The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement?

This thesis investigates whether the European Union and its member states have been able to balance normative priorities – specifically the promotion of human rights – and material priorities – specifically economic interests – within the strategy of constructive engagement towards China embraced since 1995. In order to respond to this central question this thesis originally elaborates a liberal intergovernmental approach for the study of the promotion of human rights within the EU’s system of multilevel governance in external relations. Such an approach is applied to analyse the issues of consistency and coordination in the policies for the promotion of human rights in China elaborated by the European Community and three selected member states, namely Germany, France and the UK. The choice of the country cases serves theoretical and analytical purposes. At a theoretical level it allows consideration as to whether the EU’s overall policies were mainly influenced by the interests and policy preferences of the three selected member states, which had the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in China, as expected by liberal intergovernmentalism. At an analytical level, the choice of the country cases allows for consideration of whether the EC’s policies for the promotion of human rights in China were coordinated with those of the three selected member states, which had the most conspicuous development assistance policies towards China and whose approaches to human rights in the country were broadly representative of the other member states. This supports the assessment of the achievement, or otherwise, of a significant EU promotion of human rights through development assistance in China. From the study it emerges that the EC and its three selected member states have been unable to devise consistent and coordinated policies for the promotion of human rights in China. On the one hand these findings suggest that the EU and its member states have been unable to balance normative and material priorities in their relations with China. On the other hand this thesis illustrates that this was due to the influence of the material interests and policy preferences of Germany, France and the UK, thus supporting the expectations of liberal intergovernmentalism. These findings form an original contribution to the study of the EU’s promotion of norms because they suggest that the EU can promote human rights, as well as other norms, in a consistent, coordinated and ultimately strategic way, only if the member states with the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in a specific policy issue privilege normative interests over material ones. At the same time this thesis offers an original contribution to EU-China studies on human rights, as it suggests that due to the present interests of the most influential member states, the EU’s promotion of human rights should be reframed to address what Chinese authorities are willing to accommodate in the human rights field, namely give preference to the support of socio-economic rights, where a consensus among the EU’s member states can more easily be built

The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement?

This thesis investigates whether the European Union and its member states have been able to balance normative priorities – specifically the promotion of human rights – and material priorities – specifically economic interests – within the strategy of constructive engagement towards China embraced since 1995. In order to respond to this central question this thesis originally elaborates a liberal intergovernmental approach for the study of the promotion of human rights within the EU’s system of multilevel governance in external relations. Such an approach is applied to analyse the issues of consistency and coordination in the policies for the promotion of human rights in China elaborated by the European Community and three selected member states, namely Germany, France and the UK. The choice of the country cases serves theoretical and analytical purposes. At a theoretical level it allows consideration as to whether the EU’s overall policies were mainly influenced by the interests and policy preferences of the three selected member states, which had the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in China, as expected by liberal intergovernmentalism. At an analytical level, the choice of the country cases allows for consideration of whether the EC’s policies for the promotion of human rights in China were coordinated with those of the three selected member states, which had the most conspicuous development assistance policies towards China and whose approaches to human rights in the country were broadly representative of the other member states. This supports the assessment of the achievement, or otherwise, of a significant EU promotion of human rights through development assistance in China. From the study it emerges that the EC and its three selected member states have been unable to devise consistent and coordinated policies for the promotion of human rights in China. On the one hand these findings suggest that the EU and its member states have been unable to balance normative and material priorities in their relations with China. On the other hand this thesis illustrates that this was due to the influence of the material interests and policy preferences of Germany, France and the UK, thus supporting the expectations of liberal intergovernmentalism. These findings form an original contribution to the study of the EU’s promotion of norms because they suggest that the EU can promote human rights, as well as other norms, in a consistent, coordinated and ultimately strategic way, only if the member states with the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in a specific policy issue privilege normative interests over material ones. At the same time this thesis offers an original contribution to EU-China studies on human rights, as it suggests that due to the present interests of the most influential member states, the EU’s promotion of human rights should be reframed to address what Chinese authorities are willing to accommodate in the human rights field, namely give preference to the support of socio-economic rights, where a consensus among the EU’s member states can more easily be built.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

CRP Predicts Safe Patient Discharge after Colorectal Surgery. Reply

Reply: We would like to thank Aurelie´n Dupre`, Johan Gagnie´r, Heloı¨se Samba, Michel Rivoire, and Karem Slim for their comments about our article ‘‘Procalcitonin Reveals Early Dehiscence in Colorectal Surgery: The PREDICS Study.’’1 It is very rewarding to realize that this paper is stimulating so many observations, this means thatwe are talking about an interesting topic

Correlates of calcaneal quantitative ultrasound parameters in patients with diabetes: the study on the assessment of determinants of muscle and bone strength abnormalities in diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) provides an estimate of bone mineral density (BMD) and also evaluates bone quality, which has been related to increased fracture risk in people with diabetes. This study aimed at assessing the correlates of calcaneal QUS parameters in diabetic subjects encompassing various degrees of micro and macrovascular complications and a wide-range of peripheral nerve function. METHODS: Four hundred consecutive diabetic patients were examined by QUS to obtain values of broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), the speed of sound (SOS), quantitative ultrasound index (QUI), and BMD. RESULTS: Among surrogate measures of complications, sensory and motor nerve amplitude and heart rate response to cough test and standing correlated with QUS parameters at univariate analysis, together with age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, lipid profile, and renal function. Multivariate analysis revealed that BUA, SOS, QUI, and BMD were independently associated with age, male gender, hemoglobin A1c, BMI (or fat, but not fat-free mass), and somatic and autonomic nerve function parameters. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that peripheral nerve dysfunction is associated with worse QUS parameters, possibly contributing to increased fracture risk in diabetes. The positive relation of QUS measures with adiposity needs further investigation. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01600924)

L’Arte dell’osservazione, dall’opera artistica alla diagnosi Le prime esperienze in Sapienza Università di Roma, a Medicina e Chirurgia

This study describes how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) as a methodological practice can help medical students learn and acquire analytical ability. This ability, capable of improving observational acumen and generally acquired only after years of clinical experience, may be achieved also by recourse to the systematic and reasoned examination of the visual arts, in particular paintings. Students attending the third year Medicine and Surgery degree-course, within the ambit of the faculty’s integrated medical-scientific and humanities teaching-learning activities, followed an elective course which began with a preparatory-explanatory lecture on the analytical methodologies applied to the study of art, followed by a practical workshop held at Rome’s Galleria Borghese and ended with a third and final lecture where the students themselves provided the teachers who conducted the course with direct feedback regarding the three phases of the course. The students’ appraisal of the experiences was positive; the experiment is on-going and has been extended to embrace other courses held by the Sapienza University. Further observations are needed at present to validate the effectiveness to medical training of this kind of course in the long term, even though the limited number of experiments carried out in other countries, whose historical and artistic heritages are undoubtedly not so rich as Italy’s, attest to their undeniable usefulness to students of medicine and surgery at both analytical and, no less important, humanistic-educational level

Level and correlates of physical activity and sedentary behavior in patients with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional analysis of the italian diabetes and exercise study-2

OBJECTIVE: Patients with type 2 diabetes usually show reduced physical activity (PA) and increased sedentary (SED)-time, though to a varying extent, especially for low-intensity PA (LPA), a major determinant of daily energy expenditure that is not accurately captured by questionnaires. This study assessed the level and correlates of PA and SED-time in patients from the Italian Diabetes and Exercise Study_2 (IDES_2). METHODS: Three-hundred physically inactive and sedentary patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled in the IDES_2 to be randomized to an intervention group, receiving theoretical and practical exercise counseling, and a control group, receiving standard care. At baseline, LPA, moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA), and SED-time were measured by accelerometer. Physical fitness and cardiovascular risk factors and scores were also assessed. RESULTS: LPA was 3.93±1.35 hours∙day-1, MVPA was 12.4±4.6 min∙day-1, and SED-time was 11.6±1.2 hours∙day-1, with a large range of values (0.89-7.11 hours∙day-1, 0.6-21.0 min∙day-1, and 9.14-15.28 hours∙day-1, respectively). At bivariate analysis, LPA and MVPA correlated with better cardiovascular risk profile and fitness parameters, whereas the opposite was observed for SED-time. Likewise, values of LPA, MVPA, and SED-time falling in the best tertile were associated with optimal or acceptable levels of cardiovascular risk factors and scores. At multivariate analysis, age, female gender, HbA1c, BMI or waist circumference, and high-sensitivity C reactive protein (for LPA and SED-time only) were negatively associated with LPA and MPA and positively associated with SED-time in an independent manner. CONCLUSIONS: Physically inactive and sedentary patients with type 2 diabetes from the IDES_2 show a low level of PA, though values of LPA, MVPA, and SED-time vary largely. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation of these measures with glycemic control, adiposity and inflammation, thus suggesting that even small improvements in LPA, MVPA, and SED-time might be associated with significant improvement in cardiovascular risk profile

attentional pattern classification for automatic dementia detection

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Procalcitonin Reveals Early Dehiscence in Colorectal Surgery: The PREDICS Study

Objectives: We designed a multicentric, observational study to test if Procalcitonin (PCT) might be an early and reliable marker of anastomotic leak (AL) after colorectal surgery (ClinicalTrials.govIdentifier:NCT01817647). Background: Procalcitonin is a biomarker used to monitor bacterial infections and guide antibiotic therapy. Anastomotic leak after colorectal surgery is a severe complication associated with relevant short and long-term sequelae. Methods: Between January 2013 and September 2014, 504 patients underwent colorectal surgery, for malignant colorectal diseases, in elective setting. White blood count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP) and PCT levels were measured in 3rd and 5th postoperative day (POD). AL and all postoperative complications were recorded. Results: We registered 28 (5.6%) anastomotic leaks. Specificity and negative predictive value for AL with PCT less than 2.7 and 2.3 ng/mL were, respectively, 91.7% and 96.9% in 3rd POD and 93% and 98.3% in 5th POD. Receiver operating characteristic curve for biomarkers shows that in 3rd POD, PCTand CRP have similar area under the curve (AUC) (0.775 vs 0.772), both better than WBC (0.601); in 5th POD, PCT has a better AUC than CRP and WBC (0.862 vs 0.806 vs 0.611). Measuring together PCT and CRP significantly improves AL diagnosis in 5th POD (AUC: 0.901). Conclusions: PCTand CRP demonstrated to have a good negative predictive value for AL, both in 3rd and in 5th POD. Low levels of PCT, together with low CRP values, seem to be early and reliable markers of AL after colorectal surgery. These biomarkers might be safely added as additional criteria of discharge protocols after colorectal surgery

Muscular Adaptations to Concurrent Resistance Training and High-Intensity Interval Training in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Study

This pilot study aimed to compare the effects of eight weeks of concurrent resistance training (RT) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) vs. RT alone on muscle performance, mass and quality in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Twelve T2DM adults were randomly allocated to the RT + HIIT (n = 5) or RT (n = 7) group. Before and after training, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), muscle strength and power were evaluated by calorimetry, dynamometry and one-repetition maximum (1RM) test. Quadriceps muscle volume was determined by MRI, and muscle quality was estimated. After RT, VO2max (+12%), knee muscle power (+20%), quadriceps muscle volume (+5.9%) and quality (leg extension, +65.4%; leg step-up, +223%) and 1RM at leg extension (+66.4%), leg step-up (+267%), lat pulldown (+60.9%) and chest press (+61.2%) significantly increased. The RT + HIIT group improved on VO2max (+27%), muscle volume (+6%), muscle power (+9%) and 1RM at lat pulldown (+47%). No other differences were detected. Among groups, changes in muscle quality at leg step-up and leg extension and VO2max were significantly different. The combination of RT and HIIT effectively improves muscle function and size and increases cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with T2DM. However, HIIT combined with RT may interfere with the development of muscle quality