). This contrasts with some other countries, where rates are much higher. Due to a lack of evidence about its feasibility, cost-effectiveness or outcomes, TV is not covered in the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance. Most plwMND receiving TV in the UK do so as an unplanned crisis intervention, which can lead to a prolonged hospital stay while a complex care package is arranged. There is insufficient literature addressing the burdens and benefits of TV, how it should be initiated and delivered, and how future care choices for plwMND can be supported. The aim of this research is to provide new understandings of the experiences of plwMND using TV, and those of family members and healthcare professionals (HCPs) involved in their care.Methods and analysis: A UK-wide qualitative study with two workstreams: (1) Patient focused case studies (n=6) including plwMND, family members and HCPs to focus on experiences and tasks of daily living from multiple perspectives. (2) Interviews with plwMND (n=10), family members, including bereaved family members (n=10) and HCPs (n=20) on broader experiences and issues relating to use of TV, such as ethical considerations and decision making.Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval has been granted by the Leicester South Research Ethics Committee (22/EM/0256). All participants will be asked to provide electronic, written and/or audio recorded informed consent. Study findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations and used to develop new resources for teaching and public information

The International Fight Against Terrorism: A Colloquium on the Prospects for Further Cooperation Between the European Union and the United States

Members of the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU joined colleagues and counterparts from the U.S. Congress, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security for a colloquium focusing on a range of transcendent issues in the international fight against terrorism, including common challenges and achievements, data mining, and the conflict between freedom of the individual and governmental measures taken to protect civil society

Planetary Defense team project: READI (Roadmap for EArth Defense Initiatives)

Planetary Defense is a complex problem, not well understood by policy makers and the general public. The recent Chelyabinsk incident in Russia created temporary international attention but has failed to effectively stimulate public action. The lack of long-term attention to cosmic hazards has resulted in limited funding to defend our planet. Hence, it is hard to realistically address this challenge and achieve the high test and operational readiness needed for an effective Planetary Defense strategy. To address this problem, we have created a set of recommendations for the development of a Planetary Defense Program, for the purpose of contributing to the protection of Earth from asteroids and comets. The SSP15 READI Project focused on threats for which there is only a short-term warning, specifically a warning of two years or less from detection of the object to impact. We have provided recommendations in five areas of Planetary Defense including detection and tracking, deflection techniques, global collaboration, outreach and education, and evacuation and recovery. We have applied this set of recommendations in a narrative scenario to make our report more impactful and engaging. We contrast optimistic and pessimistic outcomes for a comet threat, differing from each other in terms of the level of readiness achieved during the years leading up to the discovery of the threat. In our optimistic scenario, the deflection system has achieved high test and operational readiness. The world’s governments have realized the importance of being prepared against cosmic hazards and put in place all of the necessary measures for a successful defense, leading to a positive deflection of the comet. In contrast, in the pessimistic scenario no preparation is done before the detection, and the comet strikes a heavily populated area releasing energy equivalent to 80 times the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated. The recommendations that we have identified in this report constitute a roadmap to avoid this horrible outcome, and we believe they should be taken seriously and swiftly implemented

Towards a Pharmacophore for Amyloid

Diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's and other diseases associated with amyloid fibers remains a great challenge despite intensive research. To aid in this effort, we present atomic structures of fiber-forming segments of proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease in complex with small molecule binders, determined by X-ray microcrystallography. The fiber-like complexes consist of pairs of β-sheets, with small molecules binding between the sheets, roughly parallel to the fiber axis. The structures suggest that apolar molecules drift along the fiber, consistent with the observation of nonspecific binding to a variety of amyloid proteins. In contrast, negatively charged orange-G binds specifically to lysine side chains of adjacent sheets. These structures provide molecular frameworks for the design of diagnostics and drugs for protein aggregation diseases

The Enforcement of Competition Policy in the European Community: A Mature System

In what follows, I will review a number of policy issues and offer comments in arguing the case for the maturity of the EC\u27s enforcement system. I will concentrate exclusively on antitrust enforcement, but it should not be forgotten that state aids policy is also an important part of the EC\u27s competition policy

Banking supervision : global challenges and opportunities for the EU after the banking union

This contribution was delivered on the occasion of the EUI State of the Union in Florence on 7 May 2015.While most discussions in the EU relating to the financial crisis have thus far been mainly inward-looking, this roundtable discussion will seek to apply an outward-looking focus by exploring the potential for the EU to shape global standards for banking regulation and supervision in international standard-setting fora. It will consider substantive regulatory issues currently under debate internationally; as well as governance aspects such as EU representation and conditions for EU leadership in those fora