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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.

Governments, businesses, and educational institutions need to collaborate and make significant investments in order to address the growing digital skills crisis. In Europe, hundreds of digital skills initiatives have been launched with different forms of government and private industry support in the last five years alone. Consequently, digital skills initiatives have come to encompass a wide array of interventions. In this context, this paper proposes a typology of digital skills initiatives that was developed based on the analysis of over 300 initiatives listed in the European Commission's repository of best digital skills initiatives. The proposed typology consists of four categories: target group, digital skills, learning format, and sponsoring organization. In terms of target group, digital skills initiatives tend to target one or more of five distinct groups: the general public, educators, adults, seniors and youth. In terms of digital skills, digital skills initiatives tend to focus on general digital skills or specialized digital skills. In terms of learning format, digital skills initiatives tend to offer training and/or a learning resource. In terms of sponsoring organization, the initiatives tend to be sponsored by organizations that are either affiliated or unaffiliated with a technology vendor. The typology is followed by a presentation of mini cases, which highlight different archetypes of the proposed typology. The paper closes with a discussion of practical implications for policy makers, administrators, and scholars interested in digital skills initiatives and the future of work.

European countries differ widely in terms of vocational education and training (VET) tradition and the delivery of VET at the upper secondary level. A statistical approach to build a classification of VET systems in Europe is presented in the present article on the grounds of the size of the vocational enrollment, on the one hand, and the percentage of vocational enrollment in programs in which work and school are combined, on the other hand. Twenty-two European countries with full available information are considered in the study: 18 European Union (EU) countries, three Schengen Area (non-EU) countries (Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland), and the UK (non-EU state outside Schengen). Cluster analysis is a quantitative form of classification. The country groupings emerging from the K-means analysis performed in this paper allow us to distinguish mainly between vocational-oriented countries with high vocational specificity (e.g. Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), highly vocational-oriented countries with traditionally school-based VET programs (e.g. the Czech Republic and Slovakia), and less vocationally-oriented countries (general education-oriented countries such as Estonia and Spain).

The challenge of research methods teaching is gaining attention among policy-makers keen to build social science research capacity and, critically, among educationalists keen to enhance the pedagogy. This paper addresses pedagogy, presenting a new conceptual-empirical typology of pedagogy for social science research methods teaching. Taking a sociocultural perspective, pedagogy is seen as encompassing both actions and underlying values. A mix of qualitative methods was used to engage more than 100 methods teachers (plus students) from diverse UK and international contexts. An expert panel method and focus groups helped elucidate pedagogical knowledge. Video-stimulated reflective dialogue added detail to that knowledge. Thematic analysis was used to make sense of teaching practice with individuals and across the dataset. A typology of research methods teaching developed iteratively across this process, proposing the core categories of "approach," "strategy," "tactics" and "tasks." In-depth case studies helped to gain nuance and test the emergent typology "in situ." The paper argues that the typology contributes a dynamic tool for developing practice. It transforms the way we think about teaching and can be applied in any social science research method teaching context, benefitting the pedagogic community by enabling greater focus in planning and reflection.

Purpose: Digital literacy is not the mere ability to use a digital device or know to use various software. It is a domain of exploration for sociology, psychology, education and, of course, technology. This study aims to present a quantitative analysis of the literature on digital literacy using a bibliometric approach. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the Web of Science database, the importance of the research is evaluated by reviewing 2307 publications and examining the yearly publication, field category productivity, citation structure, most cited resources, documents, most-cited authors, most productive authors, and country in the field of digital literacy. Further, a cluster analysis is conducted to see the most recurrent keywords and emerging trends in this field. At last, the authors analyzed the thematic progression of keywords over these five years based on the normalized citations. Additionally, a graphical representation of the bibliometric data using VOSviewer is presented in the paper. Findings: The results suggest a steady rate of publication in this field, with most of the research published in education and library fields and the USA leading the country in this realm. The emerging themes in this field are 'Fake News', 'Competence', 'Educational Technology', 'Health Literacy', 'Self-Efficacy' and, interestingly, 'COVID-19'. The results also revealed that COVID-19 has been examined and associated with fake news, higher education, social media and information literacy. Originality/value: This paper provides an overall summary of the most recent research work published from 2017 to 2021 on digital literacy in the backdrop of COVID-19. The study presents the thematic progression over the years and particularly the new keywords that emerged in the limelight of the pandemic. It contributes by updating the existing body of knowledge in the field of digital literacy and presents preliminary results related to COVID-19.

This paper discusses empirical comparisons of higher education institutions across world regions. It argues that institutional data systems have the potential for complementing global comparisons promoted by rankings by providing sensible information on institutional size, budgets, staffing, enrolments and activity profiles. With this perspective in hand, this paper tackles three questions. First, how is it feasible to identify Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) given their complex structures? Second, how is it feasible to define the perimeter of HEI sectors? Third, what kinds of data could be used for comparison, and where are the main data gaps? By analysing institutional data systems across the United States, Europe and Asia, the paper concludes that institutional data systems display some remarkable similarities that make them an important resource for global comparisons; however, variation in the context of data production and usage implies differences in the higher education perimeter and on institutional delimitation; sensible comparisons, therefore, require explicit knowledge of the institutional context in which data have been borne.

This paper discusses the representation of resource exploitation and consumption in German geography textbooks. The aim of the paper is to contribute to a critical and reflective understanding of the representation of resource-related issues in textbooks by analyzing two scientific debates (resource curse and actor analysis). The paper shows that all studied geography textbooks contribute to a certain degree to awareness raising in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), but references to the everyday life of students are rare. There are only few action-orientated tasks in the frame of resource exploitation and consumption in the studied textbooks. As real-world examples help develop students' critical thinking skills and shape their ideas of sustainable development, these aspects reflect a pedagogical shortcoming.

Purpose: This study explores the potential of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to assess the technical, economic and environmental effects of cooperative innovation projects at farm level. Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis of the FADN potential relies on the classification of innovations and the co-identification, through the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach, of the most relevant indicators for tracking and assessing the performances of innovations and attributing to them the effects of a specific innovation. Findings: The study shows that the FADN has a certain range of useful indicators and that they have a good coverage of the different types of innovation. Furthermore, the farm visits let emerge the importance of participatory approaches to capture the different changes and interplays occurred in farming processes. Practical implications: The paper lays the foundations for the adaptation of the current methodology for data collecting and provides useful insights concerning the overcoming representativeness claims, costs' issues, and problems related to the observation time limit. Theoretical implications: The paper reveals the importance of participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches in helping the collection of more robust and relevant account data on farm, as well as in attributing certain results to a specific innovation and recognising synergies and side-effects of cooperative processes. Originality/Values: The paper provides some recommendations on how to enlarge the scope of the FADN survey in order to be used effectively in the analysis of the performance of cooperative innovations at farm level.

Classifications are a basic tool for research, which allow summarizing the diversity of objects in a number of categories that fits the cognitive abilities of the human mind. Their relevance for higher education is emphasized by the differentiation of institutional profiles. Yet, unlike in the US, there is currently no classification of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper fills this gap by developing a classification of European HEIs, which focuses on differences in activity profiles and subject scope. To this aim, it uses data from an enriched version of the European Tertiary Education Register on a sample of more than 2000 HEIs in a large number of European countries. The classification comprises six classes that occupy distinct positions in a configuration space defined by two dimensions, i.e. research vs. educational orientation and subject specialization. Ex-post analysis shows that classes are identifiable and can be attributed meaningful labels; the class of research universities comprises most European HEIs competing in international rankings, while a class of generalist HEIs with lower research orientation that cuts across the traditional distinction between universities and Universities of Applied Sciences can be distinguished. Furthermore, three classes of specialist HEIs can be identified. The classification provides a meaningful representation of European higher education that is more fine-grained than the distinction between university and non-university sectors while remaining parsimonious. We, finally show how national categories map to the classification, displaying its potential to compare differences in national institutional settings across Europe.

Comparative studies on 'apprenticeships' in Europe increasingly cover a variety of programmes previously not considered under this heading. The paper explores the potential of a new, combined cultural-historical and functional classification of apprenticeships on the basis of their underpinning training logic. Four main logics are discussed which categorise apprenticeships according to their key purpose and the responsibilities with regard to content, organisation and financing. It is argued that the typology can serve as an explanatory framework for ongoing changes in apprenticeship approaches and may be used for the identification of similarities and common challenges.

The proposed paper seeks to add a different dimension to the educational borrowing, lending, and transfer literature by examining the consequences of educational reforms that are implemented under dictatorships and their lasting impacts. In using Tunisia as an example, we assess the effects of the 2008 Licence-Maitrise-Doctorat ([LMD] Bachelor-Master-PhD) reform under Tunisia's former dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (from 1987 to 2011). The use of coercive transfer and subsequent implementation of LMD reforms by Ben Ali's government were in response to the creation of the European Higher Education Area in 1999 under the Bologna Declaration, which was adopted by twenty-nine European countries. The justification for the indirect coercive transfer of the Bologna model was to ensure the quality of higher education, to encourage student and teacher mobility, to facilitate both the equivalence of diplomas and young people's integration into the labor market. In what follows, we seek to construct a typology of the consequence of wholesaling adopting a reform without tailoring it to the local needs. In this typology, we account for the processes of policy mobilization, local articulation and ownership, structural factors, and path dependency by discussing the power relations through which indirect coercive transfer occur. In doing this, methodologically, we use a comparative-historical approach to Tunisia's higher education policy discourse. Theoretically, we seek to advance the literature of indirect coercive transfer by concluding as to the different factors that should be considered in North-South policy borrowing and transfer.

This paper addresses early modern botanical nomenclature, the practices of identifying and publishing synonyms in particular, as a collaborative "information science". Before Linnaean nomenclature became the lingua franca of botany, it was inevitable that, over time, the same plant was given several names by different people, which created confusion and made communication among botanists increasingly difficult. What names counted as synonyms and actually referred to the same plant had to be identified by meticulously comparing living and dried specimens of this and similar plants as well as relevant illustrations und descriptions in the botanical literature. Identifying synonyms required and generated an ever-expanding mass of data, which was used continuously to adjust and rearrange plant names. Despite the greatest care, judgements on synonyms were not definitive, which meant that published lists of synonyms for individual species of plants were in a state of flux and had to be constantly updated, corrected, and rewritten. This required long-term international collaborations, the accumulated results of which were not published once but consecutively, in augmented and corrected editions of a book. As a result of this networked approach, synonyms are networked names that reflect the epistemic interconnectedness of the botanical community. These questions will be discussed with a focus on the Dutch botanist Johannes Burman (1706-1779), who placed synonyms at the centre of his work as posthumous editor-and co-author-of the botanical manuscripts that were left behind by other botanists.

Quality standards are widely discussed and requested in particular in knowledge-intensive domains, such as the service industry and in particular education. However, no quality standard for this domain has gained a wide adoption or common acceptance yet. This paper shows a classification of quality standards. The classification supports decision makers as well as users to choose appropriate quality standards for their context. The context of this paper is quality development using Open Education Repositories. A focus is the implementation process taking barriers against quality management into account. We show a mix of methods and mechanisms to increase quality and to create quality based on trust. The paper shows a sample case study of how to combine different standards, combining quality aspects from an organizational, product- and user-driven point of view.

Literature on global international student mobility (ISM) highlights the uneven nature of student flows--from the developing to the developed world--however, studies have yet to address whether this pattern is replicated within expanding regional networks. Utilizing social network analysis, UNESCO ISM data, and World Bank income classifications, this paper examines economic inequality in ISM from 2008-2012 globally and within the Southern African Development Community, the European Higher Education Area, the Union of South American Nations, and University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific. Findings reaffirm previous global analyses which indicate that higher-income countries play a preeminent role as receivers; whereas, lower-income countries function primarily as source nations. This study demonstrates that this pattern is replicated fractally within the four regional networks as well. Globally and regionally, economically developed countries comprise the core of the world-system in tertiary education while less-developed nations are relegated to peripheral status.

The purpose of this review is to further our knowledge about what is meant by inclusion in research addressing the topic. While it is common to remark that inclusion is defined in different ways in research, few attempts have been made to map and analyse different types of definitions and whether there are patterns to be find in how the concept is used. The 30 most cited journal articles from a North American and a European research arena were selected for analysis. Each article was analysed in relation to genre, theoretical tradition and inclusion concept used. The review yielded several important results. To name a few, a divide was identified between position articles, with developed discussions about and analyses of the meaning of inclusion, and empirical articles, where inclusion signifies that children with disabilities are placed in the mainstream. In addition, writing within a critical theoretical tradition was much more common among positional papers. Further, both arenas are dominated by Anglo-Saxon researchers. It is argued that the conceptual confusion characterising the field impedes its development.

A result of the pandemic is an urgent need for data collaborations that empower the clinical and scientific communities in responding to rapidly evolving global challenges. The ICU4Covid project joined research institutions, medical centers, and hospitals all around Europe in a telemedicine network for sharing capabilities, knowledge, and expertise distributed within the network. However, healthcare data sharing has ethical, regulatory, and legal complexities that pose several restrictions on their access and use. To mitigate this issue, the ICU4Covid project integrates a federated learning architecture, allowing distributed machine learning within a cross-institutional healthcare system without the data being transported or exposed outside their original location. This paper presents the federated learning approach to support the decision-making process for ICU patients in a European telemedicine network. The proposed approach was applied to the early identification of high-risk hypertensive patients. Experimental results show how the knowledge of every single node is spread within the federation, improving the ability of each node to make an early prediction of high-risk hypertensive patients. Moreover, a performance evaluation shows an accuracy and precision of over 90%, confirming a good performance of the FL approach as a prediction test. The FL approach can significantly support the decision-making process for ICU patients in distributed networks of federated healthcare organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This paper introduces the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) classification of events contributing to postneonatally acquired cerebral palsy, presents its interrater reliability, and describes the cases identified in the SCPE database. Method: The development of the classification, based on literature review and expert discussions, resulted in six main categories and 19 subcategories. The first chronological event designated as the primary event was mainly reported. Interrater reliability was assessed through online exercise providing 24 clinical vignettes representing single/complex pathways. Percent agreement and Gwet's AC1 index of reliability were estimated. Primary events were described using data of 221 children born between 2008 and 2012. Results: Thirty‐nine professionals (21 registries) participated in the reliability exercise. Substantial overall agreement was reached (0.75), with some contrast between complex (0.48, moderate agreement) and single events involved (0.89, almost perfect). The distribution of primary events showed that 32.1% were infections (category A), 23.1% head injuries (B), 15.4% related to surgery or medical interventions (C), 13.1% cerebrovascular accidents (D), 9.1% hypoxic brain damaging events of other origins (E), and 7.2% miscellaneous (F). Interpretation: This classification allows all the events involved to be recorded while consistently reporting the primary event, and may be used in different settings. What this paper adds: A standardized classification enables the description of the events contributing to postneonatal cerebral palsy (CP).The first chronological event in complex pathway leading to CP is coded.Category choice and coding of the primary event identify preventable situations.The detailed 2‐level classification is easy to use in various settings.Substantial overall interrater reliability shows that main categories can be consistently differentiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the idea of qualitative comparing in order to create a "heuristic concept" that will enable relational structures to be examined, drawing on the sociological tradition founded by Norbert Elias. Subsequently, an empirical research example -- the comparison of three "mentality spaces" in post-socialist societies in Central Europe drawing on intergenerational biographical data -- is used to demonstrate how the theory of figuration can show the way in which underlying historical structures consolidate into a social "climate" that permits certain structures and blocks others. Next, the comparative concept is applied to the core results of the RANLHE project using a typology of the intercultural constellations of HE systems in terms of their efficiency, economy, social responsibility and culture. The national systems of universities in the different countries are then delineated to illustrate the dominant styles of education in terms of their specific figurations. It is concluded that figurations form a complex relational framework between structure and action that possess a certain "inner constitutional logic," such as a certain habitus, an aesthetic design principle, mentality spaces or national styles of education.

Collaboration in science has been the subject of many studies. In this study we focus on the influence of the research profile of an institute on its collaborative behaviour and pattern. The classification model developed by the authors provides a helpful tool to identify the specialisms of a research institution and to create groups of similar institutions that enable study of the relationship between science fields and collaborative behaviour. First we show the effect of research profile on the shares of different types of collaboration. Next, citation indicators are used to investigate the changes on impact and publication strategy over the different types of collaboration. Finally we try to find for each group the research profile of the most preferred partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary research on the word race, there is no consensus on what race actually is. Moreover, scholarly research has stated that the notion of race does not apply to the human species. However, as soon as race enters political discourse, it becomes so "self-evident" that it does not raise the question of what we are talking about when we talk about race. This paper deals with the issue that there are a number of different meanings of the word race, focusing primarily on the difference between the "Anglo-American" meaning of the word race and that used in continental Europe. The paper argues that the meaning of race depends on the cultural, social and historical context of a given country, making race a fluid and context-shifting concept whose meanings are not compatible with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper aims to review controversies in the management of minimally invasive follicular thyroid carcinoma (MIFTC) and to reach an evidence-based consensus. Method: MEDLINE search of the literature was conducted using keywords related to MIFTC. The search term was identified in the title, abstract, or medical subject heading. Available literature meeting the inclusion criteria were assigned the appropriate levels of evidence and recommendations in accordance with accepted international standards. Results were discussed at the 2013 Workshop of the European Society of Endocrine Surgeons devoted to MIFTC. Results: Published papers on MIFTC present inadequate power with a III-IV level of evidence and C grade of recommendation. Several issues demanded a comparison of published studies from different medical reports regarding MIFTC definition, specimen processing, characteristics, diagnosis, prognoses, and therapy. As a consequence, it is difficult to make valuable statements on MIFTC with a sufficient recommendation rating. MIFTC diagnosis requires clearer, unequivocal, and reproducible criteria for pathologist, surgeons, and endocrinologists to use in the management of these patients. If the distinction between MIFTC and WIFTC cannot be made, an expert in thyroid pathologist should be consulted. Conclusion: According to published papers, the following conclusions can be drawn. (a) Candidates for hemithyroidectomy are MIFTC with exclusive capsular invasion, patients <45 years old at presentation, tumor size <40 mm, without vascular invasion, and without any node or distant metastases. (b) Candidates for total thyroidectomy are MIFTC in patients ≥45 years at presentation, tumor size ≥40 mm, vascular invasion present, positive nodes, and positive distant metastases. (c) In the absence of clinical evidence for lymph node metastasis, patients with MIFTC do not require prophylactic lymph node dissection. (d) Radio iodine ablation is indicated in elderly patients (>45 years), large tumor size (>40 mm), extensive vascular invasion, presence of distant synchronous or metachronous metastasis, positive nodes, and if recurrence is noted at follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinises European methods developed since 2010 for identifying urban, rural, and intermediate areas, addressing the need for locally relevant and internationally comparable methodologies. The inadequacy of the traditional urban-rural dichotomy methods in describing peri-urbanisation and the demand for efficient fund allocation and international performance comparisons has driven the proliferation of these methods by European institutions, national governments, and statistical offices. Since a comprehensive study of such methods is lacking, the paper analyses their characteristics (through the variables and statistical techniques used, along with the spatial unit of reference), as well as their local relevance and international comparability. The analysis reveals the predominance of a multi-scalar approach emphasising territorial discontinuity patterns and challenging traditional administrative boundaries. While these methods are effective for local policymaking with variables such as demographic dynamics and economic specialisation, they exhibit limited international comparability. Instead, methods relying solely on demographic data demonstrate harmonization, enabling more robust statistical comparisons due to their inherent simplicity. • There is a need for delimitation that is locally relevant and internationally comparable contemporarily. • National governments and statistical offices, as well as scholars propose some original methods to settle this dispute. • More articulated methods provide a solid evidence-based policymaking but less reliable statistical comparisons. • Demographic methods are the most widely used for comparable statistical information due to their reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011 a working group of the European Society for the Study of Tourette syndrome (ESSTS) developed the first European Guidelines for Tourette syndrome (TS) published in the ECAP journal. After a decade ESSTS now presents updated guidelines, divided into four sections: Part I: assessment, Part II: psychological interventions, Part III: pharmacological treatment and Part IV: deep brain stimulation (DBS). In this paper, we summarise new developments described in the guidelines with respect to assessment and treatment of tics. Further, summary findings from a recent survey conducted amongst TS experts on these same topics are presented, as well as the first European patient representative statement on research. Finally, an updated decision tree is introduced providing a practical algorithm for the treatment of patients with TS. Interestingly, in the last decade there has been a significant shift in assessment and treatment of tics, with more emphasis on non-pharmacological treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered an important tool in the assessment of a child with cerebral palsy (CP), as it is abnormal in more than 80% of children with CP, disclosing the pathogenic pattern responsible for the neurological condition. MRI, therefore, is recommended as the first diagnostic step after medical history taking and neurological examination. With the advances in genetic diagnostics, the genetic contribution to CP is increasingly discussed, and the question arises about the role of genetic testing in the diagnosis of cerebral palsy. The paper gives an overview on genetic findings reported in CP, which are discussed with respect to the underlying brain pathology according to neuroimaging findings. Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) classifies neuroimaging findings in CP into five categories, which help to stratify decisions concerning genetic testing. Predominant white and gray matter injuries are by far predominant (accounting for around 50 and 20% of the findings). They are considered to be acquired. Here, predisposing genetic factors may play a role to increase vulnerability (and should especially be considered, when family history is positive and/or causative external factors are missing). In maldevelopments and normal findings (around 11% each), monogenic causes are more likely, and thus, genetic testing is clearly recommended. In the miscellaneous category, the precise nature of the MRI finding has to be considered as it could indicate a genetic origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low back pain (LBP) is a morbid condition that has afflicted several citizens in Europe. It has negatively impacted the European economy due to several man-days lost, with bed rest and forced inactivity being the usual LBP care and management steps. Direct models, which incorporate various regression analyses, have been executed for the investigation of this premise due to the simplicity of translation. However, such straight models fail to completely consider the impact of association brought about by a mix of nonlinear connections and autonomous factors. In this paper, we discuss a system that aids decision-making regarding the best-suited support system for LBP, allowing the individual to avail of reinforcement and improvement in its self-management. These activities are monitored with the help of a wearable sensor that helps in their detection and their classification as those that soothe or aggravate LBP and hence, should or should not be performed. This system helps the patients set their own boundaries and milestones with respect to suitable activities. This system also does windowing and feature extraction. The present study is an empirical and comparative analysis of the most suitable activities that patients suffering from low back pain can select. The evaluation shows that the system can distinguish between nine common daily activities effectively and helps self-monitor these activities for the efficient management of LBP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe how historical land use information has been derived for the whole of Europe, using the World Atlas of Agriculture, scale 1: 2,500,000. This paper describes the process of converting the analog land-use maps to a digital European historical land-use database, the Historical Land Use Database 1960 (HISLU60). The processing techniques that are applied in this process are commonly used for the processing of satellite imagery. The paper maps were scanned and geo-referenced. Image filtering techniques were used to eliminate the cartographic elements like text and boundaries. Land-use classes were created from the colours in the maps using image classification techniques. As a last step, GIS filtering functions were used to eliminate remaining cartographic elements and small classification errors. The HISLU60 database contains six land-use classes; arable land, grassland, forest, non-agricultural land, inland water and urban. It is a raster dataset with a cell size of 250 meters. The HISLU60 database was validated by performing a statistical comparison with three reference datasets. The overall classification accuracy is around 50 percent. Despite its limitations, the HISLU60 database gives an overview of the pan-European land use around 1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• AV disengagement on public roads dominated by causes due to a planning issue. • AV disengagement induced by lacking certain numbers of radar and LiDAR sensors. • Drivers' take-over time impacted by disengagement cause and roadway characteristics. • To improve AV disengagements five or more radar sensors are needed. • Optimal number of LiDAR sensors to be installed is 3 or 4. Automated vehicles (AV) testing on the public roads is ongoing in several states in the US as well as in Europe and Asia. As long as the automated vehicle technology has not achieved full automation (Level 5), human drivers are still expected to take over the steering wheel and throttles when there is an automated vehicle disengagement. However, contributing factors and the mechanism about automated vehicle-initiated disengagement has not been quantitatively and comprehensively explored and investigated due to the lack of field test data. Besides, understanding human drivers' perception and promptness of reaction to the AV disengagement is essential to ensure safety transition between automated and manual driving. By harnessing California's Autonomous Vehicle Disengagement Report Database, which includes the AV disengagement data from field tests in 2016–2017, this paper quantitatively investigated the AV disengagement using multiple statistical modeling approaches that involve statistical modeling and classification tree. Specifically, the paper identifies the contributing factors impacting human drivers' promptness to AV disengagements, and quantitatively investigates the underlying causes to AV disengagements. Results indicate that current AV disengagement on public roads is dominated by causes due to a planning issue. The cause of an AV disengagement is significantly induced by lacking certain numbers of radar and LiDAR sensors installed on the automated vehicles. These thresholds of these sensors needed are revealed. Cause of disengagement and roadway characteristics significantly impact drivers' take-over time when facing an AV disengagement. AV perception or control issue-based disengagement can significantly extend drivers' perception-reaction time to take over the driving. The quantitative knowledge obtained ultimately facilitates revealing the mechanisms of the automated vehicle disengagements to ensure safe AV operations on public roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer (GC) is responsible for 9% of cancer deaths worldwide. Over 950,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and about 90% of them are in advanced stage, requiring chemotherapy. In Europe there has been research based on pre- and postoperative chemotherapy treatment, using 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, cisplatin, capecitabine, and docetaxel. Chemotherapy significantly impairs the quality of life of patients; however, the final effects are not always satisfactory. There is scientific evidence that gastric mucus tumors and signet ring cell carcinomas have a pattern of specific signatures, that distinguish them from other gastric cancer subtypes, and may be associated with a poor response to systematic treatment. Signet ring cell carcinoma is less chemosensitive than others, and the increase in the percentage of signet ring cells correlates with resistance to chemotherapy. Perioperative chemotherapy in advanced signet ring cell carcinomas is an independent factor of poor prognosis and survival, which is explained by the toxicity of neoadjuvant treatment. Therefore, curative surgical resection enhanced by standardized lymphadenectomy remains the recommended gold standard in GC therapy. According to presented studies, early detection and aggressive treatments for this subtype of GC is a reasonable approach. This review paper is mostly addressed to physicians who are interested in updating to the state of the art concerning different subtypes of gastric carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this article is to identify and classify smart and sustainable urban mobility solutions in the context of three narratives for sustainable mobility: electromobility, collective transport 2.0 and low-mobility societies. The research process of this study included the following methods: review of the literature, namely, strategic European documents, sustainable urban mobility plans in chosen cities and scientific publications addressing smart and sustainable mobility, case studies of selected cities in Europe and technology mapping to visualize the study results. The main result of this study is the review of various smart and sustainable urban solutions (SSUM) and their classification within the three narratives of electromobility, collective transport 2.0 and low-mobility societies. This article expands the concept of the three narratives for sustainable mobility with the aspect of smart mobility enriched with the variety of example solutions, case studies and good practices within mobility strategies in European cities. The study results can be useful for different stakeholders engaged in developing and introducing the sustainable mobility strategies in cities. Based on the catalogue of SSUM solutions, presented case studies and good practices, they may gain the necessary knowledge, consider the possible initiatives towards green transformation in cities and finally adjust them to the citizens' need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an experiment concerning the social construction of statistical definitions, where the first census of Higher Education Institutions in Europe has been developed. It conceptualizes the construction of indicators as a social process of definitions and boundaries' negotiation, involving value judgments, social and political opinions, as well as practical interests and power strategies of actors. The paper exemplifies this process on three issues, namely the social demand for establishing a census, the controversy concerning the definition of a perimeter as well as the selection of indicators, and the nature of comparability judgments. We first conclude that the socio-political dimension has to be explicitly taken into account when designing statistical systems; second, that social scientists involved in this process need to openly recognize the conflicts around the definition of indicators; third, that the objectified and taken for granted status of indicators makes them a powerful instrument to influence policy decisions and, that indicator designers need to make their own value judgments and interests fully transparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper generalizes and applies recently developed blocking diagnostics in a two-dimensional (2D) latitude-longitude context, which takes into consideration both mid- and high-latitude blocking. These diagnostics identify characteristics of the associated wave breaking as seen in the potential temperature θ on the dynamical tropopause, particularly the cyclonic or anticyclonic direction of wave breaking ('DB index') and the relative intensity ('RI index') of the air masses that contribute to blocking formation. The methodology is extended to a 2D domain and a cluster technique is deployed to classify mid- and high-latitude blocking according to the wave-breaking characteristics. Midlatitude blocking is observed over Europe and Asia, where the meridional gradient of θ is generally weak, whereas high-latitude blocking is mainly present over the oceans, to the north of the jet stream, where the meridional gradient of θ is much stronger. They occur on the equatorward and poleward flank of the jet stream, respectively, where the horizontal shear ∂ u/∂ y is positive in the first case and negative in the second case. A regional analysis is also conducted. Warm-cyclonic blocking over the Pacific and cold-anticyclonic blocking over Europe are identified as the most persistent types and are associated with large amplitude anomalies in temperature and precipitation. Finally, the high-latitude cyclonic events seem to correlate well with low-frequency modes of variability over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do European state topographic maps exhibit unique styles of cartography? This paper describes an investigation to classify and analyse stylistic diversity in the official 1 : 50 000 topographical mapping of 20 European countries. The method involves the construction of a typology of cartographic style, based upon the classification of distinct graphical legend symbols into mutually exclusive thematic categories. In order to identify stylistic similarities between national symbologies, hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to compare the relative proportions of symbols within each category. This was complemented by a qualitative analysis of various aspects of cartographic design: colour, 'white' space, visual hierarchy, and lettering. The results indicate a high degree of stylistic diversity throughout Europe, with the symbologies of Great Britain and Ireland demonstrating the strongest example of a supranational style. The typology of cartographic symbologies is shown to be an effective method for determining stylistic association among maps of differing geographical (and potentially historical) origins and it is suggested that the cartographic language paradigm should be revisited as a means for understanding why national differences persist in state cartography. A version of this paper was presented at the Twenty-third International Cartographic Conference in Moscow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the characteristics and performance of regional innovation systems in 12 new member states of the European Union. More specifically, it develops a typology that differentiates their various potentials as innovative regions. Based on a principal component analysis, five different groups of regions are identified. The characteristic profile of each group is detailed and exploration of possible paths of innovation-based regional development is presented for each type of region. The paper concludes with an examination of policy implications emerging from the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That the relationship between remote sensing and landscape ecology is significant is due in large part to the strong spatial component within landscape ecology. However it is nevertheless necessary to have frequent overview of the interface between remote sensing and landscape ecology, particularly in the light of developments in the types of image data and techniques. The use of remote sensing within European landscape ecology provides a rich range of examples of the interface, including application of some of the latest types of image data. This paper is an overview of the interface that remote sensing has with European landscape ecology, with seven examples of the application of image data in European landscape ecology and examination of associated landscape classification issues. These examples are discussed in terms of the trends and the different roles for image data in landscape ecology that they illustrate, and in particular their classificatory and informational implications. It is suggested that with regard to classification there is a need for re-examination of the roles of image data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The present paper seeks to contribute to the better knowledge of the parental rocks of different soil types that are found in Romania, as well as their share in the country's territory. During its geological-geographical evolution, on Romania’s territory various geological (petrographic) formations have been formed, from crystalline rocks to loams, sands, fluvial and organic deposits. Because the types of rocks are numerous and their territorial distribution changes in narrower areas, the paper aims to group them according to their associating mode, genesis, as well as to their contribution to soil formation. The paper introduces a new map of solification rocks in Romania, scale 1:1.000.000, which aims not only to their theoretical classification, but also to determine the surfaces occupied by each category, and their distribution on the country's major relief units. In addition to the new map, achieved after the processing and updating of different cartographical materials using GIS techniques, information regarding the soil types formed on each category of parental rocks is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health care organizations need to be responsive to the needs of increasingly diverse patient populations. We compared the contents of six publicly available approaches to organizational responsiveness to diversity. The central questions addressed in this paper are: what are the most consistently recommended issues for health care organizations to address in order to be responsive to the needs of diverse groups that differ from the majority population? How much consensus is there between various approaches?Methods: We purposively sampled six approaches from the US, Australia and Europe and used qualitative textual analysis to categorize the content of each approach into domains (conceptually distinct topic areas) and, within each domain, into dimensions (operationalizations). The resulting classification framework was used for comparative analysis of the content of the six approaches.Results: We identified seven domains that were represented in most or all approaches: organizational commitment, empirical evidence on inequalities and needs, a competent and diverse workforce, ensuring access for all users, ensuring responsiveness in care provision, fostering patient and community participation, and actively promoting responsiveness. Variations in the operationalization of these domains related to different scopes, contexts and types of diversity. For example, approaches that focus on ethnic diversity mostly provide recommendations to handle cultural and language differences; approaches that take an intersectional approach and broaden their target population to vulnerable groups in a more general sense also pay attention to factors such as socio-economic status and gender.Conclusions: Despite differences in labeling, there is a broad consensus about what health care organizations need to do in order to be responsive to patient diversity. This opens the way to full scale implementation of organizational responsiveness in healthcare and structured evaluation of its effectiveness in improving patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid pace of urbanization and increasing demands for urban functionalities have led to diversification and complexity in the types of urban surface elements. The conventional approach of relying solely on remote sensing imagery for urban surface element extraction faces emerging challenges. Data-driven techniques, including deep learning and machine learning, necessitate a substantial number of annotated samples as prerequisites. In response, our study proposes a knowledge-driven approach that integrates multisource data with ontology to achieve precise urban surface element extraction. Within this framework, components from the EIONET Action Group on Land Monitoring in Europe matrix serve as ontology primitives, forming a shared vocabulary. The semantics of surface elements are deconstructed using these primitives, enabling the creation of specific descriptions for various types of urban surface elements by combining these primitives. Our approach integrates multitemporal high-resolution remote sensing data, network big data, and other heterogeneous data sources. It segments high-resolution images into individual patches, and for each unit, urban surface element classification is accomplished through semantic rule-based inference. We conducted experiments in two regions with varying levels of urban scene complexity, achieving overall accuracies of 93.03% and 97.35%, respectively. Through this knowledge-driven approach, our proposed method significantly enhances the classification performance of urban surface elements in complex scenes, even in the absence of sample data, thereby presenting a novel approach to urban surface element extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard approach when studying atmospheric circulation regimes and their dynamics is to use a hard regime assignment, where each atmospheric state is assigned to the regime it is closest to in distance. However, this may not always be the most appropriate approach as the regime assignment may be affected by small deviations in the distance to the regimes due to noise. To mitigate this we develop a sequential probabilistic regime assignment using Bayes's theorem, which can be applied to previously defined regimes and implemented in real time as new data become available. Bayes's theorem tells us that the probability of being in a regime given the data can be determined by combining climatological likelihood with prior information. The regime probabilities at time t can be used to inform the prior probabilities at time t + 1, which are then used to sequentially update the regime probabilities. We apply this approach to both reanalysis data and a seasonal hindcast ensemble incorporating knowledge of the transition probabilities between regimes. Furthermore, making use of the signal present within the ensemble to better inform the prior probabilities allows for identifying more pronounced interannual variability. The signal within the interannual variability of wintertime North Atlantic circulation regimes is assessed using both a categorical and regression approach, with the strongest signals found during very strong El Niño years. Significance Statement: Atmospheric circulation regimes are recurrent and persistent patterns that characterize the atmospheric circulation on time scales of 1–3 weeks. They are relevant for predictability on these time scales as mediators of weather. In this study we propose a novel approach to assigning atmospheric states to six predefined wintertime circulation regimes over the North Atlantic and Europe, which can be applied in real time. This approach introduces a probabilistic, instead of deterministic, regime assignment and uses prior knowledge on the regime dynamics. It allows us to better identify the regime persistence and indicates when a state does not clearly belong to one regime. Making use of an ensemble of model simulations, we can identify more pronounced interannual variability by using the full ensemble to inform prior knowledge on the regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From ancient time the economies had periods of expansion followed by recession, each crisis was determined by various internal or external factors. With globalization, economic interconnection and the liberalization of resource exchange between states, high risk of economic crises have sprung up. The main purpose of the article is to determine a data model, using specific data analysis techniques, and based on it to study the economic cyclicality in Europe and the prediction of a possible economic crisis. The study was conducted on a number of 37 indicators selected from 11 categories, a set of 29 countries in Europe and over a period of 24 years (1995 − 2018) using the K-Means algorithm. Grouping the data for each country in three classes and describing each class by taking into account the variables with the highest discriminative power, leads to the main conclusion that in the next several years, an economic crisis in Europe has a high probability to be a reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the conditions of the emergence of "race" as a new scientific category during the eighteenth century, arguing that two modes of discourse and visualization played a significant role: that on society, civility, and civilization -- as found principally in the travel literature -- and that on nature, as found in natural history writings, especially in botanical classifications. The European colonizing enterprise had resulted in an extensive flow of new objects at every level. Visual representations of these new objects circulated in the European cultural world and were transferred and transformed within travelogue and natural history writings. The nature, boundaries, and potentialities of humankind were discussed in this exchange within the conceptual grid of classifications and their visual representations. Over the course of the century the discourse on society, civility, and civilization collapsed into the discourse on nature. Humans became classified and visually represented along the same lines as flora, according to similar assumptions about visible features. Concurrently, these visible features were related necessarily to bundles of social, civilized, and cognitive characteristics taken from the discourse on society, civility, civilization, as found in the contemporaneous travelogue.

The paper presents a hybrid classification method based on the determination of the optimal number of classes according to uncontrolled classification followed by image processing techniques of controlled classification. A criterion for determining the optimal number of classes is proposed based on the definition of averaged values differences of average spectral brightness among the classes. Space images from satellites Ikonos (2002, 2007) and QuickBird (2010) were used to study different time cuttings in the forests of the Carpathian region. A significant amount of ground observation was held for getting test information. A Hybrid Classification Method is used for different time cuttings by QuickBird satellite images and implemented in a software environment of ERDAS Imagine. In order to obtain acreage of cuttings made for the period of 2002-2007 and 2007-2010, a comparative analysis of cuttings is introduced in these time intervals and their area is determined on the basis of the digital images of polygons in the ArcGIS software environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of methods to reconstruct phylogenies from karyotypic data has lagged behind what has been achieved with molecular and morphological characters. This hampers our understanding of the role of chromosomal rearrangements in speciation, which depends on knowledge of the karyotypic relationships both among forms that have recently speciated and among forms within species that may speciate in the future. Here, we present a new approach to reconstruct chromosomal phylogenies. Our approach involves the use of networks, which we believe offer a flexible alternative to bifurcating phylogenetic trees for chromosomal phylogenetic analyses, and can incorporate a wide range of chromosomal mutations as well as allowing reticulate evolution through hybridization. In this paper, we apply our method at the within-species level to establish the phylogenetic history, in terms of minimum number of evolutionary steps, of chromosomal races within both the common shrew (Sorex araneus) and the house mouse (Mus musculus). There have been several previous attempts to reconstruct the phylogenies of chromosomal races within shrews and mice, but we describe the first computer-based analysis that considers the whole range of possible mutations generating new races (Robertsonian fusions and fissions and whole-arm reciprocal translocations [WARTs]) and other race-generating processes (zonal raciation events involving both acrocentric and recombinant peaks) postulated for these species. The analysis for common shrew chromosomal races reveals a greater importance of zonal raciation and WARTs than has been suggested hitherto.

Despite improvements in wastewater treatment systems, the impact of anthropogenic nutrient sources remains a key issue for the management of European lakes. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides a mechanism through which progress can be made on this issue. The Directive requires a classification of the ecological status of phytoplankton, which includes an assessment of taxonomic composition. In this paper, we present a composition metric, the plankton trophic index, that was developed in the WISER EU FP7 project and demonstrate how it has been used to compare national phytoplankton classification systems in Northern and Central Europe. The metric was derived from summer phytoplankton data summarised by genus from 1,795 lakes, covering 20 European countries. We show that it is significantly related to total phosphorus concentrations, but that it is also sensitive to alkalinity, lake size and climatic variables. Through the use of country-specific reference values for the index, we demonstrate that it is significantly related to other national phytoplankton assessment systems and illustrate for a single European (intercalibration) lake type how it was used to intercalibrate WFD boundaries from different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the classification of recent developments in regulations related to biomedical technology in Europe. Several innovations by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) led to the formation of the new Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) Regulation, which is related to the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is used for the treatment of major medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Classification of biomedical technology involves commensuration, which draws the attention of distinct cognitive or practical domains.

im: Although working life issues are subject to European health monitoring schemes, not many routine data sources include information on occupations or working conditions. Additional in-depth analysis is therefore necessary for diseases with high public health impact. The aim of this paper is to introduce a multidimensional ranking procedure for priority setting of diseases based on European and national data. Subject and methods: Multidimensional ranking was carried out on ten disease-specific indicators. First, suitable data sources were identified and information on indicators was retrieved. Second, the diseases were sorted by their ranks according to each indicator. Third, all ranks were added to a rank sum. Finally, the diseases were sorted by their rank sum. Results: Diseases of the circulatory system account for the highest rank sum. The high public health impact is visible in regard to most criteria, particularly to mortality, hospital discharges, and costs. Diseases of the digestive system rank second mainly because of high ranks for hospital discharges and costs. The third place is assigned to diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Conclusion: A multidimensional ranking procedure has advantages when used for priority setting of diseases. The procedure leads to an overall rank as a summary measure for the public health impact but information for each indicator is still retrieved. Furthermore, the procedure uses ranks and is therefore scale invariant. However, ranking procedures do not lead to a selection of diseases but a rank order. So, there is still a decision rule required to determine which diseases are selected e.g. for in-depth health reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. This paper is a report of a three round Delphi study of intensive care nursing research priorities in Europe (October 2006-April 2009). Background. Internationally, priorities for research in intensive care nursing have received some attention focusing on healthcare interventions and patient needs. Studies as early as the 1980s identified priorities in the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia. Research priorities of intensive care nurses across the European Union are unknown. Methods. The participants, invited in 2006, included 110 intensive care nurses, managers, educators and researchers from 20 European Critical Care Nursing Associations. Delphi round one was an emailed questionnaire inviting participants to list important areas for research. The list was content analysed and developed into an online questionnaire for rounds two and three. In round two, participants ranked the topics on a scale of 1-6 (not important to extremely important). Mean scores of round two were added to the questionnaire of round three and participants ranked the topics again. Results. There were 52 research topics in 12 domains. There was a dominance of priorities in five main areas: patient safety; impact of evidence based practice on outcomes; impact of workforce on outcomes; wellbeing of patients and relatives; and impact of end-of-life care on staff and practice. Conclusions. The results reflect worldwide healthcare concerns and objectives and highlight topics that nurses view as fundamental to the care of critically ill patients. These topics provide a platform for future research efforts to improve clinical practice and care of patients in intensive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the use of the esp@cenet patent database, the paper demonstrates that, in many cases, the use of classification systems is a condition to good quality searching. Efficient search tools relieve the user of the in-depth familiarizing with the classification system, yet they carry out the search with the appropriate classification symbols. In the esp@cenet database, classification symbols are provided automatically, in the result lists of natural language keyword searches. These symbols are then exported into the advanced search interlace with one click. Through the search examples, readers of the paper get acquainted with the tools of patent search, while they are also provided with further information on the European Patent Office's network of databases, the applied classification systems, as well as the services of the Patent Library of the Hungarian Patent Office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GALEN-IN-USE is a European project that aims to promote greater European harmonization and to overcome the problems encountered in using traditional coding and classification systems. This paper presents the work done by the Greek Centre of Medical Informatics and Terminology, as a collaborating centre of GALEN-IN-USE(GIU), in order to apply GIU's tools to Greek Health Care System as well as the affect of this application in education.

The author comments on the paper which examines the determinants of competition in one drug class in Great Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands over the period 1991-2002. The author said that the study estimates the demand structure between different brands having different payment schemes. He said that the paper makes some important initial progress on the issue of demand substitutability between brands and therapeutic competition for understanding the magnitude of innovative returns.