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The UK has the highest rate of cannabis use among young people worldwide. Dr. Alan Leshner, Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse reports, "Every year more than 100,000 people, most of them adolescents, seek treatment for their inability to control their marijuana use." According to the Scottish Drug Misuse Statistics in Scotland 2002, 51% of individuals under 20 years have used cannabis. Cannabis use is not limited to youth; it is also the single-most used illicit drug among adults. Because of their widespread negative impact, illicit drugs have become a focus of the agenda of the English Parliament and there is ongoing debate on how to combat this problem. As the research assistant of Michael Matheson (MSP), the author compiled this report to gather information on cannabis and to assess approaches that would form the most effective cannabis policy. This research explores whether or not the recent change toward decriminalization is adequate, or if it needs further revising.

In the beginning of 1947 Kingsley Martin published his vision of the press as it was and as it should be in The Press the Public Wants. Whoever wanted the tiny papers of the late 1940s? No one, it would seem, least of all the newspapers themselves who complained they could not function in the way they should, due to the inadequate supply of newsprint. Newsprint rationing seems to have been even more controversial in the Netherlands than in Britain. This article probes the similarities and differences between the situation of the daily press in Britain and the Netherlands, after World War II with particular reference to the scarcity of newsprint, in order to understand some of the dynamics of media structure. An important explanatory factor in the matter of a response to the newsprint restrictions may have been the degree of commercialization of the press as a whole, and of particular newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potentially, technology transfer offices (TTOs) can play a significant role in facilitating the successful transfer of technologies and knowledge between universities and industry. Many developing countries are currently developing technology transfer practices within their universities. However, many developing country TTOs operate inefficiently or are ineffective. The sharing of experiences can lead to improvements in this endeavour. Advanced nations can serve as a frame of reference and a basis of policy recommendations for developing countries due to the longevity of their technology transfer activities. The authors issued 234 questionnaires to European university TTOs, of which 54 usable questionnaires were returned. They combine the data from these questionnaires with 19 interviews conducted with university TTO staff from 9 countries in an attempt to create a typology of practices that developing nations could emulate to improve technology transfer in their own contexts. While ultimately a clear typology was not forthcoming, the authors found some relationship between the dominant focus in the mission statement of developed country TTOs, the activities they undertake, their position in the university governance structure and their level of maturity which may usefully inform the development of TTO practices in developing countries.

Background: Involvement of young partners by experience in research is on the rise and becoming expected practice. However, literature on how to promote equitable and meaningful involvement of young people is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to describe and reflect on different approaches between researchers and young partners by experience based on six research projects conducted in Canada, Netherlands, and United Kingdom. Methods: From six exemplar research projects, at least one researcher and one young partner by experience were asked to collaboratively (1) describe the project; (2) summarise the values and practicalities of the project; and (3) reflect on their partnership. Thematic analysis was applied to the findings from these reflective exercises, which included meeting summaries, recordings, and notes. Results: All projects shared similar values, including mutual respect between all team members. Young partners were offered a variety of opportunities and approaches to being involved, for example in recruiting participants, co-analysing or (co-)presenting results. Supports were provided to the teams in a variety of ways, including organizing accessible meetings and having dedicated facilitators. Regular and proactive communication was encouraged by using asynchronous modes of communication, establishing reference documents, and a personal approach by facilitators. Facilitators aimed to tailor the needs of all team members by continuously discussing their preferred roles in the project. While most projects did not offer formal research training, various learning and skill development opportunities were provided throughout, including presenting skills or advocacy training. Conclusion: With this paper, we demonstrated the value of reflection, and we invite others to reflect on their partnerships and share their lessons learned. Our recommendations for involvement of young people in research are: (1) Remember that it is okay to not know what the partnership might look like and there is no single recipe of how to partner; (2) Take the time to invest in partnerships; (3) Provide ongoing opportunities to reflect on partnerships; (4) Consider how to balance the power dynamics; and (5) Consider how to incorporate diversity in the background of young partners in research. Plain English summary: In more and more projects, researchers and young people are working together in partnership; but there is little guidance about how to organize this partnership. In this paper, we share what partnerships in six projects from Canada, Netherlands, and United Kingdom looked like, so that others can be inspired. To do so, a researcher and a young partner from each project were asked to together: (1) describe their project, (2) summarize the practical details about the collaboration and (3) think about things that went well or could be improved. We found that all projects had the same beliefs important to partnerships, like having respect for each other. Young people could work on parts of the project they liked in a way that worked for them. They were supported by staff, could join meetings and were appreciated for their work. Clear communication during and in-between meetings was helpful. Youth were often asked about the role they wanted in the project. While there was often no formal training on how to do research, there were many opportunities to learn. We offer six recommendations to researchers and young people who want to partner together: (1) It is okay to not know what the partnership will look like and there is no single recipe of how to partner; (2) Take your time; (3) Discuss how the partnership is going; (4) Think about who is doing what and why; (5) Consider the diversity of young partners. We hope others will share their experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision makers in adult social care are increasingly interested in using evidence from research to support or shape their decisions. The scope and nature of the current landscape of adult social care research (ASCR) need to be better understood. This paper provides a bibliometric assessment of ASCR outputs from 1996 to 2011. ASCR papers were retrieved using three strategies: from key journals; using keywords and noun phrases; and from additional papers preferentially citing or being cited by other ASCR papers. Overall, 195,829 ASCR papers were identified in the bibliographic database Scopus, of which 16 per cent involved at least one author from the UK. The UK output increased 2.45-fold between 1996 and 2011. Among selected countries, those with greater research intensity in ASCR generally had higher citation impact, such as the USA, UK, Canada and the Netherlands. The top five UK institutions in terms of volume of papers in the UK accounted for 26 per cent of total output. We conclude by noting the limitations to bibliometric analysis of ASCR and examine how such analysis can support the strategic development of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a report of the "European Educational Research Journal" (EERJ) Roundtable that sought to describe what national educational research programmes are doing, how they are working together, and how they might contribute to the developing European Educational Research Space. The Roundtable was an opportunity for one large consortium of national programmes to explain their intentions and create an opportunity for dialogue. Researchers from six national research programmes (United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and France) have been working closely to develop a cooperative decision-making system; web-based knowledge-sharing; cooperative analyses of best practice; joint examination of common policy problems and opportunities; and pilot implementation of new approaches to research training and dissemination. The discussion, chaired by Martin Lawn ("EERJ" Editor), was introduced by short contributions from Andrew Pollard (University of Cambridge), Kirsti Klette (University of Oslo) and Hannele Niemi (University of Helsinki). A response was given by Filip Dochy (University of Leuven), President of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). There appeared to be almost universal agreement that the educational research community needs to pay greater attention to internationalisation of research processes. To this end, the collaboration of national research programmes did offer one way of achieving this through progressive interaction between partners and their associated research communities.

Demand response (DR) can potentially provide a cost-efficient alternative for balancing the electricity grid by replacing fossil-fuelled power plants for the provision of flexible capacity. This paper aims to quantify the cost reduction potential of DR from a system perspective. Historical data of balancing markets are studied using regression and average bid price analysis to quantify the effect of the participation of DR resources on the price of flexible capacity for the provision of balancing reserves by focusing on two case studies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. It is estimated that DR bids are, on average, 35% lower than the market average. The regression analysis concluded that 1% higher participation of DR in balancing markets leads, on average, to a 2.7% lower prices for flexible capacity. The results verify the hypothesis that flexible DR capacity is offered at a lower price on balancing markets compared to conventional generation resources, resulting in lower costs for grid operators to balance the grid, thus reducing societal costs for electricity provision and overall emissions through the integration of low-carbon balancing resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces three new scales to measure left- and right-wing radical as well as general extremist attitudes that can be applied across Western European countries. We therefore propose a thorough conceptualization of extremist attitudes that consists of two dimensions: general extremism, by which we understand attitudes that oppose the constitutional democratic state, and another dimension that differentiates between right- and left-wing radicalism by which we understand people who take far-reaching but often one-sided positions on political issues (e.g., on nationalism or anti-imperialism) by advocating fundamental socio-political change. Based on data from Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands (n = 6,201) we created short indices for general extremism and left- and right-wing radicalism. We check for convergence validity by assessing the psychometric properties of the extracted indices, i.e. their internal coherence and the degree to which a scale is able to distinguish strongly extremist and non-extremist individuals. Finally, we correlate the scales with various constructs that are likely related to extremist attitudes in order to assure external or construct validity. The results indicate that the three scales are highly valid and applicable across three Western European countries. Overall, we find that about two to four percent of citizens in each country hold left-wing or right-wing extremist attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main issues in the debate on urban constitutionalism is how constitutions can recognize the increasingly important role of cities in relation to the nation-state. This paper examines what we talk about when we talk about city autonomy. This is a pressing question, particularly in the context of European unitary states. This paper pays special attention to the context of two of such states, namely the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (especially England). First, it explores the notion of subsidiarity, which implies that consideration should be given to the distinctiveness of the city as regards the allocation of power to the central and regional levels respectively. However, this idea in itself cannot justify the case for city autonomy, as the claim that the attribution of autonomous powers to cities may improve the quality of decision-making in the state as a whole needs additional empirical evidence. Second, it investigates the concept of city autonomy by exploring the fuzziness of the notion of the city. In addition, it introduces the concept of 'spatial identities' in order to explain the interdependence of (large) cities and their surrounding (rural) areas. Lastly, it concludes that if the importance of cities as constitutional actors is to be increased, it should be done so in an informal way rather than by the introduction of formal constitutional arrangements both from a pragmatic and a normative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost 80 million people globally are forcibly displaced. A small number reach wealthy western countries and seek asylum. Over half are children. Wealthy reception countries have increasingly adopted restrictive reception practices including immigration detention. There is an expanding literature on the mental health impacts of immigration detention for adults, but less about children. This scoping review identified 22 studies of children detained by 6 countries (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Netherlands, the UK and the US) through searches of Medline, PsychINFO, Emcare, CINAHL and Scopus data bases for the period January 1992–May 2019. The results are presented thematically. There is quantitative data about the mental health of children and parents who are detained and qualitative evidence includes the words and drawings of detained children. The papers are predominantly small cross-sectional studies using mixed methodologies with convenience samples. Despite weaknesses in individual studies the review provides a rich and consistent picture of the experience and impact of immigration detention on children's wellbeing, parental mental health and parenting. Displaced children are exposed to peri-migration trauma and loss compounded by further adversity while held detained. There are high rates of distress, mental disorder, physical health and developmental problems in children aged from infancy to adolescence which persist after resettlement. Restrictive detention is a particularly adverse reception experience and children and parents should not be detained or separated for immigration purposes. The findings have implications for policy and practice. Clinicians and researchers have a role in advocacy for reception polices that support the wellbeing of accompanied and unaccompanied children who seek asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of sustainability information disclosure on consumers' choice of order-to-delivery lead-time in relation to consumers' sustainability concern. Design/methodology/approach: Based on two choice experiments with participants from the Netherlands (n = 348) and the United Kingdom (n = 1,387), the impact of sustainability information disclosure was examined in connection with consumers' concerns for environmental and social sustainability. Information on environmental impact (carbon emission) and social impact (warehouse workers and drivers' well-being) was considered and compared. Findings: Disclosing sustainability impact information significantly increased consumers' preference and choice for longer delivery times, with equivalent effects for environmental and social impact information. Consumers' relevant (environmental or social) sustainability concern as personality traits enhanced effects on preferences, as did priming of environmental concern. Research limitations/implications: Future research may consider differences between product categories or e-commerce companies' reputation in sustainability activities. Practical implications: The findings provide opportunities for online retailers to influence consumer choice of delivery time, especially through disclosing environmental and/or social sustainability information. Originality/value: This study fills a gap in the literature on sustainability information disclosure to actively steer consumer choice of delivery time, particularly regarding the effect of social sustainability impact information in comparison to its environmental counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A paper reporting the development of the ICECAP-O was published in 2006. Since then, there has been increasing interest in the use of capability-based measures within health economics and the ICECAP-O has been suggested for use in economic evaluation by decision-making bodies in the Netherlands and UK.Methods: A systematic review of studies published between January 2006 and October 2018 which have assessed the psychometric properties of ICECAP-O or utilised the measure within economic evaluation.Results: Twenty-four studies explored the psychometric properties of ICECAP-O and 21 have utilised the measure within economic evaluation; one study reported psychometric properties as well as utilising the measure within economic evaluation. The ICECAP-O has good construct validity and responsiveness, but there is evidence of some issues relating to content validity. In the context of economic evaluation, the ICECAP-O has, to date, mainly been included as a secondary economic measure and the reporting of results is brief with minimal detail and often no discussion. Five of the economic evaluation studies combined scores from ICECAP-O with time, but each used different terminology to describe this result.Conclusion: Focus, in terms of publications, appears to have shifted now from assessment of psychometric properties to the utilisation of the ICECAP-O within economic evaluation. Further research is needed with respect to a decision-rule for the ICECAP measures. This additional research should also guide users in terms of appropriate analysis, terminology and presentation of results, which are in-keeping with the conceptual framework underpinning the ICECAP-O. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is now no doubt that current global production-consumption-disposal systems are threatening the fundamental conditions of existence on this planet. In response, the pressing need for total system transformation has gained civic and political traction, feeding into long-standing debates and interventions that are aimed at recalibrating prevailing economic and social practices. One such debate and intervention is that of the circular economy (CE). Here, advocates argue that current linear resource and energy use systems must be reconfigured into loops of re-use, repair, refurbishment, and recycling, displacing primary production and lessening greenhouse gas emissions in the process. This agenda has potentially profound implications for aspects of daily social practices. Yet, to date, little attention has been paid (politically and in research) to how the CE does and will interact with everyday habits, norms, and meanings. In response, this paper explores some of the conceptual assumptions underlying the CE 'consumer'. It argues that mainstream CE debates are underscored by an impoverished view of our relationships with complex material cultures, which in turn is creating barriers to transformation. Drawing on empirical research into responses to the CE in the UK and the Netherlands, this paper contrasts the challenges of inciting consumers to take up new, resource-efficient business models in contexts of hyper-consumerism, with a more hopeful 'small story' of overt, small-scale circular spaces, that nevertheless embed the CE and its underlying impetuses more clearly into the everyday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Study: Technology‐supported learning environments, act as significant observational and enabling indicators for evaluating and encouraging the digital revolution of education, are of vital importance in current educational research. Keeping track of the dynamics of technology‐supported learning environment research allows for the enrichment of theoretical studies and a prompt innovation of talent‐training environments. Objectives: The present study carried out a bibliometric analysis of the core collection of WoS database over the last two decades. Method: This study is a bibliometric research. We applied CiteSpace and VOSviewer for co‐occurrence and evolution analysis. In addition, we extracted the fundamental ideas and thoughts through reading and analysis. Results: First, the study found that technology‐supported learning environment research is in a growth phase, with core journals such as Interactive Learning Environments or Computers & Education. The findings show that a core research team comprised of such scholars as Hwang Gwo‐Jen, Lester James C. and Wong Lung‐Hsiang. Key nations of publishing and research strength are from China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Second, the hot topics in research on technology‐supported learning environments were virtual learning environments, technology‐enabled learning environments and interactive learning environments. Nine study specifics were derived from these three topics such as moulding function, generating scenario, stimulating sensation, effect verification, design idea, research reflection, inquiry and research, virtual community, and mixed environment. Lastly, the frontier evolution offers a pattern of development from enhancing performance to changing mode to incorporating experience. Conclusion: Looking ahead, our research recommendations for the field of technology‐supported learning environments include a multifaceted approach. We should aim to enhance research designs and methodologies, develop contemporary guiding theories and strive for a balanced representation across various educational domains, expanding our scope to encompass all academic disciplines. In terms of practical application, it is imperative to focus on the design and implementation of technology‐supported learning environments from three critical perspectives: "change‐demand," "student‐learning" and "online‐offline." These approaches will collectively ensure that technology‐supported learning environments are both innovative and responsive to the diverse needs of the educational landscape. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Technology‐supported learning environments are currently a focal and hot research topic in the field of education.Although numerous studies have been conducted on the learning environment of technical support, there has yet to be a systematic and comprehensive review of the related research. What this paper adds: This study provides a comprehensive review of research on the technology‐supported learning environments over the past two decades.This study primarily presents an overview of research on the technology‐supported learning environments over the past two decades, focusing on main literature, research strength, hot topics and frontier evolution. Implications for practice and/or policy: Researchers need to further advance research on technology‐supported learning environments by enriching research designs and methods, constructing up‐to‐date guiding theories and achieving a balance across different educational domains while extending the reach to all disciplines.Educational practitioners need to pay attention to the design and implementation of technology‐supported learning environments from the three viewpoints of "change‐demand," "student‐learning" and "online‐offline." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrant minority (IM) languages have a significant presence in certain European regions. Nonetheless, these languages are not usually included in the school curriculum. This paper aims to analyse the studies published between 2010 and 2020 considering IM languages in multilingual European education contexts. The method included a search of academic papers published in the databases ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus, which yielded 42 studies. The studies were analysed by considering: (1) the demographic characteristics of the countries where the studies were conducted, (2) the sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic focus of the papers in relation to the European country, and (3) the characteristics of the bi-multilingual education programme including IM languages. The results indicate that: (1) the demographic characteristics of the country are not strictly related to the number of studies published, (2) most studies have a sociolinguistic approach even though many studies analyse both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors, and (3) only seven multilingual education programmes including IM languages were described in these papers. We conclude that there is a lack of research focusing on IM languages in educational settings and discuss how addressing these gaps could create opportunities for building equitable multilingual communities in Europe.

In democratic societies, the political process ultimately is about making value judgements. Comparative cultural policy research indicates different value orientations may be behind cultural policies of different nations. It has also indicated developments that are common, such as democratisation of culture, neoliberalisation of politics and globalisation. As of yet, such value changes have not been studied at the level of cultural policy documents analysed as text. This article proposes a methodology to study value changes behind cultural policies over time and across nations. Based in the "pragmatic sociology" of Boltanski, Thévenot, and Chiapello, the article presents a big data methodology to uncover value changes of policy documents over time, between different policy agents, and across nations using material from the UK and the Netherlands. The paper explains the methodology, discusses the implications of the preliminary outcomes and provides suggestions for further comparative policy analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green bond market helps to mobilize financial sources toward sustainable investments. Green bonds are similar to conventional bonds but are specifically designed to raise money to finance environmental projects. The feature of green bonds is the existence of greenium, or the lower yield compared to "conventional" bonds of the same risk. The relevance of the paper is underpinned by the mixed evidence on the existence of 'greenium', especially in corporate green bond markets; there has been limited research on the topic and a narrow focus on global, US, or Chinese green bond markets. Instead, the greenium in European debt markets remains underexplored. The objective of this study is to investigate the existence of greenium and its key determinants in European corporate debt capital markets, including the local markets of the United Kingdom (UK), France, Netherlands, and Germany. The sample included 3851 corporate bonds, both green and conventional ones, between 2007 and 2021 from 33 European countries. Linear regression was applied for the analysis. The results show that the climate corporate bonds in Europe are priced at a discount to the same-risk conventional corporate bonds. The magnitude of greenium is around 3 bps. Determinants of greenium include the presence of an ESG rating and belonging to the utility and financial industry. The remaining drivers of bond yields in the European corporate debt market are the credit quality (expressed by the level of credit rating), the coupon size, the bond tenor, the market liquidity, and macroeconomic variables (growth of gross domestic product and consumer price index). For the local corporate debt markets, our results are controversial. In all markets under consideration except for the UK and the Netherlands, we did not find sustainable evidence of greenium. The results of the research lead to a better understanding of the green bond market for investors, researchers, regulators, and potential issuing companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronological thinking is an indispensable tool to structure a historical narrative and to give meaning to a sequence of events. It is not a natural skill, so the conscious inclusion of tasks stimulating that skill in teaching is crucial. It is important to appropriately test students' chronological skills by means of well--constructed examination tasks administered at the conclusion of subsequent stages of education. The authors discuss tasks that assess chronological thinking included in contemporary exam papers in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Russia, the USA and the United Kingdom. The tasks included in Polish arts and humanities exam papers at the lower secondary school level in the years 2002-2011 and the first history paper (2012) are then analysed. The final section presents the results of a survey to test the chronological thinking of lower secondary school students carried out by the Educational Research Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess what an overview of theoretical literature and case study material can tell us about the different ways crime has been organised in the past in different cultures and whether this has any impact on the ways in which crime may be organised in the present and the future. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on an examination of Mcintyre’s work on how crime is organised and later political, economic and civil society views of criminality. Brief discussion of case studies involving the UK, The Netherlands, the Arab world, Ethiopia and Russia is used to see how crime was organised there in the past. Findings – There is a greater variety of variables in the way crime was organised historically than McIntyre suggests, and an examination of civil society might pay greater dividends than even looking at politics or economic aspects of organised crime. Research limitations/implications – The study is preliminary. More historical case study material needs to be accessed. Originality/value – There are many research case studies, particularly at PhD level and in subjects other than criminology, such as history, language studies and cultural studies generally, which have not been brought together to present an overall picture. This paper is a first step in that direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the economic policy uncertainty in various countries has gradually increased with the increasing complexity of global economic situation, and foreign direct investment and trade have also been impacted. As a historic event, does Brexit affect the economic consequences of economic policy uncertainty? In this regard, we aim to examine the Brexit spillovers on five major EU member states and the UK through economic policy uncertainty. Cluster analysis and TVP-VAR model are used to analyze the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade (TRADE) during Brexit. The results at different time horizons show that, in addition to the Netherlands, impulse responses of foreign direct investment and international trade have the characteristics of positive and negative conversion. Despite all this, impulse responses of international trade are lower than those of foreign direct investment. Time points when foreign direct investment and international trade have the greatest impulse response vary from country to country. Overall, the impact of economic policy uncertainty on them is more reflected in the late Brexit period. Based on the above findings, we draw policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the COVID crisis, the Netherlands and the UK were embarking on national energy transitions away from fossil fuel systems. However, the arrival of the pandemic unequivocally altered the trajectory of energy transitions on a global scale. Every country in the world is now grappling with the twin challenges of the COVID crisis and the climate crisis, and there is a grave risk that the short-term demands of the former could eclipse the vital long-term actions needed to address the latter. While there is optimism that green economic recoveries will propel energy transitions through investments, there is an urgent need to assess and address any new policy barriers which COVID poses to achieving them. To do so, in the summer of 2020, researchers conducted pairs of interviews with 30 experts within the social and energy sectors, involving government, industry and third sector stakeholders. Key research questions sought to identify the policy barriers acting – inadvertently or otherwise – to disrupt that balance between tackling COVID and the energy transition, and the mechanisms available to restore the necessary equilibrium. Through a structured analysis of policy barriers to the energy transition post-COVID, we assess its delivery in both countries. We derive a new taxonomy and definition of policy barriers. We also generate a suite of 10 policy recommendations, which were placed in priority order by the interviewees themselves. The paper concludes with observations on those recommendations, the differences noted between the two countries, and the validity of using policy barriers for policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current COVID-19 pandemic confines people to their homes, disrupting the fragile social fabric of deprived neighbourhoods and citizen's participation options. In deprived neighbourhoods, community engagement is central in building community resilience, an important resource for health and a prerequisite for effective health promotion programmes. It provides access to vulnerable groups and helps understand experiences, assets, needs and problems of citizens. Most importantly, community activities, including social support, primary care or improving urban space, enhance health through empowerment, strengthened social networks, mutual respect and providing a sense of purpose and meaning. In the context of inequalities associated with COVID-19, these aspects are crucial for citizens of deprived neighbourhoods who often feel their needs and priorities are ignored. In this perspectives paper, illustrated by a varied overview of community actions in the UK and The Netherlands, we demonstrate how citizens, communities and organizations may build resilience and community power. Based on in-depth discussion among the authors we distilled six features of community actions: increase in mutual aid and neighbourhood ties, the central role of community-based organizations (CBOs), changing patterns of volunteering, use of digital media and health promotion opportunities. We argue that in order to enable and sustain resilient and confident, 'disaster-proof', communities, areas which merit investment include supporting active citizens, new (digital) ways of community engagement, transforming formal organizations, alignment with the (local) context and applying knowledge in the field of health promotion in new ways, focussing on learning and co-creation with citizen initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and well-being consequences of social isolation and loneliness in old age are increasingly being recognised. The purpose of this scoping review was to take stock of the available evidence and to highlight gaps and areas for future research. We searched nine databases for empirical papers investigating the impact of social isolation and/or loneliness on a range of health outcomes in old age. Our search, conducted between July and September 2013 yielded 11,736 articles, of which 128 items from 15 countries were included in the scoping review. Papers were reviewed, with a focus on the definitions and measurements of the two concepts, associations and causal mechanisms, differences across population groups and interventions. The evidence is largely US-focused, and loneliness is more researched than social isolation. A recent trend is the investigation of the comparative effects of social isolation and loneliness. Depression and cardiovascular health are the most often researched outcomes, followed by well-being. Almost all (but two) studies found a detrimental effect of isolation or loneliness on health. However, causal links and mechanisms are difficult to demonstrate, and further investigation is warranted. We found a paucity of research focusing on at-risk sub-groups and in the area of interventions. Future research should aim to better link the evidence on the risk factors for loneliness and social isolation and the evidence on their impact on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how a qualitative methodology can be used to gain novel insights into the demands of wheelchair racing and the impact of particular racing chair configurations on optimal sport performance via engagement with expert users (wheelchair racers, coaches, and manufacturers). We specifically explore how expert users understand how wheels, tires, and bearings impact sport performance and how they engage, implement, or reject evidence-based research pertaining to these components. We identify areas where participants perceive there to be an immediate need for more research especially pertaining to the ability to make individualized recommendations for athletes. The findings from this project speak to the value of a qualitative research design for capturing the embodied knowledge of expert users and also make suggestions for "next step" projects pertaining to wheels, tires, and bearings drawn directly from the comments of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Network Sites (SNSs) provide a platform for different actors to directly communicate populist ideas. Politicians and citizens can bypass elite media by directly speaking to the people via social media. Although a growing body of research has investigated the effects of populist messages, extant research has not explicitly compared how the dissemination of populism by (1) traditional media, (2) politicians, and (3) ordinary citizens can activate populist attitudes on the demand-side of the electorate. Relying on a comparative experiment in three countries (the US, UK, and the Netherlands, N = 1,096), this paper shows that the effects of populist messages on populist attitudes are contingent upon four factors: (1) the likelihood of selecting populist content in real life, (2) relative deprivation, (3) political cynicism, and (4) identification with the "ordinary people" as a source of populist ideas. There are no direct effects of populist communication by the news media, citizens, or politicians. Source cues on their own thus do not make populist communication more or less persuasive. Together, this study shows that people are most likely to be persuaded by populist messages when these messages confirm dissent, source identification, and media exposure patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To report a systematic review of the psychometric properties of self-report instruments to identify the symptoms of anxiety in pregnancy to help clinicians and researchers select the most suitable instrument. Background Excessive anxiety in pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes, developmental and behavioural problems in infants and postnatal depression. Despite recommendations for routine psychological assessment in pregnancy, the optimal methods to identify anxiety in pregnancy have not been confirmed. Design Psychometric systematic review. Data sources A systematic literature search of the multiple databases (1990-September 2014). Review methods Identification of self-report instruments to measure anxiety in pregnancy using COSMIN guidelines to assess studies reporting a psychometric evaluation of validity and reliability. Results Thirty-two studies were included. Studies took place in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain and the Netherlands. Seventeen different instruments were identified. Measures of validity were reported in 19 papers and reliability in 16. The overall quality of the papers was rated as fair to excellent using the COSMIN checklist. Only one paper scored excellent in more than one category. Conclusion Many instruments have been adapted for use in different populations to those for which they were designed. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale have been tested more frequently than other instruments, yet require further assessment to confirm their value for use in pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in higher education institutions (HEIs) as instruments for development has increased in recent years. The main objective of this paper is to address the contribution of HEIs to development through their missions, models, and challenges. With this purpose, we perform a historical analysis and characterise higher-education systems through the perspective of university models and missions, noticing relevant aspects regarding the evolution of this institution over time, as well as the transformations undergone. We also consider the main challenges that current higher education systems face in the 21st century. As methodological approaches, we carry out a literature review complemented by a comparative analysis based on data from the higher education systems of ten European countries. The findings show that HEIs can contribute to development through their missions, which are related to the models of higher education. Their first mission (teaching) contributes to improving human capital and attracting highly qualified people to their regions; the second mission (research) improves scientific knowledge which can foster innovative activities; and the third mission (community service) acts as a link between research and business, including patents, business incubators, and collaboration agreements. We also conclude that the challenges of higher education in the 21st century can be categorised essentially in three main areas: (1) globalisation and massification of higher education, as well as the internationalisation of HEIs' missions and diversification of the educational supply to attract new students; (2) new technologies related to the digitalisation of teaching and distance learning; and (3) higher education entrepreneurship, showing the importance of university-company relationships. This paper provides a global setting for a reflection on the role of HEIs in the 21st century, given their connection with society and the need for a more effective contribution to socio-economic development.

In some institutions of higher learning, one of the approaches to successful governance is through student assessment of teachers, dubbed Student Assessment of Faculty or Student Evaluation of Teaching and extensively used in the United States of America (USA). In schools and colleges, the usual largest bloc and primary stakeholders are the students. Students should therefore assess teachers for the purpose of improving the system for all stakeholders including themselves. Teaching is a service in a marketing framework and where it is offered, the buyer is in the best position to assess the offering for better performance. This paper advocates for student assessment of their teachers at the end of each teaching cycle and suggests a basket of approaches to reduce the dissonance that accompanies the exercise where applied. A template is suggested in the paper.

Purpose – Technology is an important driver of organizational change and often strategically used to facilitate adaptations in organizational processes and cultures. While the link between technological and organizational change is widely recognized, the role of macro-context for this link remains undervalued. Based on data from technology implementations in European police forces the paper aims to illustrate the importance of integrating analyses of the macro-context to understand the complexity of technology driven organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted 56 interviews and five focus groups with police officers from 13 countries on two of the major technology trends in European police forces: automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPR) systems and social media. They further conducted site visits to police forces in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom to observe technology usage first hand. Comparing accounts across countries they analyzed how macro-context impacted adoption decisions and implementation processes. In this analysis they concentrated on the five macro-contextual factors in the PESTL framework, i.e. political, economic, social, technological and legal factors. Findings – In analyses of ANPR systems and social media the paper details how the macro-context of police organizations impacted decisions to adopt a technology as well as the intra-organizational alignments of processes and structures. Practical implications – Organizational decision makers and implementers need to be aware not only of the strong agency of technology for organizations' structure and processes, but also of the relevance of the organizational macro-context for the process and impact of technology implementations on the organizational as well as individual level. Originality/value – The paper illustrates the impact of the macro-context of organizations in shaping the link between technological change and organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk, including flood risk, can be defined as 'the combination of the probability of an event and its consequences'. Assessing and managing the risk from flooding should explicitly include the estimation of impacts to people. Extensive research is currently ongoing looking at both quantitative and qualitative approaches for assessing flood impacts on people. Although there is some literature available on such approaches, examples of methodological and routinely applications of these methodologies as part of flood risk assessments are rare. This paper focuses on quantitative approaches for estimating impacts of flooding to people, notably on methods for assessing fatality numbers associated with flooding. Three methods for assessing losses of life are discussed in detail. The methods discussed here constitute the forefront of research in Canada, UK and The Netherlands. These methods provide an assessment of the physical consequences of flooding on people and can be used to introduce the impacts to people as quantitative metric for the assessment of flood risk. In this paper, the three methodologies are discussed and applied in a UK case study reproducing the 1953 East Coast flood event. This study aims to provide a comprehensive comparison on both the reliability and the applicability of the methods. We analyse possible added values on using of these methods in systematic analyses, aiming to provide guidelines for applying these methods for flood fatality risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, horizon scanning has been recognised as part of forward-looking government processes in a number of industrialised countries. It helps policy-makers in addressing the diversity of future societal and environmental challenges and in addressing the potential of emerging areas of science and technology in an integrated way. This paper discusses the usefulness of horizon scanning as an additional tool for future-oriented technology analysis activities, such as technology foresight and scenario building. Analysing the national horizon scans of the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark in a joint horizon pilot project initiated under the ERA-Net ForSociety, this paper makes a series of recommendations regarding horizon scanning processes at the national level and the construction of common future-oriented policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of physical, mechanical and operational characteristics of foreign lubricants. In the article presented NLGI and DIN system classifications. The classification of oils and lubricants discussed by the difference between these systems and the peculiarities. Requirements for the quality of lubricants and oils presented according to the NLGI classification. The National Lubricating Grease Institute developed the NLGI classification of lubricants. NLGI developed the automotive oil quality category defined in ASTM D4950 "Standard Classification and Specification for Automotive Service Oils" in collaboration with ASTM International and SAE International. NLGI classification includes the distribution of lubricants by consistency (viscosity or density) and quality categories. The operating temperature requirements and the field of application recommended for lubricants with different degrees of viscosity. The article presents considerable attention to DIN classification systems. The German standard DIN 51502-1990 established a single system for marking and identification of lubricants. The unified classification of lubricants by type, application, consistency, water resistance, maximum and minimum operating temperature, and type of additives included in the grease, allows you quickly and easily to select the lubricant for specific conditions of application, of the mechanism, identify all characteristics by labelling. The standard establishes the classification of lubricants depending on the areas of application, type of dispersion medium, the presence of anti-wear and antifriction additives, fillers, and takes into account their water resistance and temperature range of application. The range of aviation greases of foreign production quite fully are discussed in this paper. The analysis of lubricants of NYCO (France), AeroShell (Netherlands - Great Britain), Royco (United States of America), WEGO (Czech Republic), Expert Oil (Russian Federation) different companies and trademarks presented in this article. The most common and widespread aviation lubricants and their characteristics, operating parameters and endurance limits analyzed and presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the presence of interest organizations in political news in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands between 1990 and 2017. Previous research on organized interests in the media revealed (1) a consistent overrepresentation of business interests across countries, but (2) also that this overrepresentation has decreased over time in a European context. However, these studies are snapshots of interest group patterns with either cross-country or longitudinal variation, and important players such as corporations have been largely excluded by European scholars. We argue that including corporations affects previous conclusions as it reveals substantial differences across countries and an increasing role of business interests in the news. We use a data set of Dutch and British news articles, in which we identified 34,657 interest organizations. This endeavor highlights that the distribution of organized interests in the media is skewed toward business interests and has not become more diverse. This suggests that the important insider role of business interests translates to outsider venues, which tells us something about how the news media maintain these patterns through the construction of news stories. These findings interfere with ideas of representativeness and flourishing democracies with a diverse public debate in which many different voices are expressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care circulated within transnational families is a crucial element in the families' social protection and reproduction transnational social protection arrangements, based on a system of reciprocity between migrants and their families 'back home'. Recent studies have shown the complexities of transnational caregiving arrangements, yet the focus has remained on the provision of care between parents and children, largely neglecting the intricacies of care-receiving within extended family networks. Care may feel differently depending on the perspective of either the provider or the receiver. Despite the caregiver's good intentions, care might be experienced as a burden by the receiver. Moreover, as a culturally embedded practice, receiving care across culturally and geographically distant contexts may present additional challenges. This paper investigates the agency of female care-receivers to navigate the care provided by different male family members abroad, while protecting themselves and their children's wellbeing. Rather than focusing on caregiving practices between parents and children, this article addresses care dynamics within extended families. Drawing on a multi-sited matched-sample ethnography with Sudanese transnational families across the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan, I examine the strategies of these women to manoeuvre the reception of unwanted care while avoiding conflict with their relatives and gaining control of their own and their children's bodies. In exploring the intricacies of care-receiving in transnational family networks, I analyse how geographical distance may exacerbate the perception of different care needs, while at the same time giving the care-receivers more space to navigate the reception of unsolicited care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the subprime financial crisis, the countries who were worst affected set about reforming legacy financial regulations. Given multiple similarities in the way they experienced the crisis and the similar complexions of their post-crisis economies and politics, the contrast between the UK and the Netherlands' approaches to breaking up their largest banks presents a puzzle for prevailing theories in the politics of financial regulation. Both countries explored a range of reform options using similar expert committees, but while UK policymakers determined that commercial and investment operations should be ring-fenced in the largest British banks, the Dutch reform program centered on the banks' own recommendations to change banking culture from the bottom up by developing a code of conduct and banker's oath. The paper traces this divergence to two related effects produced by the countries' contrasting majoritarian and consensus party systems: power sharing and coalition formation. Under conditions of high issue salience, both worked to encourage British policymakers to prioritize reform, while in the Netherlands each factor reduced party political responsiveness and de-emphasized alternatives to the banks' own reform prescriptions. The paper ultimately suggests that institutional democratic variables are worthy of greater recognition among scholars of business power and financial regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermittent self-catheterisation (ISC) is the method of choice for men with lower urinary tract symptoms who need to drain retained urine from the bladder. It is preferred to using an indwelling urinary catheter as it has lower risks of complications and catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Learning ISC can be challenging for men initially but, with the support of knowledgeable nurses experienced in teaching ISC, the technique can be learned, accepted and normalised, improving symptom control and quality of life. This paper discusses the results of a survey exploring men's experiences of learning ISC with the Hydrosil Go™ (C.R. Bard Inc—now part of Becton, Dickinson and Company) silicone catheter and to highlight issues important to men when learning and living with ISC. The survey collected data from four countries: UK, France, Netherlands and Italy. It aims to help nurses who teach ISC and inform them to discuss what matters to men when learning and living with ISC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neoliberal restructuring of government policies in developed nations since the 1970s has stimulated many observers to observe the “roll back” of the state from social assistance, including housing. Some suggest that the “roll out” of new forms of state activity are occurring. This paper argues that perceptions of “roll back” and “roll out” arise from a particular conception of the capacity of the state that focuses on apparent state action over discursive production. A modified version of governmentality theory is deployed to demonstrate that despite perceptions of a weakening state housing assistance presence in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and New Zealand, the conceptive and discursive role of the state has remained strong. The paper concludes by arguing that greater appreciation of the persistent pragmatic capacity of the state to define the objects, subjects and relationships of housing policy fruitfully illuminates the condition of the state under neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the approaches of a sample of small firms to environmental issues in the UK and the Netherlands are compared. The study makes a contribution by addressing the lack of research on small firms and the environment, as well as offering insights into the influence that cultural, institutional, and political frameworks can have on small firm owner-managers' attitudes to external issues. The environment is considered here as an ethical issue, drawing on work on the environmental responsibility of business by both Bowie (1990) and Hoffman (1991). It is argued that the approaches to the environment identified in this study by Dutch and UK small firm owner-managers do not fit in with the positions of either Bowie or Hoffman. The concept of stakeholder cooperation is proposed as a more realistic alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some possibilities for applying the linguistic and psychological theories of two dialogists, Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Lacan, to the classroom. There is a short summary of how the two theories may interact with each other and then a discussion of their two opposing views of identity formation. Bakhtin was a Russian, coming from the collectivist paradigm and Lacan's theories were arcane combinations of Freud's emphasis on the needs of the individual and French post-Revolutionary individualism. Lacan insisted that one could only become "whole" at the cost of incompleteness for another. Bakhtin opined that completeness could only be achieved within experiences shared and co-constructed by others. This paper concludes with the question of how teachers can ensure the positive experience of co-construction rather than one person paying a cost for the other's identity-formation and whether it is possible to fully implement insights from a collectivistic paradigm in an education system where the stated aim is to enable each individual to meet his/her potential. (Contains 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

Social housing providers in many advanced economies have been directed towards market-orientated and commercial business models, whereas the scope of the private rental sector has been increasingly expanded to the provision of housing for low-income households. Where these developments coincided, the demarcation between the activities of social and private landlords has blurred, with the result of increasing competitive pressure on both groups. This paper sheds light on the behavioural aspects of competition by introducing the concept of inter-landlord rivalry in local rental housing markets. Drawing on data from 36 in-depth interviews with social and private landlords in Coventry/England and Breda/the Netherlands, this study shows that existing perceptions of rivalry among most landlords are exceptional in low-income renting but pronounced in more expensive, commercial rental segments. The paper will demonstrate that these perceptions are highly subjective and non-reciprocal. Moreover, competitive perceptions and interactions are strongly affected by political and market structural settings, and appear to be dependent on the trade-off between the social mission and commercial goals of individual housing associations in the social housing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing Post Office scandal in the UK and the 2021 Child Daycare Benefit Scandal in the Netherlands make up exemplary cases of how digital automation has changed and in fact severely harmed trust relations ranging from trust in oneself over trust in social roles, trust in institutions, trust in technology and general trust. By looking closer at how digital automation in these cases generated ruptures in the lives of ordinary citizens and also affected the involved institutions and society at large I discuss how we may begin to discuss the impact of digitalization on trust in societies. I start with an introduction to the panoramic view of trust, followed by a short description of the two scandals. Based on the exploration of the two cases I take an ex post facto perspective on the dynamic social events as they unfolded in the scandals in order to analyze how the introduction of digital automation tools affected trust relations. I draw attention to some of the most noticeable changes in the four relations of trust, which is trust in institutions, interpersonal trust, trust in oneself and trust in technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global trade in the 21st century is characterised by complex value chains. Successful exporters usually rely on quality imports, and exported goods cross borders many times before reaching their final consumer. This poses challenges to economic measurement as well as policymaking because it becomes difficult to characterise the true interdependencies between countries. Currently, estimates of the share of imports from a trade partner destined for re-exports, and the share used in the domestic economy, are crude at best. We develop a novel approach to estimate these shares. Instead of assigning imports for re-exports proportionally across all source countries, we consider the origin of imports for each trader who re-exports goods. The method is illustrated for the Netherlands, a major re-exporter. We find that non-European member states export 10 billion euros of commodities to the Netherlands that are destined for re-export to the United Kingdom. We also find that the goods trade deficit between the Netherlands and the United States is drastically reduced when taking re-export flows into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global consumer lending has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8 per cent forecasted to 2020. The financial system is once again at risk; it is a decade since the credit crunch, yet the causes have not been solved; however, globally, the outstanding amount of credit doubled compared to the lending volume of 2008. Also, increasingly more credit decisions are being taken today. Furthermore, millennials' service expectations drive transformation from traditional lending into digital lending. The CAGR for digital lending is 53 per cent until 2025. Therefore, in this growing information age, new methods for credit risk scoring could form the central pillar for the continuity of a financial institution and the stability of the global financial system. This paper contains research from across the UK and the Netherlands: two advanced lending markets, selected because of their advancements in digital lending, to examine to what extent lenders can advance their credit decisions with individual risk assessments with artificial intelligence (AI). The research has applied supervised learning and has been performed on 133,152 mortgage and credit card customers in prime, near prime and sub-prime lending segments of three European lenders across the UK and the Netherlands during the period January 2016 to July 2017. As candidate models, we chose neural nets and random forests, as they are the most popular supervised learning methods in credit risk for their benefit of applying both structured and unstructured data. The research describes three experiments that develop the AI probability of default models and compares the model quality with the quality of the traditional applied logistic probability of default (PD) models. In all experiments, AI models performed better than the traditional models. Scalable automated credit risk solutions can therefore build on AI in their risk scoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]