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AbstractEuropean competition policy's first interactions with national healthcare systems emerged after 2000 without much controversy as only those healthcare regimes with clear market‐orientated elements were subject to EU competition rules. After 2010 however, this began to be challenged as a result of pressures from the private sector, various marketization reforms in Europe as well as pressures from within the EU itself. The question therefore re‐emerged: would EU competition law, and its 'state aid law' part especially, now be pushed into social solidarity‐orientated healthcare, including those that were subject to some degree of marketisation? This article examines this question through two important recent competition law cases from Belgium and Slovakia, but with a focus on the latter. Despite the apparent limits placed on European competition law's place in healthcare in the 2000s, European Commission and the Court of Justice were called upon to reassert some limits on its role in healthcare and social solidarity‐based regimes in particular. Together, the Iris‐H and Dôvera cases resolve those political and institutional problems that such a competition policy‐based intrusion into healthcare would have created.

Over the last two years, UNEP, Care International and various other partners have been assessing the status of environmental concerns in humanitarian response and advocating the need for change. Given that present practices within the international humanitarian community are often both environmentally unsustainable and resistant to change, we face a formidable challenge. Adapted from the source document.

This article outlines U.S. policy toward children asylum seekers. It highlights the gaps in U.S. detention and asylum policy which jeopardize the protection of children. It also discusses advances made in recent years, such as issuance of the U.S. "Guidelines for Children's Asylum Claims" which establish evidentiary, procedural, and legal standards for asylum adjudicators dealing with children's claims. Finally, it suggests reforms that are necessary to bring the United States into compliance with international law and to ensure that children are provided the refuge they deserve. ; Cet article donne les grandes lignes de la politique des États- Unis vis-à-vis des enfants demandeurs d'asile. Il met en exergue les lacunes de la politique américaine sur la détention et le droit d'asile, qui constituent une menace pour la protection des enfants. Par ailleurs, il discute aussi des progrès accomplis au cours des dernières années, comme par exemple, la délivrance par les États-Unis des « Directives concernant les demandes d'asile soumises par des enfants », document qui établit des normes procédurales, juridiques et en matière de preuves à l'intention des juges pour le droit d'asile appelés à statuer sur des demandes soumises par des enfants. Pour terminer, il propose des réformes nécessaires pour amener les États-Unis en conformité avec le droit international et pour assurer aux enfants la protection qu'ils méritent.

Argues that population displacement resulting from climate change & environmental degradation is becoming one of this century's most urgent policy challenges. It is predicted that the current several million environmental migrants will increase dramatically within the next 20 years. Trends & patterns of environmental migration are described, along with the mostly negative consequences of this movement; & steps that must be taken to achieve a coordinated & effective international response to these challenges. Adapted from the source document.

PC, AM, NHK and SGNG were supported by the Wellcome Trust Genes to Cognition programme and European Union programs (Project GENCODYS no. 241995, Project EUROSPIN no. 242498 and Project SYNSYS no. 242167) and SJE was supported by the CARMEN e-science project (www.carmen.org.uk) funded by the EPSRC (EP/E002331/1). ; The function of the nervous system depends on the integrity of synapses and the patterning of electrical activity in brain circuits. The rapid advances in genome sequencing reveal a large number of mutations disrupting synaptic proteins, which potentially result in diseases known as synaptopathies. However, it is also evident that every normal individual carries hundreds of potentially damaging mutations. Although genetic studies in several organisms show that mutations can be masked during development by a process known as canalization, it is unknown if this occurs in the development of the electrical activity in the brain. Using longitudinal recordings of primary cultured neurons on multi-electrode arrays from mice carrying knockout mutations we report evidence of canalization in development of spontaneous activity patterns. Phenotypes in the activity patterns in young cultures from mice lacking the Gria1 subunit of the AMPA receptor were ameliorated as cultures matured. Similarly, the effects of chronic pharmacological NMDA receptor blockade diminished as cultures matured. Moreover, disturbances in activity patterns by simultaneous disruption of Gria1 and NMDA receptors were also canalized by three weeks in culture. Additional mutations and genetic variations also appeared to be canalized to varying degrees. These findings indicate that neuronal network canalization is a form of nervous system plasticity that provides resilience to developmental disruption. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

We acknowledge support from the ERC Starting Grant ABLASE (640012), the Scottish Funding Council (via SUPA), and the European Union Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG12-GA-2012-334407). MS acknowledges funding by the European Commission through a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (659213). MK and PL acknowledge funding from the EPSRC DTG (EP/M506631/1 and EP/L505079/1). ; Reliable methods to individually track large numbers of cells in real time are urgently needed to advance our understanding of important biological processes like cancer metastasis, neuronal network development and wound healing. It has recently been suggested to introduce microscopic whispering gallery mode lasers into the cytoplasm of cells and to use their characteristic, size dependent emission spectrum as optical barcode but so far there is no evidence that this approach is generally applicable. Here, we describe a method that drastically improves intracellular delivery of resonators for several cell types, including mitotic and non-phagocytic cells. In addition, we characterize the influence of resonator size on the spectral characteristics of the emitted laser light and identify an optimum size range that facilitates tagging and tracking of thousands of cells simultaneously. Finally, we observe that the microresonators remain internalized by cells during cell division, which enables tagging several generations of cells. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

Funding: This research was financially supported by an EPSRC Programme Grant (EP/P030017/1), by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (ERC StG ABLASE, 640012), and by the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (EP/M508214/1, EP/L505079/1). M.C.G. acknowledges funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Humboldt-Professorship). ; Important dynamic processes in mechanobiology remain elusive due to a lack of tools to image the small cellular forces at play with sufficient speed and throughput. Here, we introduce a fast, interference-based force imaging method that uses the illumination of an elastic deformable microcavity with two rapidly alternating wavelengths to map forces. We show real-time acquisition and processing of data, obtain images of mechanical activity while scanning across a cell culture, and investigate sub-second fluctuations of the piconewton forces exerted by macrophage podosomes. We also demonstrate force imaging of beating neonatal cardiomyocytes at 100 fps which reveals mechanical aspects of spontaneous oscillatory contraction waves in between the main contraction cycles. These examples illustrate the wider potential of our technique for monitoring cellular forces with high throughput and excellent temporal resolution. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed