The European Union must have a closer link to national politics if it is to retain its legitimacy

National governments are still involved in negotiations over nominating a candidate for the next President of the European Commission. Anand Menon writes that while much of this debate has focused on the merits of individual candidates such as Jean-Claude Juncker, the real issue is a structural one concerning the future of the European Parliament. He argues that, whichever candidate is nominated, the European Parliament is no longer fit for purpose as a mechanism for legitimising the EU. Only by forging a stronger link between the Union and politics at the national level can the EU’s democratic legitimacy be ensured

The next UK government must not let talk of a Brexit undermine its attempts to influence EU decision-making

With the UK going to the polls on Thursday, it is still far from certain which party will emerge with enough seats to form the next government. Anand Menon writes that regardless of whether Labour or the Conservatives win power, the issue of Europe will play a key role in the next parliament. He argues that there is a danger talk of a referendum on EU membership could undermine attempts by the UK to shape EU decision-making, which would be particularly undesirable given that the current EU agenda is more congruent with British interests than it has been at any time in recent memory

Speaking for Britain? MPs broadly reflect the views of their supporters on Europe – but one side should worry a little more than the other

Do MPs’ views on Europe reflect those of their voters? Tim Bale (left), Sofia Vasilopoulou, Philip Cowley and Anand Menon asked both groups the same questions about the EU, and found some notable differences on the issues of freedom of movement and migrant benefits. In particular, Labour voters are significantly more Eurosceptic than the MPs they elect

Imaging for Quality Control: Comparison of Systematic Video Recording to the Operative Note in Colorectal Cancer Surgery.

__Background:__ Oncological and functional results after colorectal cancer surgery vary considerably between hospitals and surgeons. At present, the only source of technical information about the surgical procedure is the operative note, which is subjective and omits critical information. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of operative video recording in demonstrating both objective information concerning the surgical procedure and surgical quality, as using a systematic approach might improve surgical performance. __Methods:__ From July 2015 through November 2015, patients aged ≥18 years undergoing elective colorectal cancer surgery were prospectively included in a single-institution trial. Video recording of key moments was performed peroperatively and analyzed for adequacy. The study cases were compared with a historic cohort. Video was compared with the operative note using the amount of adequate steps and a scoring system. __Results:__ This study compared 15 cases to 32 cases from the historic control group. Compared to the written operative note alone, significant differences in availability of information were seen in favor of video as well as using a combination of video plus the operative note. __Conclusions:__ Systematic video registration is feasible and seems to improve the availability of essential information after colorectal cancer surgery. In this respect, combining video with a traditional operative note would be the best option. A multicenter international study is being organized to further evaluate the effect of operative video capture on surgical outcomes

Severity of Diverticulitis Does Not Influence Abdominal Complaints during Long-Term Follow-Up

Background: Diverticulitis can lead to localized or generalized peritonitis and consequently induce abdominal adhesion formation. If adhesions would lead to abdominal complaints, it might be expected that these would be more prominent after operation for perforated diverticulitis with peritonitis than after elective sigmoid resection. Aims: The primary outcome of the study was the incidence of abdominal complaints in the long-term after acute and elective surgery for diverticulitis. Methods: During the period 2003 through 2009, 269 patients were opera

On bursty star formation during cosmological reionization - how does it influence the baryon mass content of dark matter halos?

The baryon mass content of dark matter halos in the early Universe depends on global factors - e.g. ionising ultraviolet (UV) radiation background - and local factors - e.g. star formation efficiency and assembly history. We use a lightweight semi-analytical model to investigate how local and global factors impact halo baryon mass content at redshifts of $z\geq 5$. Our model incorporates a time delay between when stars form and when they produce feedback, which drive bursts of star formation, and a mass and redshift dependent UV background, which captures the influence of cosmological reionization on gas accretion onto halos. We use statistically representative halo assembly histories and assume that the cosmological gas accretion rate is proportional to the halo mass accretion rate. Delayed feedback leads to oscillations in gas mass with cosmic time, behaviour that cannot be captured with instantaneous feedback. Highly efficient star formation drives stronger oscillations, while strong feedback impacts when oscillations occur; in contrast, inefficient star formation and weak feedback produce similar long-term behaviour to that observed in instantaneous feedback models. If the delayed feedback timescale is too long, a halo retains its gas reservoir but the feedback suppresses star formation. Our model predicts that lower mass systems ($\leq 10^7 \text{M}_\odot$) at $z \leq 10$ should be strongly gas deficient, whereas higher mass systems retain their gas reservoirs because they are sufficiently massive to continue accreting gas through cosmological reionization. Interestingly, in higher mass halos, the median $m_\star/(m_\star+m_\text{g}) \simeq 0.01-0.05$, but is a factor of 3-5 smaller when feedback is delayed. Our model does not include seed supermassive black hole feedback, which is necessary to explain massive quenched galaxies in the early Universe.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australi

UK in a changing Europe: injecting social science into a polarised political debate

Reflecting on seven years of UK in a Changing Europe, Anand Menon and Jill Rutter discuss how the project has brought social science insights into the mainstream of a polarised public debate. Highlighting how this mode of engagement falls outside of orthodox ‘REF Impact’ and lessons learned, they suggest there are further opportunities to deploy similar models to other socio-political challenges

Cytokines as early markers of colorectal anastomotic leakage: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose. Colorectal anastomotic leakage (CAL) is one of the most severe complications after colorectal surgery. This meta-analysis evaluates whether systemic or peritoneal inflammatory cytokines may contribute to early detection of CAL. Methods. Systematic literature search was performed in the acknowledged medical databases according to the PRISMA guidelines to identify studies evaluating systemic and peritoneal levels of TNF, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10 for early detection of CAL. Means and standard deviations of systemic and peritoneal cytokine levels were extracted, respectively, for patients with and without CAL. The meta-analysis of the mean differences was carried out for each postoperative day using Review Manager. Results. Seven articles were included. The meta-analysis was performed with 5 articles evaluating peritoneal cytokine levels. Peritoneal levels of IL-6 were significantly higher in patients with CAL compare

A hierarchy index for networks in the brain reveals a complex entangled organizational structure

Networks involved in information processing often have their nodes arranged hierarchically, with the majority of connections occurring in adjacent levels. However, despite being an intuitively appealing concept, the hierarchical organization of large networks, such as those in the brain, are difficult to identify, especially in absence of additional information beyond that provided by the connectome. In this paper, we propose a framework to uncover the hierarchical structure of a given network, that identifies the nodes occupying each level as well as the sequential order of the levels. It involves optimizing a metric that we use to quantify the extent of hierarchy present in a network. Applying this measure to various brain networks, ranging from the nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to the human connectome, we unexpectedly find that they exhibit a common network architectural motif intertwining hierarchy and modularity. This suggests that brain networks may have evolved to simultaneously exploit the functional advantages of these two types of organizations, viz., relatively independent modules performing distributed processing in parallel and a hierarchical structure that allows sequential pooling of these multiple processing streams. An intriguing possibility is that this property we report may be common to information processing networks in general.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures + 10 pages Supplementary Informatio

Public views on principles for health care priority setting: findings of a European cross-country study using Q methodology

International audienc