Article 17 TFEU has been mainly interpreted as a "safeguard clause" aimed at preventing the EU from affecting (even indirectly) national disciplines religiously connoted. Although this traditional interpretation seems to find confirmation in the letter of the provision, in the systematic reading with Article 4 TEU, second paragraph, as well as in the original will of the parties, some scholars started giving credit to a different interpretation: the Article could allow the development of a European Law and Religion System. This article aims to investigate the current possibility for the aforementioned change of prospective. It focuses on three key factors: the interpretative difficulties concerning the Article, the recent jurisprudential evolution of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the growing axiological-systematic relevance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. This work argues that Article 17 TFEU does not recognize a national competence ex ante in all religious matters; it only requires the EU to refrain from regulating cases that are concretely characterized by a high rate of denominational specificity.
Europe is home not only to pasts that bring different groups and nations together but also to ones that threaten to tear us apart or generate negative emotions. If heritage is what we inherit from the past and what informs our sense of who we are today, then contentious heritage is that which is capable of throwing this sense into doubt and disrupting potential commonalities. Policies of silencing are not acceptable in democratic societies, nor could they potentially extinguish social conflicts. Discourses on identity must therefore be considered as permanent processes of dialogue across diverse positions, acknowledgement of differences, negotiation, and re-interpretation. The article relates to the research on difficult memories, focusing on a heritage that dates back to an era in which the continent was ravaged by fierce conflicts, frictions, and dominance aspirations. These events profoundly marked Europe and cast shadows on the present. Modern fortified landscapes are a peculiar museographical theme. The paper proposes a reflection on the museographical perspectives for diffused war heritage in Northern Italy.
After the Schengen Agreement entered into force in 1995, most of the old internal checkpoints, in particular the peripheral ones, remained abandoned and out of service. Still their presence allows viewers and occasional passers-by to find significant traces of a recent history of political, economic, and social fragmentation. Ignacio Evangelista's series of photographs "After Schengen" moves from a very personal experience to show this reality. Borders separate homogeneous landscapes, introduce unnatural fractures to mark domains, create antagonisms and hostilities that sharpen right along the territorial margins. Checkpoints are guarded thresholds, points of contact, transit, exchange. Through an analysis of Evangelista's photos, the contribution offers a reflection on the power of agency bording crossings holds and their impact in the construction of a European cohesion.
Il dibattito internazionale è incentrato ormai da anni sui temi della sostenibilità e dell'ecologia, intese nelle più diverse accezioni, così come sulla necessità di adottare un approccio etico all'architettura. Dopo una riflessione teorica sulle ecologie negli interni urbani, il contributo delinea alcune delle tappe principali di sperimentazione e studio, per comprendere come progettisti, pianificatori e critici stiano affrontando queste questioni. Risulta evidente l'importanza di migliorare la qualità dell'ambiente a partire dallo spazio pubblico e avviare politiche inclusive, rivolte a favorire una effettiva coesione sociale e il ripristino degli equilibri con il contesto naturale e antropico. È fondamentale che i progettisti mettano al centro delle proprie ricerche l'uomo e gli spazi nei quali egli vive, dimostrandosi attenti ai bisogni di comunità sempre più complesse. Parole chiave: città, ecologie, interni urbani
In recent decades, the interest in products containing botanicals and claiming "functional" properties has increased exponentially. Functional foods, novel foods and food supplements have a special impact on the consumers, who show significant expectation for their well-being. Food supplements with botanical ingredients are the food area that has witnessed the greatest development, in terms of the number of available products, budget, and consumer acceptability. This review refers to and discusses some open points, such as: 1) the definitions and regulation of products containing botanicals; 2) the difficulty in obtaining nutritional and functional claims (botanical ingredients obtaining claims in the EU are listed and summarized); 3) the safety aspects of these products; and 4) the poor harmonization between international legislations. The availability of these "new" products can positively influence the well-being of the population, but it is essential to provide the consumers with the necessary recommendations to guide them in their purchase and use.
Food supplements containing plant extracts (botanicals) have received a growing interest in the population with a consequent expansion of the market in which thousands of products and hundreds of producers are now present. The success obtained by this category of products is part of the general demand by the consumer of "all natural" products, which in the collective imagination is synonymous of safety. Food supplements, being regulated by the food law, cannot boast therapeutic properties and their health contribution should be limited to the maintenance of homeostasis and wellbeing. The choice of a plant extract for the formulation of products intended to maintain consumer's health is based mainly on the "tradition of use", often not supported by rigorous scientific studies. At the same time, the collection of data related to adverse events is affected by the limited reporting of symptoms that, if they do not require hospitalization, are unlikely to be associated with supplements by the consumer. In this context, which has international significance, several committees have issued guidelines for the risk/benefit assessment of the chronic consumption of nutritional supplements containing botanicals. As for the countries of the European Union, the reference guidelines are those published by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority); this document describes the studies necessary to obtain a positive opinion regarding a certain health function [1]. Equally important is the collection of adverse effects, in which causality (correlation between the intake of a certain product and the clinical event) must be clearly assessed. The EFSA's guidelines, on the one hand, have provided indications on how to proceed in performing human studies, and on the other have raised the critical issues associated with: - the studies required for the evaluation of the efficacy of food supplements containing plant extracts must enroll healthy subjects willing to maintain for a quite long period a controlled diet with added (active group) or not (control) the product/extract of interest; - having to evaluate physiological effects, the number of people required is very high, the times are long and the costs high; - it is not always possible to establish the molecule/s responsible for the effect, to measure their bioavailability and metabolism; - the identification of biomarkers of exposure is critical but it is not always easy as well as to measure their low concentrations in blood or urine; - adverse events are possible but are often difficult to interpret. The presentation will describe some practical examples, with the indication of the most important problems; strategies to reduce the complexity of human studies and to perform a careful phytovigilance that identifies adverse reactions due to plant extracts as such or for interaction with conventional drugs [2]. References 1. European Food Safety Authority, EFSA Journal, 7, 1249 (2009) 2. Restani Ed. Food supplements containing botanicals: Benefits, side effects and regulatory aspects, Springer International Publishing (2018)
Botanicals and Plant Food Supplements (PFS) have received an increasing interest by consumers. They are not intended to treat diseases, but their activity should contribute to maintain the homeostasis. Due to the general belief that "Natural is always safe", the risk associated with the intake of PFS is often underestimated by consumers. To collect new information about the risk associated with the PFS consumption, different activities were performed during and after the EU project PlantLIBRA (Plant Food Supplements: Levels of Intake, Benefit and Risk Assessment, n. 245199): 1. A review of the published data on: adverse effects related to PFS/botanical ingredients, botanical misidentification, and the interactions of PFS/botanicals with pharmaceutical drugs or nutrients; 2. The collection of cases occurred at the European Poisons Centres (and a Brazilian centre); 3. The elaboration of self-reported adverse effects cited during the European PlantLIBRA PFS Consumer Survey 2011-2012; 4. After the end of the project, further data were supplied by the Pavia Poison Centre and ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail); 5. Finally, information were collected by the FDA website. According to all data collected and elaborated during and after the European Project PlantLIBRA: 1. Valeriana officinalis (valerian) and Camellia sinensis (green tea) were the plants most frequently involved in adverse effects in Europe; 2. Cases from the FDA's website were mainly associated with Silybum marianum (milk thistle) and Serenoa repens (saw palmetto); 3. Although most case reports described mild symptoms, some severe events was observed, with few fatalities; 4. Symptoms were mainly localized at liver, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. As described above, some severe adverse effects with convincing causality were described, so that family doctors and other health professionals must be aware of the problem and contribute to the surveillance. This research has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 245199, and has been carried out within the PlantLIBRA project (www.plantlibra.eu). This abstract does not necessarily reflect the Commission's views or future policy in these areas.
BMWFW (Austria) ; FWF (Austria) ; FNRS (Belgium) ; FWO (Belgium) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; MES (Bulgaria) ; CERN (China) ; CAS (China) ; MoST (China) ; NSFC (China) ; COLCIENCIAS (Colombia) ; MSES (Croatia) ; CSF (Croatia) ; RPF (Cyprus) ; SENESCYT (Ecuador) ; MoER (Estonia) ; ERC IUT (Estonia) ; ERDF (Estonia) ; Academy of Finland (Finland) ; MEC (Finland) ; HIP (Finland) ; CEA (France) ; CNRS/IN2P3 (France) ; BMBF (Germany) ; DFG (Germany) ; HGF (Germany) ; GSRT (Greece) ; OTKA (Hungary) ; NIH (Hungary) ; DAE (India) ; DST (India) ; IPM (Iran) ; SFI (Ireland) ; INFN (Italy) ; MSIP (Republic of Korea) ; NRF (Republic of Korea) ; LAS (Lithuania) ; MOE (Malaysia) ; UM (Malaysia) ; BUAP (Mexico) ; CINVESTAV (Mexico) ; CONACYT (Mexico) ; LNS (Mexico) ; SEP (Mexico) ; UASLP-FAI (Mexico) ; MBIE (New Zealand) ; PAEC (Pakistan) ; MSHE (Poland) ; NSC (Poland) ; FCT (Portugal) ; JINR (Dubna) ; MON (Russia) ; RosAtom (Russia) ; RAS (Russia) ; RFBR (Russia) ; MESTD (Serbia) ; SEIDI (Spain) ; CPAN (Spain) ; Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland) ; MST (Taipei) ; ThEPCenter (Thailand) ; IPST (Thailand) ; STAR (Thailand) ; NSTDA (Thailand) ; TUBITAK (Turkey) ; TAEK (Turkey) ; NASU (Ukraine) ; SFFR (Ukraine) ; STFC (United Kingdom) ; DOE (USA) ; NSF (USA) ; Marie-Curie programme (European Union) ; European Research Council (European Union) ; EPLANET (European Union) ; Leventis Foundation ; A.P. Sloan Foundation ; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium) ; Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium) ; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic ; Council of Science and Industrial Research, India ; HOMING PLUS programme of the Foundation for Polish Science ; Regional Development Fund ; National Science Center (Poland) ; Thalis programme - EU-ESF ; National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund ; Programa Clarin-COFUND del Principado de Asturias ; Rachadapisek Sompot Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University ; Chulalongkorn Academic into Its 2nd Century Project Advancement Project (Thailand) ; Welch Foundation ; European Union ; Mobility Plus programme of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education ; Thalis programme - Greek NSRF ; Aristeia programme - EU-ESF ; Aristeia programme - Greek NSRF ; Science and Technology Facilities Council ; National Science Center (Poland): Harmonia 2014/14/M/ST2/00428 ; National Science Center (Poland): Opus 2013/11/B/ST2/04202 ; National Science Center (Poland): 2014/13/B/ST2/02543 ; National Science Center (Poland): 2014/15/B/ST2/03998 ; National Science Center (Poland): Sonata-bis 2012/07/E/ST2/01406 ; Welch Foundation: C-1845 ; Science and Technology Facilities Council: ST/K001256/1 ; Science and Technology Facilities Council: ST/N000250/1 ; Science and Technology Facilities Council: CMS ; Science and Technology Facilities Council: GRIDPP ; The WZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 Tev is measured with the CMS experiment at the LHC using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 fb(-1). The measurement is performed in the leptonic decay modes WZ -> lVl'l', where l,l'=e,mu. The measured cross section for the range 60 WZ) = 39.9 +/- 3.2(stat)(2.9)(-3.1)(syst)+/- 0.4(theo)+/- 1.3(lumi)pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.
Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research ; Austrian Science Fund ; Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique ; Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; FAPERGS ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science ; CERN ; Chinese Academy of Sciences ; Ministry of Science and Technology ; National Natural Science Foundation of China ; Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS) ; Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport ; Croatian Science Foundation ; Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus ; Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ecuador ; Ministry of Education and Research, Estonia ; Estonian Research Council, Estonia ; European Regional Development Fund, Estonia ; Academy of Finland ; Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture ; Helsinki Institute of Physics ; Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules / CNRS, France ; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives / CEA, France ; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, Germany ; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany ; Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany ; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece ; National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, Hungary ; Department of Atomic Energy, India ; Department of Science and Technology, India ; Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran ; Science Foundation, Ireland ; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy ; Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Republic of Korea ; National Research Foundation (NRF), Republic of Korea ; Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia ; Lithuanian Academy of Sciences ; Ministry of Education ; University of Malaya (Malaysia) ; Ministry of Science of Montenegro ; BUAP ; CINVESTAV ; CONACYT ; LNS ; SEP ; UASLP-FAI ; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand ; Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission ; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland ; National Science Center, Poland ; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal ; JINR, Dubna ; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ; Federal Agency of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation ; Russian Academy of Sciences ; Russian Foundation for Basic Research ; National Research Center Kurchatov Institute ; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia ; Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion, Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Plan Estatal de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica y de Innovacion 2013-2016, Plan de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion 2013-2017 del Principado de Asturias, S ; Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, Spain ; Ministry of Science, Technology and Research, Sri Lanka ; ETH Board ; PSI ; SNF ; UniZH ; Canton Zurich ; SER ; Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei ; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics ; Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology of Thailand ; Special Task Force for Activating Research ; National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand ; Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey ; Turkish Atomic Energy Authority ; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine ; State Fund for Fundamental Researches, Ukraine ; Science and Technology Facilities Council, U.K. ; US Department of Energy ; US National Science Foundation ; Marie-Curie program (European Union) ; European Research Council (European Union) ; Horizon 2020 (European Union) ; Leventis Foundation ; A. P. Sloan Foundation ; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium) ; Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium) ; F.R.S.-FNRS (Belgium) ; FWO (Belgium) ; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic ; Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary) ; New National Excellence Program UNKP (Hungary) ; NKFIA (Hungary) ; Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India ; HOMING PLUS program of the Foundation for Polish Science ; European Union, Regional Development Fund ; Mobility Plus program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education ; National Science Center (Poland) ; National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund ; Programa de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu ; Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias ; Thalis program ; Aristeia program ; EU-ESF ; Greek NSRF ; Rachadapisek Sompot Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) ; Chulalongkorn Academic into Its 2nd Century Project Advancement Project (Thailand) ; Welch Foundation ; Weston Havens Foundation (U.S.A.) ; Estonian Research Council, Estonia: IUT23-4 ; Estonian Research Council, Estonia: IUT23-6 ; Horizon 2020 (European Union): 675440 ; FWO (Belgium): 30820817 ; NKFIA (Hungary): 123842 ; NKFIA (Hungary): 123959 ; NKFIA (Hungary): 124845 ; NKFIA (Hungary): 124850 ; NKFIA (Hungary): 125105 ; National Science Center (Poland): Harmonia 2014/14/M/ST2/00428 ; National Science Center (Poland): Opus 2014/13/B/ST2/02543 ; National Science Center (Poland): 2014/15/B/ST2/03998 ; National Science Center (Poland): 2015/19/B/ST2/02861 ; National Science Center (Poland): Sonata-bis 2012/07/E/ST2/01406 ; Welch Foundation: C-1845 ; An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).