Neo-Voluntarism: A New European Social Policy Regime?

Abstract: The essay begins with a recapitulation of core institutional properties of the European Union as they have evolved over several decades. The leading insight deriving from this exercise is that European social policy will always, for all practical purposes, be made simultaneously at two levels, a supranational one and a national one, and will be shaped by complex interactions between them and among the national systems situated in the integrated market economy of the Union. Proceeding from here, the remainder of the paper examines the two levels of social policy-making, beginning with the supranational and moving on to the national, in an effort to identify the kinds of policies that are most likely to emerge given the constraints and opportunities offered by the institutional framework.     

Time-dependent immunohistochemical detection of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1beta,IL-6, TNF-alpha) in human skin wounds

The proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) hold important functions in the early and late courses of inflammation, trauma and wound healing. In the present study, human skin wounds due to sharp force (n = 105) were collected during surgery and autopsy. The wound age mainly varied from several minutes to 5 h, some specimens aged up to 6 weeks. Control specimens from uninjured skin were available in each case. After preparation of cryostat sections, immunohistochemistry was performed according to the APAAP technique, using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. The results were evaluated semiquantitatively. All markers were weakly expressed in normal human skin constitutively. However, the staining pattern changed significantly in vital wounds concerning epidermal layers, subepidermal cells, vessels and sweat glands. IL-1beta and IL-6 showed enhanced expression after 15 and 20 min at the earliest (increase of epidermal reactivity). After 30-60 and 60-90 min, respectively, marked expression was observed with these markers. Similar alterations were detectable with TNF-alpha after 15 and 60-90 min. The reactivity of all three markers persisted over several hours, then decreased to basal levels again and sometimes reappeared after days and in granulation tissue. Leukocytes reacting with IL-1beta and IL-6 appeared after approximately 2 h. CONCLUSION: proinflammatory cytokines can serve as a useful tool for the estimation of vitality and wound age, in particular in the early post-traumatic interval prior to leukocyte reaction. Autolysis did not play a role in the samples investigated (postmortem interval up to 8 days). Problems could sometimes rise from constitutive expression. Therefore, it is recommended to examine control samples from the same individual and to compare the reactivity with wound specimens.     

Analysis of crisis intervention processes

The remediation processes in psychosocial crisis intervention were modeled focusing on cognitive orientation. Frequent observations and subsequent process modeling constitute a novel approach to process research and reveal process-outcome associations. A sample of 40 inpatients who were assigned to treatment in a crisis intervention unit was monitored in order to study the process of crisis intervention. The process data consisted of patients' self-ratings of the variables mood, tension, and cognitive orientation, which were assessed three times a day throughout hospitalization (M = 22.6 days). Linear time series models (vector autoregression) of the process data were computed to describe the prototypical dynamic patterns of the sample. Additionally, the outcome of crisis intervention was evaluated by pre-post questionnaires. Linear trends were found pointing to an improvement of mood, a reduction of tension, and an increase of outward cognitive orientation. Time series modeling showed that, on average, outward cognitive orientation preceded improved mood. The time series models partially predicted the treatment effect, notably the outcome domain "reduction of social anxiety," yet did not predict the domain of symptom reduction. In conclusion, crisis intervention should focus on having patients increasingly engage in outward cognitive orientation in order to stabilize mood, reduce anxiety, and activate their resources.     

Mapping and Explaining Parliamentary Rule Changes in Europe: A Research Program

We outline a comprehensive research program on institutional reforms in European parliaments. Original data show that parliamentary rules in Western European parliaments have been changed frequently and massively during the period from 1945 to 2010 suggesting that actors use institutional reforms as a distinct strategy to pursue their substantive goals. We discuss how institutional instability affects existing theoretical and empirical arguments about institutional effects. Furthermore, we present four ideal‐typical approaches to analyzing rule changes, present new software tools for identifying and coding changes in large text corpora, and demonstrate their usefulness for valid measurement of the overall change between subsequent text versions.