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Current diagnosis of concussion relies on self-reported symptoms and medical records rather than objective biomarkers. This work uses a novel measurement setup called BioVRSea to quantify concussion status. The paradigm is based on brain and muscle signals (EEG, EMG), heart rate and center of pressure (CoP) measurements during a postural control task triggered by a moving platform and a virtual reality environment. Measurements were performed on 54 professional athletes who self-reported their history of concussion or non-concussion. Both groups completed a concussion symptom scale (SCAT5) before the measurement. We analyzed biosignals and CoP parameters before and after the platform movements, to compare the net response of individual postural control. The results showed that BioVRSea discriminated between the concussion and non-concussion groups. Particularly, EEG power spectral density in delta and theta bands showed significant changes in the concussion group and right soleus median frequency from the EMG signal differentiated concussed individuals with balance problems from the other groups. Anterior–posterior CoP frequency-based parameters discriminated concussed individuals with balance problems. Finally, we used machine learning to classify concussion and non-concussion, demonstrating that combining SCAT5 and BioVRSea parameters gives an accuracy up to 95.5%. This study is a step towards quantitative assessment of concussion.

The European Union (EU) is cloaked in expressions of solidarity in a multitude of forms. Despite the fundamental role played by the solidarity in the EU, cracks have appeared and become more evident across Member States. The Euro – a transnational single currency – was a bold endeavour when it was first established, and the jump to it was expected to generate a leap forward for solidarity in the Union; by making European integration stronger, and more resilient. The prolonged battle of the sovereign debt crisis that emerged in 2009 tested the limits of solidarity across the EU: a confrontation waged on multiple levels, playing into constitutional frameworks and socio-economic divisions, and exacerbating the fault-lines between Member States. Yet despite frequent arguments made to the contrary, solidarity was a feature of the financial crisis, albeit of a particular kind. The legitimate expectation of what role different concepts of solidarity ought to have played (particularly where fiscal redistribution is concerned), compared to the role it actually served, ensured that an expectations deficit opened.This chapter examines solidarity within the EU’s legal framework in the context of the Eurozone crisis. It analyses the ramifications of the idea of solidarity, variously defined, and the implications it may have for the future direction of the Union as it faces ever-greater challenges. This contribution makes three important claims. First, the Eurozone crisis, rumbling on for the past decade, has seen instances of negative rather than positive solidarity being expressed transnationally across Europe. Second, that solidarity and its forms are – legally speaking – grossly misunderstood in an EU context. Third, it is argued that future crises, financial or otherwise, will continue to generate mixed attitudes towards solidarity in Europe, for the fault-lines that became evident in the past decade have not been fully paved over. Accordingly, true transnational solidarity across the EU will need significant time to develop before it can ever be considered ‘organic’ (to borrow Durkheim’s concept).

Since the EU treaties constitute solidarity as one of the EU’s fundamental values (Articles 2, 3 (2) TEU). In a community of law, the validity of this value depends on its capacity as a legal principle. This chapter asks what, if anything, the case law of the Court of Justice (ECJ) contributes to the discursive exegesis of solidarity as a principle of EU Constitutional Law. In order to answer this question, it offers an empirical analysis of the Court’s case law framing the notion of solidarity, providing a unique database evaluating all 122 cases elaborating on the concept. The analysis distinguishes three categorial types of solidarity (solidarity as charity, as mutual obligation and as risk mitigation) and three functional types of solidarity (embedding individual rights, embedding the Internal Market, rejecting limiting effects of national solidarity). The chapter identifies a number of missed opportunities, and a high degree of inconsistency. A more assertive and consistent approach to solidarity could, however, contribute to supporting a more inclusive constitutional discourse on European integration than the mere reliance on liberal constitutional principles.

The chapter explores the symbols and myths of EU transnational solidarity through a three-fold analysis of transnational solidarity within, across, and beyond the EU. Based on post-Cold War study of the EU in global politics over the past three decades, the chapter compares and contrasts transnational solidarity from communitarian and cosmopolitan perspectives before advocating a cosmopolitical understanding of EU transnational solidarity in a global context. The chapter proceeds by delineating and theorising the concepts used, including symbols and myths, European integration, and transnational solidarity in order to prepare the ground for the next three analytical sections. Section two examines transnational solidarity within the EU by looking at symbols and myths of communitarian, cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitical solidarities. Section three looks across the borders of the EU to consider the symbols and myths of communitarian, cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitical solidarities within the European neighbourhood. Section four goes beyond the EU to analyse the symbols and myths of communitarian, cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitical solidarities with distantly situated others through EU external actions. The chapter concludes by arguing the need to clearly identify, in line with Carol Gould , transnational EU solidarities as overlapping networks of relations that share and support actions to eliminate oppression or reduce suffering. It is furthered argued that cosmopolitical solidarities that network and share global ethics with local politics are more likely to take actions in concert that are caring and empathic towards distantly situated others.

A discussion of the changing narratives involving gay and lesbian families and how that has influenced family law in the United Kingdom

Bidrag til: "Vort hjerte er uroligt, indtil det finder hvile i dig - Festskrift i anledning af Jesper Fichs 25 års præstejubilæum 9. juni 2009"