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Objectives Comprehensive smokefree laws, as recommended by the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), are the most effective tool to protect the population from secondhand smoke (SHS) and to ensure healthy environments. Studies evaluating how laws govern SHS protection are scarce. This study assessed the level of protection from SHS of laws from countries belonging to the WHO European Region. Methods A new methodology system was developed to evaluate the smokefree legislation according to the principles provided by the WHO guidelines for the correct implementation of Article 8 of the FCTC. For each law, six main sectors and 28 facilities were evaluated. Results Overall 68 laws from 48 countries from the WHO European Region were reviewed. 'Education' and 'Public transport' were the most protected sectors from SHS. Many WHO European laws do not provide protection from SHS across all public sectors. For example, 48.5% of general health facilities and 71.2% of restaurants are unprotected from SHS. The level of protection provided in the 28 facilities studied was low; many WHO European laws still allow smoking under certain conditions, permitting smoking in designated and/or ventilated areas. Conclusions Nine years after the adoption of the WHO FCTC there are still legal formulas in which smoking is allowed in several facilities, through the inclusion of separated areas, ventilated areas and other conditions. Tobacco control efforts still face the challenge of eradicating the legal clauses that prevent 100% smokefree environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of serious games to improve collaborative skill transfer and retention has received considerable attention from scholars, web marketing practitioners and business consultants. Team rankings and learning progress in game learning analytics, however, have yet to be empirically examined. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to study the performance of competing teams in a web marketing serious game (Simbound), we highlight a combination of causal conditions (engagement, reach and profitability) affecting team rankings. This paper proposes a conceptual architecture of the forces that influence learning progress within a collaborative learning environment. This learning environment is studied for web marketing boot camps powered by Simbound at three European universities: Grenoble Alpes University (France), University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) and Dunarea de Jos University of Galati (Romania). Gaining knowledge of cases through game learning analytics is valuable for two reasons: It emphasises the instructor’s role in mobilising players’ engagement, and it tests variability across cases, offering precursors of team performance rankings. This approach to collective skill retention highlights the moderating factors of team performance rankings, whilst purposely calibrating a gameable learning environment. This paper enriches our knowledge of how active experimentation in learning analytics metrics can develop skills for real business competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging is exacerbating the loss of competences in the workforce and simultaneously young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEETs) are struggling to be reengaged in employment. These issues, which are deemed priorities for the European policy agenda, could be addressed by triggering active aging dimensions, valuing and exploiting older adult entrepreneurs' knowledge for enhancing youngsters' entrepreneurial attitudes, through mentoring. This paper reports the results of a study based on an intergenerational learning program, carried out in 2018 in Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The study was aimed at developing and testing one training on mentoring addressing 41 older adult entrepreneurs (55 and over), and two intergenerational learning trainings aiming at boosting entrepreneurial competences of 33 NEETs (aged 18–29). The impact of the program on older adult entrepreneurs and NEETs was assessed through a pre and post-evaluation using qualitative and quantitative tools. Findings at country level were treated as national case-studies and then the latter were compared by considering them as a multiple embedded case-study. Results indicated that, to different extent in the study countries, mentors learned and enhanced mentoring competences, e.g. active listening and the capability of orienting, improved well-being and self-esteem, social inclusion and active aging attitude. Moreover, NEETs acquired entrepreneurial and socio-relational competences by benefiting from the full exploitation of mentors' know-how and the trust relationship with them. Companies, trade unions, educational and voluntary organizations should cooperate to adopt intergenerational learning programs as good practices for older adults and NEETs' lifelong learning promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cryptomarkets, or illegal anonymizing online platforms that facilitate drug trade, have been analyzed in a rapidly growing body of research. Previous research has found that, despite increased risks, cryptomarket sellers are often willing to ship illegal drugs internationally. There is little to no information, however, about the extent to which uncertainty and risk related to geographic constraints shapes buyers' behavior and, in turn, the structure of the global online drug trade network. In this paper, we analyze the structure of a complete cryptomarket trade network with a focus on the role of geographic clustering of buyers and sellers.Methods: We use publicly available crawls of the cryptomarket Abraxas, encompassing market transactions between 463 sellers and 3542 buyers of drugs in 2015. We use descriptive social network analysis and Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to analyze the structure of the trade network.Results: The structure of the online drug trade network is primarily shaped by geographical boundaries. Buyers are more likely to buy from multiple sellers within a single country, and avoid buying from sellers in different countries, which leads to strong geographic clustering. The effect is especially strong between continents and weaker for countries within Europe. A small fraction of buyers (10%) account for more than a half of all drug purchases, while most buyers only buy once.Conclusion: Online drug trade networks might still be heavily shaped by offline (geographic) constraints, despite their ability to provide access for end-users to large international supply. Cryptomarkets might be more "localized" and less international than thought before. We discuss potential explanations for such geographical clustering and implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The European Disability Strategy (2010-2020) seeks to significantly raise the proportion of people with disabilities working in the open labour market. The ERGO WORK project is a collaboration of academic and industrial partners in six European countries, focused on understanding and tackling barriers to workplace inclusion for workers with disabilities. Methods: This study sought to explore the perceptions and needs of stakeholders in terms of workplace adaptation to the needs of employees with disabilities. An exploratory online survey was completed by 480 participants across six countries. Results: The analysis suggests that workplaces could be further improved to meet the needs of employees with considerable scope for training within companies to raise awareness about employees' needs, employers' obligations and workplace adaptation. Conclusions: This snapshot suggests there is still a gap between intent and reality in workplace inclusion and further strategies are needed to improve the opportunities for employees with disabilities. The paper argues that ergonomics may have a key role to play in tackling these challenges and adapting the workplace environment and job design to suit the needs of individual employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the view of many students, business and engineering education in Europe today do not sufficiently take into account complex problems, tendencies of chaos and uncontrollable business behaviour, and the lack of mutual trust in business transactions. Additionally, universities seem to fail in creating leaders, instead focusing on educating future managers. Therefore, the student-run international organisation the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (ESTIEM) offers a whole series of educational activities and programmes in parallel to their own university courses. It is based on the concept of experiential learning. Through ESTIEM, we, students of Industrial Engineering Management, learn and practise working in teams with shared and rotating leadership among ourselves. These experiences are to be described in the paper in some more detail, as a model for university education in industrial engineering and management. Furthermore, the following questions will be tackled: What does leadership mean today? How are problems handled by leaders and managers in industry nowadays? How can leadership to solve complex problems be taught in the university? As a consequence, it is suggested to develop out of the ESTIEM programmes, a series of university-equivalent ESTIEM courses. In the long term, the goal might be to realise the vision of a genuine Europe-wide 'ESTIEM University' in its own right, similar to normal universities which will help in shaping new leadership generation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Regardless their high potential, renewable energy resources are insufficiently exploited in Europe. This paper examines the potential of social marketing for renewable energy sources. It uses acceptability and willingness to pay results from existing surveys on renewable energy sources and generates a marketing mix for the state, organizations, businesses and consumers. These surveys typically claim to produce results that will be useful for policy making or marketing purposes. However, after they distinguish the parameters that affect acceptability or choice and willingness to pay, they do not go deeper to demonstrate the ways for the exploitation of the results. Therefore, this paper gauges the gap between the results from consumer stated preference studies and the insights generated for social marketing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper focuses on the EU discourse on Higher Education and analyses this discourse within the context of globalisation. Importance is attached to the issues of lifelong learning, competitiveness, diversification, entrepreneurship, access, knowledge society, modernisation, quality assurance, innovation and creativity, governance and business-HE partnerships. The paper also provides a critical analysis of this discourse focusing on certain issues involved in policy borrowing and transfer, the corporatisation of HE, international competition with the USA and Asia and the implications of all these aspects of the dominant EU HE policy discourse for HE and the public sphere. The paper seeks to tease out the tension that exists in the discourse between neo-liberal tenets and the idea of a Social Europe. References throughout the paper will be made to the situation concerning HE in a variety of contexts in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of factors influencing job satisfaction in post-transition economies on the example of the Czech Republic. Our research shows that women reported higher levels of job satisfaction compared to men. Education proved to be statistically significant in one of three indicators of job satisfaction. Personal income and workplace relationships proved to be positively and significantly related to all the three indicators of job satisfaction. Most of the occupational dummies were significantly related to two out of three indicators of job satisfaction. In addition, we found that Czech entrepreneurs enjoy and value their job, which indicates strong self-selection for doing business in post-transition economies. However, human capital expressed by the level of education was significant factor for job satisfaction, meaning that well- educated people might not be satisfied with their jobs or feel that their education and experience are wasted in the market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to present an overview of the importance of standards for PCBs when doing business in Europe and to provide information that will enable a better understanding of how to meet their requirements. Design/methodology/approach - A review of PCB standards and their implementation processes in different countries of Europe and further afield was conducted. Findings - By applying the latest technical and ecological standards in a correct way and differentiating between "must have" and "desired" in a weighted process, a greater likelihood of success in business dealings will be achieved. Research limitations/implications - This paper has highlighted the importance of producing PCBs to the required specifications of the end-user and the locally implemented standards. Each potentially important standard needs to be identified in the context of the products being supplied, the end customer application and the specific regional requirements. Originality/value - The paper details how individual standards are applied to printed circuit boards and circuit board materials. It outlines the important considerations that have to be taken into account when supplying PCBs to European customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Knowledge-intensive services (KIS) are important activities for regional growth and considered to be located at the top of urban and regional hierarchies. However, the widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICT) may lead to a higher degree of decentralisation. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of KIS across European regions, highlighting some important patterns. Our results confirm that the location of KIS remains linked to regions with a high international profile but, contrary to what some previous studies have suggested, the relative concentration of KIS is rather low. However, important differences exist depending on the type of KIS, the country analysed and the comparative statistical level. Recent trends also present uneven results, but show a higher concentration of business services-related KIS. The importance of tacit knowledge may play a role in explaining this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology that assists persons with disabilities has been offered since long in the European countries. Many companies have been involved in the different support areas mainly for restoration and enhancement of hearing, vision, mobility and handling or assistance of activities of daily living. With the constitution of the common European market the set up and interaction of such companies in the market has gained attention on the background of the harmonisation process. The HEART study [1] presented a first look at the situation based on previous activities of e.g. COST 219 [2] and the CORE project [3]. HEART study line B [4] stated that "the European assistive technology market is fragmented because of geographical, cultural and political differences". It identifies problematic issues and market conditions of the early 1990s. With the development of the European Union and on the background of growing economies, of changing societies, of change of social legislation and the enormous progress of ICT technology subsequent investigations looked at the market from different perspectives [5-7]. Actually, market change has been observed by the studies but overall also many problems still have remained and not all potential is yet used. This paper makes an attempt to highlight the important aspects of the various study results and tries to come up with preliminary conclusions to be fed into the further discussion process for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid- 1760 s, the British capital remittances from India became an important means of payment in trade between Asia and Europe. The established research of the remittance flows primarily relates to the role of English East India Company and of private trade in Asia; little is known about the role of other European agents. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of minor Swedish and Danish East India companies in the remittance business c. 1760–1786. The major focus is on the Swedish East India Company' s payment strategy in acquiring its return cargoes in Canton. The study shows that remittances in the form of bills of exchange played a significant role in acquiring the company' s return cargoes between 1766 and 1782. The two Scandinavian companies were important conveyors of British remittance money via Canton to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]