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This article discusses the challenges and opportunities identified in the implementation of the Citylab project in Latin America during the period of 2015-2018. The project was funded by the Erasmus+ Key action 2 programme of the European Union. The project aims to innovate teaching for sustainability in higher education institutions through Problem Based Learning (PBL). Opposed to traditional teaching methods, the pedagogical approach of PBL is a learner-centred approach that takes a complex problem as point of departure instead of existing established knowledge. Since application of such learning methods is limited in Latin America, the Citylab project attempts to introduce PBL in the existing curricula of 12 Latin American universities through the implementation and development of interdisciplinary Citylab modules focusing on sustainable urban development. Citylab project will be presented. Third, we highlight some critical issues and success factors experienced during the project. The findings of this paper are based on (1) self-reported questionnaires from the partners at the end of 2017; (2) onsite visits by the authors and expert visits; (3) focus groups, interviews and conversations with project leaders of the participating institutions during the project. Depending on the institution, the project results were varying in terms of innovation and upscaling potential. Critical factors were related to the role of the project leader in the organization, the flexibility of the implementation and cultural differences. Internal regulations created both incentives and disincentives for participation. Competitive elements in the project and available resources for equipment can act as stimulators in some cases. The challenge lies moreover in detecting windows of opportunities for change in order to accomplish curriculum reform and by doing so, pursue continuation of the PBL approach after the project's horizon.

With schools and universities closing across Europe, the COVID-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the COVID-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article's five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.

The increasing number of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe places new demands on European education systems. In this context, the role that free digital learning (FDL) could play in fostering inclusion has attracted renewed interest. While the existing literature highlights some general design principles for developing FDL for migrants and refugees, there is little information on the use of FDL at specific education levels, or for specific learning purposes. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study that was carried out as part of the Moocs4Inclusion project of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) between July and December 2016. The study, which has a European focus, disaggregates the analysis of FDL initiatives by what were identified as its three most common purposes: (a) language learning, (b) civic integration and employment, and (c) higher education. For each of these topics, the study sheds light on the approaches used by a wide sample of initiatives, users' levels of awareness of what is available and take up, and migrants' and refugees' perceptions of the current offer. In order to collect the information needed to cover different approaches and perspectives, semi-structured interviews with 24 representatives of 10 FDL initiatives and four focus groups with 39 migrants and refugees were carried out. The results show that there are indeed overlaps between the purposes of FDL initiatives and their design principles. Specific recommendations on how to better design FDL initiatives for migrants and refugees, taking into account their specific purposes, have also been identified.

Purpose – To ease adjustments in the labour market, many countries have softened their legislation since the 1970s by introducing flexible labour contracts or by making their use easier. The purpose of this paper is to document labour management of temporary contracts during the last 20 years in Belgium, compared to the situation in its neighbouring countries. The authors investigate the determinants of the use of flexible labour contracts and the consequences of their introduction on labour dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – A dynamic Probit is considered to model the use of fixed term labour contracts (FTCs) and standard dynamic labour demand equations are used to test the impact of labour contracts on the labour adjustment at the firm level, using a panel of around 8,000 firms during the period 1998-2005. Findings – The results indicate that some firms follow labour management based on a core (indefinite term contracts – ITCs) and a peripheral component (FTCs) and manage temporary contracts on a "permanent" basis, from a long run perspective. Estimates also confirm a much faster temporary contracts employment adjustment, while ITCs adjustment does not depend on whether firms employ FTCs. ITCs short-term employment elasticity with respect to wages suggests that workers protection against redundancies is strengthened when firms manage work organisation with both types of contracts. In contrast to ITCs, FTCs are used to meet unexpected demand shocks. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the growing literature on the impact of the introduction of new flexible contracts on the labour demand at the firm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper aims at providing evidence on the impact on employment of outward foreign direct investment, particularly from developed countries into low-wage countries, which is a major concern in many developed countries. Design/methodology/approach – The effects of foreign production undertaken by Belgian foreign-oriented companies on employment in Belgium are investigated by performing econometric tests for complementarity or substitution between home and affiliate employment. The data are from the Amadeus database and consist of a sample of 254 Belgian parent companies with foreign affiliates in low-wage and other high-wage European countries during the 1999-2007 period. Findings – The results show that, given the size of parent production in the home country, Belgian multinational enterprises with foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries tend to employ more labour at home the more they produce in the host country. This probably reflects the needs of foreign affiliates in higher-wage European countries for management and supervisory services from parent companies. Another explanation might be that Belgian outward FDI is largely vertical. In contrast, no evidence is found about employment reallocation between parents and affiliates operating in lower-wage European countries. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence on overall effects on employment in Belgium of its outward foreign direct investment for the period 1999-2007, i.e. using the most recent data available. In contrast to many other studies, statistical diagnostic tests were carried out to choose the appropriate model to best fit the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous study, Andersson et al. (A comparative study of segregation patterns in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden: neighbourhood concentration and representation of non-European migrants. Eur J Popul 34:1–25, 2018) compared the patterns of residential segregation between non-European immigrants and the rest of the population in four European countries, using the k-nearest neighbours approach to compute comparable measures of segregation. This approach relies on detailed geo-coded data and can be used to assess segregation levels at different neighbourhood scales. This paper updates these findings with results from Norway. Using similar data and methods, we document both similarities and striking differences between the segregation patterns in Norway and Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. While the segregation patterns in Norway at larger scales are roughly comparable to those found in Denmark, but with higher concentrations of non-European immigrants in the most immigrant-dense large-scale neighbourhoods, the micro-level segregation is much lower in Norway than in the other countries. While an important finding by Andersson et al. (2018) was that segregation levels at the micro-scale of 200 nearest neighbours fell within a narrow band, with a dissimilarity index between 0.475 and 0.512 in the four countries under study, segregation levels at this scale are clearly lower in Norway, with a dissimilarity index of 0.429. We discuss possible explanations for these patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are major drivers of environmental change at all scales and are especially at risk from the ensuing effects, which include poor air quality, flooding and heat waves. Typically, these issues are studied on a city-by-city basis owing to the spatial complexity of built landscapes, local topography and emission patterns. However, to ensure knowledge sharing and to integrate local-scale processes with regional and global scale modelling initiatives, there is a pressing need for a world-wide database on cities that is suited for environmental studies. In this paper we present a European database that has a particular focus on characterising urbanised landscapes. It has been derived using tools and techniques developed as part of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project, which has the goal of acquiring and disseminating climate-relevant information on cities worldwide. The European map is the first major step toward creating a global database on cities that can be integrated with existing topographic and natural land-cover databases to support modelling initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author reconsiders the approach taken by Belgian politicians, working to promote European integration, vis-à-vis the question of European identity, roots and values, as well as their attitude towards European political objectives. We compare these views with those of French authors or politicians. Finally, we examine the current issues surrounding Belgian identity, caught between the French-speaking community and the increasingly strong Flemish identity. By way of a conclusion, I shall try to show how Belgium, with its identity-related issues, is sometimes presented as a ‘test lab for Europe’, as it was in the past, in completely different contexts, in 1921 at the time of the BLEU (Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union) and in 1944 with the founding of the Benelux union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The databases of children's anthropometric parameters are often outdated, rarely representative and are not always available at an international level. Objectives: To present children's anthropometric parameters in six European countries that contributed to the Feel4Diabetes project and find country-specific differences. Design/Setting: The Feel4Diabetes study was performed between 2016 and 2018, targeting children in Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Spain. The current study presents data from the baseline and the yearly follow-up anthropometric measurements. Subjects: In total, 20,832 measurements of children (48.7% boys) between 6 and 10 years of age were conducted. Main outcome measure: weight, height, BMI. Results: Belgian boys had the lowest body weight and height, while Greek boys had the highest body weight, and Finnish had the highest body height. The highest proportion of overweight (percentile above 85%) and obese boys (percentile above 95%) was in Greece, followed by Hungarian, Spanish, Bulgarian and Finnish boys. In contrast, Belgian boys had the lowest ratio in both categories. Among girls, Greece had the highest; Belgium had the lowest body weight; Finland was the highest in all age categories. The ratio in the overweight range was the highest in Greece, followed by Spanish, Bulgarian and Hungarian girls, who were second in the obese category. Finnish girls had lower and Belgian girls had the lowest ratio in both BMI categories. All the detailed data are presented in tables, and the trends are figures. Conclusions: Our study presents fresh and comparable anthropometric data of children between 6 and 10 years of age in six European countries, supporting the need for appropriate obesity prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The common house mosquito Culex pipiens is known to be a major vector for West Nile virus. In order to decrease risks of West Nile virus outbreaks in Europe, insecticides and the bio-larvicide Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) are commonly used for vector control. Alarmingly, insecticide resistance has been reported in Cx. pipiens populations from Southern Europe and several countries neighbouring Europe. For Central and Northern Europe, however, the phenotypic insecticide resistance status of Cx. pipiens has not yet been investigated. Methods: A literature review was performed to assess the geographical distribution of insecticide resistance in Cx. pipiens. To fill the gap of knowledge for Central and Northern Europe, WHO susceptibility tests with permethrin, deltamethrin, malathion, bendiocarb and DDT and a larval toxicity test with Bti were performed with a Cx. pipiens population from Belgium, a country in Central Europe. Results: This research provides the first evidence of widespread phenotypic insecticide resistance in Cx. pipiens. In general, Cx. pipiens developed resistance against multiple insecticides in several countries. Another Cx. pipiens population from Belgium was tested and showed insecticide resistance against deltamethrin, permethrin, DDT and possibly against bendiocarb. The bio-larvicide Bti caused lower mortality than reported for other Cx. pipiens populations in the literature. Conclusions: These results indicate the urgent need for insecticide resistance monitoring against commonly used adulticides and larvicides in Europe, for the translation of knowledge gained regarding the limited efficiency and availability of insecticide into EU legislation and the need for innovative non-chemical vector control tools in order to counter the widespread insecticide resistance in Culex populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The discovery of explosive devices concealed in air cargo in October 2010 triggered an action plan to strengthen air cargo security in Europe. This paper addresses the potential implications for different actors with respect to the introduction of recent European Union (EU) regulation. The focus is on the legislative efforts to reinforce air cargo security and, in particular, the issue of third countries flights to Belgium. Based on existing literature, a review of the legislation and several interviews with experts and different stakeholders in Belgium, it can be concluded that the current air cargo and mail security framework is not satisfactory. Evidence from both the literature review and the interviews points to a necessary policy paradigm shift towards a risk assessment based security process. Special emphasis should be put on a collaborative industry driven supply chain security and the urgent need to harmonize air cargo security procedures at EU level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper looks at firm-level differences in R&D intensity and sales from product innovations. R&D intensity and innovative sales are explained by a model using harmonised firm-level data from the Third Community Innovation Survey for three European countries: Belgium, Germany and Spain. For each country, the average estimates suggest that incoming knowledge spillovers, research cooperation, appropriability and human capital all exercise a positive influence on R&D intensity and, through this, on innovative sales. Quantile regressions indicate that, although there are differences between countries, the joint relative impact of incoming knowledge spillovers and research cooperation tends to increase quantile-wise in relation to that of appropriability. This suggests that strong innovators have a more open innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Przegląd Europejski is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background Tobacco-control policies have been suggested to reduce smoking among adolescents. However, there is limited evidence on the real-world costs of implementation in different settings. In this study, we aimed at estimating the costs of school smoking bans, school prevention programmes and non-school bans (smoking bans in non-educational public settings, bans on sales to minors and bans on point-of-sale advertising), implemented in Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Portugal, for 2016. Methods We retrospectively collected costs related to the inspection, monitoring and sanctioning activities related to bans and educational activities related to smoking prevention programmes. We used an 'ingredients-based' approach, identifying each resource used, quantity and unit value for one full year, under the state perspective. Costs were measured at national, regional, local and school-level and were informed by data on how these activities were performed in reality. Results Purchasing power parities adjusted-costs varied between €0.02 and €0.74 (average €0.24) per person (pp) for bans implemented outside schools. Mean costs of school smoking bans ranged from €3.31 to €34.76 (average €20.60), and mean costs of school educational programmes from €0.75 to €4.65 (average €2.92). Conclusions It is feasible to estimate costs of health policies as implemented in different settings. Costs of the tobacco control policies evaluated here depend mainly on the number of person-hours allocated to their implementation, and on the scale of intervention. Non-school bans presented the lowest costs, and the implementation of all policies cost up to €36 pp for 1 year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this special issue is on the energy transformations taking place in several European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland) and at the federal and subnational (state) levels in the United States with special attention given to California. The cases examined all have federalist structures, and with the exception of the federal level of the United States, all have relatively ambitious climate and renewable energy targets. We compare these states out of an interest in better understanding how federalism interacts with energy transitions. The comparison is also intriguing as at the federal level the United States presents a stark contrast with the federalist European countries considered in this special issue but at the subnational level many similarities can be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Decreasing gender differences in mental health are found largely in countries in which the roles of men and women have improved in terms of opportunities for employment, education, child care and other indicators of increasing gender equality. In this study, we examine how European welfare regimes influence this association between mental health and the social roles that men and women occupy. Methods The EU-World Mental Health data are used, which covers the general population in 10 European countries (n = 37 289); Countries were grouped into four welfare regions: Liberal regime (Northern Ireland), Bismarckian regime (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and France), Southern regime (Spain, Italy, Portugal) and Central-Eastern regime (Romania and Bulgaria). The lifetime prevalence of mood, anxiety and alcohol disorders was determined by using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0. Overall prevalence rates along with odds ratios by means of bivariate logistic regression models are calculated to compare the presence of common mental disorders in women versus men per welfare regime. Results Overall prevalence of common mental disorders is highest in the Liberal regime and lowest in the Central/Eastern regime. The gender gap in mental disorders is largest in the Southern regime and smallest in the Liberal regime. Marital status and certain employment positions help to explain variation in mental disorders across and within welfare regimes. Conclusion Most prominent pathways linking gender to mental ill-health being are related to marital status and certain employment positions. However, these pathways also show substantial variation across welfare regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Health literacy (HL) is an important determinant of health and health behaviours, and there is a need to monitor HL levels among all population groups. It is therefore essential to develop instruments to assess HL during childhood and adolescence. The aim of this study was to examine the cross-national measurement invariance of the instrument Health Literacy for School-aged Children (HLSAC) in four European countries. Methods The data were collected via standardized self-administered anonymous questionnaires within classrooms in Finland, Poland, Slovakia, and Belgium. There were in total 1468 respondents (aged 13, N = 690; aged 15, N = 778). The HLSAC instrument was used to measure the subjective HL of adolescents in each country. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test measurement invariance. Results Configural and metric invariance was established, but scalar invariance did not hold. However, the instrument exhibited high internal consistency (α = 0.85) and showed adequate fit with the data. Moreover, the partial invariance allowed comparison of mean values across the countries in question. There were significant mean value differences between countries and age-groups. Conclusions HL mean values (as assessed via the HLSAC instrument) can be compared across countries. The instrument has utility for large-scale international HL studies on adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitracephalus dumonii was named based on some of the most complete turtle remains from the Lower Cretaceous of Europe, and yet the taxon has barely been mentioned since. Indeed, new specimens were erroneously attributed to a new taxon, "Salasemys pulcherrima". The synonymy is recognized here, and this extends the geographical range of this turtle and provides examples of individuals at different stages of ontogenetic development. The peculiar structure of its shell, and its ontogenetic development, are unique to this taxon. The systematic position of C. dumonii was previously unclear, usually being referred to Testudinata incertae sedis. Here, it is placed in a cladistic analysis, which shows that C. dumonii, and the recently described Hoyasemys jimenezi form part of a Lower Cretaceous European clade of Cryptodira that includes "macrobaenid", "sinemydid", and panchelonioidean turtles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the efficacy of the European Employment Strategy (EES) to function as an intra-governmental coordinative instrument and its impact on labor market policy initiatives and intra-governmental relations. It presents case studies that evaluate the data gathered in the EU, Belgium, Spain, and Sweden on the influence of soft law on intra-governmental relations. It discusses the significance of Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in creating multilevel governance structures.