Search

We analyze the role of institutional founding conditions and institutional legacy for universities' self-representation in terms of diversity. Based on 374 universities located in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, we can differentiate between a more idealistic understanding (logic of inclusion and equality) and a more market-oriented understanding (market logic) of diversity. Our findings show that the founding phase has no significant effect on the likelihood of a university focusing on a market-oriented understanding of diversity--however, we observe an imprinting effect with respect to the adoption of a diversity statement in general and an equity-oriented statement. Moreover, our findings show that there is a socialistic heritage for universities in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that is at work and still influences universities' understandings of diversity today.

The study presents a global research scenario in the domain of quantum sensing in quantitative and qualitative terms. The study is based on an analysis of 588 global publications in the field, sourced from the Scopus database for the period 1991-2020. The study identified key countries, organizations and authors, network collaborative linkages at national, institutional, and author level. In addition, it identified broad subject areas intersecting quantum sensing research, key journals for research communications, and broad characteristics of highly-cited papers. The study finds that the USA and Germany lead the world ranking in quantum sensing research with a combined share of 50% to the global output. The USA, Germany, and Italy are the home countries to 13 of the top 15 most productive organizations, and also the home countries to 14 of the top 15 most productive authors in the subject. The top journals publishing most research publications are Physical Review A, Physical Review Letters and New Journal of Physics. However, in the most cited journals list in the subject, Agriculture & Forest Meterology, Science and Physical Review A tops the list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores a major conflict area, namely, national and the EU's immigration policy and investigates how the influx of migrants (mostly from the Middle East and North Africa - MENA region) into the EU has been used as a policy conflict ground. The article assesses the policy responses to (im)migration in Germany and Italy between 2015- 2019 as the changes made redirected the policy for future migration crisis. The aim of the article is to underline that the migration crisis of the EU spiraled into Members States' migration and populism crisis and into the challenges of the implementation of common EU migration policies and national policies. This is achieved by the analyses of administrative measures adopted in the most argued areas like asylum procedure, return policy and integration The paper argues that these crisis management measures were mostly restrictive, and not only aimed to handle the crisis but exposed a phenomenon: they not only intended to thwart the continuous growth of migration and populism but were in parts even favored by populists in the sense that they had the intention to curb immigration, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is commonly defined as a transitional subclinical state between normal aging and dementia. A growing body of research indicates that health behaviors may play a protective role against cognitive decline and could potentially slow down the progression from MCI to dementia. The aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of literature focusing on health behaviors and MCI to summarize the factors and evidence regarding the influence of health behaviors on MCI. Methods: The study performed a bibliometric analysis by retrieving publications from the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index subdatabases within the Web of Science Core Collection. Utilizing VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, a total of 2,843 eligible articles underwent co-citation, cokeywords, and clustering analyses. This methodology aimed to investigate the current status, trends, major research questions, and potential future directions within the research domain. Results: The bibliometric analysis indicates that research on healthy behaviors in individuals with MCI originated in 2002 and experienced rapid growth in 2014, reflecting the increasing global interest in this area. The United States emerged as the primary contributor, accounting for more than one-third of the total scientific output with 982 articles. Journals that published the most articles on MCI-related health behaviors included "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease," "Neurobiology of Aging," "Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience," and other geriatricsrelated journals. High-impact papers identified by VOSviewer predominantly cover concepts related to MCI, such as diagnostic criteria, assessment, and multifactorial interventions. Co-occurrence keyword analysis highlights five research hotspots in health behavior associated with MCI: exercise, diet, risk factors and preventive measures for dementia, cognitive decline-related biomarkers, and clinical trials. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive review of literature on health behavior in individuals with MCI, emphasizing influential documents and journals. It outlines research trends and key focal points, offering valuable insights for researchers to comprehend significant contributions and steer future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of disclosing the antecedents and dynamics of food loss generation in the upstream stages of the fruit and vegetable sector, this paper presents the results of a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 Producers' Organisations (POs) in Germany and Italy. The content of the interviews is analysed by applying a qualitative content analysis approach, thus disclosing the most relevant issues affecting food loss generation at the interface between POs and buyers (industry and retailers). Several similarities emerge as we compare the answers provided by Italian and German POs, especially concerning the role of retailers' cosmetic specification on products in the generation of losses. Instead, the structure of contracts regulating commercial transactions between POs, industry, and retailers show noticeable differences, apparently resulting in a greater capacity to plan the demand of products from the beginning of the season in the Italian context. Despite these differences, this study confirms the key role of POs in increasing farmers' bargaining power against the buyers, both in Germany and Italy. Further research is needed to compare circumstances in other European countries and to analyse why the similarities and differences identified occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

Smaller towns in rural regions are important anchors for regional development, but they are not usually considered particularly innovative and open to new ideas. This paper asks how the network of small and medium-sized towns, Cittaslow, could establish slowing down as something new in local development. Against the theoretical background of sociological innovation research, an analytical framework of social innovation is elaborated to analyse Cittaslow using four case studies: two German and two Italian towns. Based on fieldwork in the four towns, this paper shows that discourse and communication on slowing down, local projects labelled as slow and new cooperation structures go hand in hand. This leads to the conclusion that new ways of local development need a communicative umbrella under which projects and stakeholders come together. The paper furthermore demonstrates that the analytical framework, with its triad of semantics, pragmatics and grammar, is extremely helpful for analysing spatial development and has the potential to be adapted as a tool for policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is increasing interest in the role of EEG in neurorehabilitation. We primarily aimed to identify the knowledge base through highly influential studies. Our secondary aims were to imprint the relevant thematic hotspots, research trends, and social networks within the scientific community. Methods: We performed an electronic search in Scopus, looking for studies reporting on rehabilitation in patients with neurological disabilities. We used the most influential papers to outline the knowledge base and carried out a word co-occurrence analysis to identify the research hotspots. We also used depicted collaboration networks between universities, authors, and countries after analyzing the cocitations. The results were presented in summary tables, plots, and maps. Finally, a content review based on the top-20 most cited articles completed our study. Results: Our current bibliometric study was based on 874 records from 420 sources. There was vivid research interest in EEG use for neurorehabilitation, with an annual growth rate as high as 14.3%. The most influential paper was the study titled "Brain-computer interfaces, a review" by L.F. Nicolas-Alfonso and J. Gomez-Gill, with 997 citations, followed by "Brain-computer interfaces in neurological rehabilitation" by J. Daly and J.R. Wolpaw (708 citations). The US, Italy, and Germany were among the most productive countries. The research hotspots shifted with time from the use of functional magnetic imaging to EEG-based brain–machine interface, motor imagery, and deep learning. Conclusions: EEG constitutes the most significant input in brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) and can be successfully used in the neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke symptoms, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and traumatic brain and spinal injuries. EEG-based BCI facilitates the training, communication, and control of wheelchair and exoskeletons. However, research is limited to specific scientific groups from developed countries. Evidence is expected to change with the broader availability of BCI and improvement in EEG-filtering algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy ideas are often crafted in international fora, such as international organisations, multilateral institutions, and high-level summits. However, whether and how ideas will eventually inform policymakers at the domestic level remains an understudied subject. This paper contributes to this debate by tracing the domestic consolidation and eventual erosion of ‘Crisis Management’, a policy paradigm that emerged after the end of the Cold War and became dominant among NATO members in the 2010s. We investigate Germany and Italy as two case studies that followed two distinct trajectories. Policy elites suddenly adopted the paradigm in Italy and built a broad consensus on it. In Germany, crisis management has emerged lately and remains contested, as the territorial defense has maintained legitimacy among elites. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning such trajectories is the key to uncovering whether a consensus on a new version of territorial defense as a dominant paradigm will consolidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the convergence of the testing and positivity rates for the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on Germany and Italy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ the two-regime threshold autoregressive (TAR) panel unit root test by using the weekly data in the period of 2020:03-2021:04. Findings: Following finding out that the testing and positivity rates are nonlinear, the authors determine that the transition country between the two regimes is Italy for the testing rates and Germany for the positivity rates. Their findings support the partial convergence for the testing rates for Germany and Italy. On the other hand, the authors could not find any convergence for the positivity rates of these two countries. Originality/value: This paper contributes to academic literature in several ways. Firstly, to the best of their knowledge, this paper is the first study that analyzes the convergence of testing and positivity data. This paper further focuses on two Euro-Area countries which have suffered significantly from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the authors employ the two-regime threshold autoregressive (TAR) panel unit root proposed by Beyaert and Camacho (2008) in their empirical analysis. This recent panel data methodology aims to test real convergence in a nonlinear framework by incorporating the threshold model, panel data unit root test and the calculation of critical values by bootstrap simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the strategies for conveying regional culture-bound terms in monolingual and bilingual (or multilingual) texts and chooses a type of museum for which such terms are particularly important: the folk museum. After a brief overview of this type of museum in Italy and Germany (section 2), section 3 deals with culture-bound terms, their classification and the strategies for introducing them in texts. Section 4 presents the empirical analysis carried out on a corpus of texts from the websites of 10 Italian and 10 German or Austrian folk museums. The use of realia was examined first in the monolingual, then in the multilingual museum communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of negative partisanship has lately become a highly salient topic, yet its current measurements are far from optimal as they do not account for negative partisanship's nature as a social identity, nor are they applicable to multiparty systems. In this paper, we validate the negative partisanship (NPS) scale. By relying on expert interviews, cognitive pre-tests and a large-N survey in two countries, Germany (N = 1,911) and Italy (N = 1,440), we provide a construct validation using a nomological network based on previous studies and social identity literature. Our results show the applicability of the new instrument, the full five-item version as well as shorter conceptualizations, for the measurement of negative partisanship in multiparty systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Linguistik Online is the property of Universitaet Bern, Philosophisch-Historische Fakultaet 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.)

This paper analyzes the experiences of children of immigrants coming to Italy from Turkey. It does so by using in-depth interviews and looking at how they conceptualize their sense of belonging to their home country and the transnational ties that they maintain in relation to their parents' experience. The participants in this research grew up in families whose intention was not to remain in Italy but to continue their journey to Germany. Like their parents, the second-generation members also want to build their lives in Germany, however, the meaning attributed to this place is very different. For these young people, Germany and its diasporas offer a source of identity. Put otherwise, in addition to what Germany can offer in terms of services and economic opportunities, they are also attracted to what diasporas can offer: being Turks and Kurds in Germany. By allowing them to reconnect with the cultural memories of their homeland and enjoy the opportunities and rights offered by a developed country, Germany becomes a diasporic homeland in which to plan a future, a place where, to quote one of them, "one feels at home in the heart of Europe". The idea of a homeland, then, is not only transformed – it is duplicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to ask how the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has orchestrated a sustainable development (SD) agenda in its international policy since 2020. Design/methodology/approach: By drawing on theoretical ideas around policy orchestration as a key UN governing strategy and applying them to the analysis of the progression of the SD agenda in the EHEA, the paper conducts a thematic analysis of six recent key EHEA international policy documents and 19 interviews with key Bologna stakeholders in France, Germany and Italy. Findings: The resultant analysis uncovers three overarching key themes that show the EHEA has the capacity to mitigate pitfalls in the UN's SD agenda; some weaknesses of the UN's orchestration of SD are translated into weaknesses in the EHEA's formulation of its SD agenda; and the further development of an SD agenda as an essential direction of EHEA's work. The paper then goes on to discuss how EHEA policies only mention SD discourse, omit concrete plans for its implementation and keep the very meaning of SD ambiguous throughout international policy documents. Originality/value: The authors offer three original recommendations that the EHEA should adopt in an attempt to mitigate the issues raised in the run-up to its 2030 deadline for implementing its policies--the EHEA should develop an explicit definition of SD; recognise the Euro-centredness of EHEA policies and open them up to other voices; and cite academic research when developing policy documents.

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

This original paper, based on data from the Erasmus+Blurred Lives Project, presents a new multi-dimensional categorisation model to describe negative online experiences, including forms of cyberbullying, based on a study of internet usage among over N = 2,500 adolescents with lower socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds across five European countries. The paper first sets out the rationale for the development of a new coding system, before describing the current study and nature of the survey data collected. There follows a description of the development of the new system and the series of reliability checks undertaken by the research team (N= 11, from 5 countries) and of the refinements made to the categories and codes. The resulting coding system is presented with consideration of the strengths and limitations, and description of two early pilot studies which have successfully adopted the new system.

In this paper we use intraday government bond futures price changes around German and Italian Treasury auctions to identify unexpected shifts in the demand for public debt. Estimates show that positive demand shocks lead to large negative movements in Treasury yields. Evidence shows significant spillover effects into Treasury bond, equity, and corporate bond markets of other eurozone countries. We find interesting differences in the effects of demand shocks between the two countries, consistent with the "safe‐haven" status of German bonds versus the "high‐debt" status of Italian Treasuries. Results suggest that these effects are stronger during periods of high financial stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent earthquakes as the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence showed that recently built unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings behaved much better than expected and sustained, despite the maximum PGA values ranged between 0.20–0.30 g, either minor damage or structural damage that is deemed repairable. Especially low-rise residential and commercial masonry buildings with a code-conforming seismic design and detailing behaved in general very well without substantial damages. The low damage grades of modern masonry buildings that was observed during this earthquake series highlighted again that codified design procedures based on linear analysis can be rather conservative. Although advances in simulation tools make nonlinear calculation methods more readily accessible to designers, linear analyses will still be the standard design method for years to come. The present paper aims to improve the linear seismic design method by providing a proper definition of the q-factor of URM buildings. These q-factors are derived for low-rise URM buildings with rigid diaphragms which represent recent construction practise in low to moderate seismic areas of Italy and Germany. The behaviour factor components for deformation and energy dissipation capacity and for overstrength due to the redistribution of forces are derived by means of pushover analyses. Furthermore, considerations on the behaviour factor component due to other sources of overstrength in masonry buildings are presented. As a result of the investigations, rationally based values of the behaviour factor q to be used in linear analyses in the range of 2.0–3.0 are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The goal of this paper is to analyze the COVID-19 policies of 10 European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary, with a time-series policy analysis tool. Subject and methods: The results of the COVID-19 policy analysis are based on a single time-series indicator, or daily population mortality rate: the number of COVID-19 daily cumulative deaths divided by the population in millions. The lower the score, the better the policy. Although many experts believe that the COVID-19 policy outcome analysis is premature, time series analysis is an excellent analysis that can provide information on the progress and transition of policy outcomes. In other words, the proposed time series analysis tool allows policymakers to identify and quantify when mistakes were made during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The COVID-19 policy analysis discovered many useful facts. Sweden failed due to the herd immunity approach. Hungary made a fundamental mistake in COVID-19 tactics. Countries such as Sweden, Hungary, Belgium, and Poland showed time-series changes that differed from the others. Conclusion: Public health interventions can play a key role in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed policy analysis tool, hiscovid demonstrated the effectiveness of the time-series score behavior for discovering when policymakers made mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and young people who come into conflict with the law tend to be disengaged with education and learning. This paper reports on research from an EU Erasmus+ project in Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. The research focused on the impact of Authentic Inquiry (AI) on learners in custodial or youth justice settings and the impact on educators and their pedagogy. Quantitative data (from 82 educators and 73 young people), demonstrated the young people could be re-engaged with education and learning as evidenced in the change in Learning Power profiles. Qualitative data (from 16 educators and 14 young people) showed the greatest impact to be on the emotional component of engagement. The AI had an impact xon educators as learners by improved Learning Power profiles and on their pedagogical approach. Ways to embed the approach into education in youth justice settings in the different country contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the behaviour of the external adjustment path for the four main economies in the euro area. I find a structural break in the behaviour of the net external position at the time of the introduction of the euro for France, Italy and Spain, pointing out that the inception of the common currency changed their external adjustment process. Germany does not show this structural break, being its external position more affected by other events such as the country reunification in 1989. I also find that France and Italy will adjust the net external position mainly through the valuation component, while Germany and Spain will restore their external balance mostly through the trade component. The common currency area could have exacerbated Germany's net creditor position as the evolution of the euro has reacted to the external adjustment needs of debtor countries such as Italy and Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to identify the most prolific countries in the field of special education and to discuss the widespread impact of their papers by taking into account the country's h-index. Through a bibliometric analysis, the data were collected in the Web of Science Core Collection category "Education, Special" in the Social Science Citation Index during 2011-2020. The 25 most prolific countries in the field of special education were determined in terms of paper productivity, and it was seen that the leading country was undisputedly the USA (54.42%). Meanwhile, a strong positive correlation was found between the h-index and the number of papers published by the countries (r=0.864). On the other hand, when the ranking in terms of the number of papers was reconfigured by the h-index, it was relatively changed. The possible reasons for this change for the countries with the most changing rankings were discussed by considering some definitive criteria such as the journal quartiles, the percentage of international and domestic, and the percentage of open access papers. This study reports a positive correlation between the quality and quantity in the field of special education for the publications of countries. It has been shown that where the positive correlation deviates, then especially, the journal quartiles, the percentage of international collaboration and the percentage of open access papers have a significant effect. The bibliometric findings may be useful to enrich the discussion about the widespread impact of papers and debate whether the use of h-index is acceptable for cross-national comparisons.

The higher education efficiency evaluation model using the data envelopment analysis method has interested many researchers. This paper uses bibliometric analysis on publications extracted from the Scopus database to provide a comprehensive overview of research publications on the measurement of higher education efficiency based on data envelopment analysis: its growth rate, major collaboration networks, the most important and popular research topic. A total of 169 related publications were collected and analyzed from 1988 to 2021. The analysis results show that: Publications published every year have increased sharply in the last six years; The quality of publications is relatively high as publications tend to be published in journals with high-ranking indexes; Countries with the most influence in studies on this topic are: Italy, China, Spain, the USA, and the United Kingdom; Authors with the most influence in this research direction are Agasisti T., Abbott M., Doucouliagos C., Avkiran N.K., and Johnes J.; The research cooperation among countries and among affiliations is not strong. Finally, the paper has provided recommendations for future studies based on the findings.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Diversitätsforschung und -Management is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH 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.)

This paper examines some historical queries on the relationship between archaeology and politics. The methodological and scientific outlines of the works of the most prominent archaeologists (1930-1970) are embedded within a specific social milieu; reflecting on this aspect means showing how cultural policies and institutional pressure can influence hermeneutics and methodological debates (i.e. the biases of scientific research). In this sense, when talking about 1950’s Germany and Italy, the importance of publishing houses, as one of the main divulge tools of political parties, becomes indicative of an organized program reflecting and promoting specific cultural and political values. Furthermore, the relationships between archaeologists and publishers can reveal how political intents have conditioned and still condition the transmission of texts, ideas and authors. What I am interrogating is thus the bridge between Academia and the broad public, emphasizing its ideological components. From a methodological point of view, I do not intend to represent a schematization of all occurrences of the relations between archaeologists, political institutions and publicists, but rather I would like to propose an introduction to a new line of research, that will necessarily need to provide for a broader casuistry. The comparative perspective between Italy and Germany is motivated by a desire to denationalize the history of studies and reconstruct a transnational cultural history, with similarities/differences of countries involved in similar extreme caesuras, characterizing the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lockdowns imposed by many countries on their populations at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis forced teachers to adapt quickly and without adequate preparation to distance teaching. In this paper, we focus on one of the most formidable challenges that teachers faced during the lockdowns and even in the post-lockdown emergency period, namely, developing assessment that maintains the pedagogical continuity that educational institutions typically require. Based on the results of a previous study, focused on the analysis of answers to an open-ended questionnaire administered to a population of 700 teachers from France, Germany, Israel and Italy, a semi-structured interview series was designed and implemented by the authors of this paper with a small group of teachers. The transcripts of these interviews were analysed according to the interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology, with the aim of investigating teachers' own perspectives on the following: (a) the difficulties with which they had to contend, with respect to the question of assessment; (b) the techniques adopted to deal with these difficulties; and (c) the ways in which the lockdown experience could affect the future evolution of teachers' assessment practices. This analysis supported us in formulating hypotheses concerning the possible long-term effects of lockdown on modes of assessment in mathematics.

School-home communication is a growing research field in social sciences, particularly in education sciences and communication studies. While previous studies have paid much attention to the importance of school-home interaction in supporting primary academic socialisation and progress of elementary school pupils, the role of teacher-parent communication and collaboration in influencing the development of children's and adolescents' digital skills remains an under-researched area. This paper employed thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with education experts in six European countries, providing an insight into their opinions and views on the problems in communication between homes and schools. The analysis identified main problems in and obstacles to school-home collaboration on children's digital skills development, and the changes the COVID-19 pandemic brought along in this field of education. The paper provides five policy recommendations for enhancing school-home collaboration on digital skills development.

This paper makes available to the broader educational community the instruments which have been originally designed and validated within the European project "CLIL for all: Attention to diversity in bilingual education" ("ADiBE") to determine how diversity is being catered to across a broad array of CLIL contexts in European Secondary Education (Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). They include three sets of questionnaires, interviews, and observation protocols and are qualitative and quantitative instruments whose design has been based on the latest research and which have undergone a carefully controlled double-fold pilot process for their validation (external ratings approach and pilot phase with a representative sample of 264 subjects). The questions included in the three sets of instruments are initially characterized, together with their format and main categories. The paper then details the steps undertaken for their research-based design and the double-fold pilot process followed for their validation. The questionnaires and interview and observation protocols are then presented in a format which is directly applicable in any CLIL classroom in order to determine the accessibility of bilingual programs for all types of achievers and to identify the chief difficulties and best practices in promoting inclusion in bilingual education.

This paper deals with a series of legal cases in Italy, Germany, and Austria, between September 2019 and December 2020, which ruled that laws prohibiting or restricting assistance in suicide were unconstitutional. There are similarities between these three cases, all of which are influenced by the practice of assisted suicide in Switzerland, but also differences, not least because of the antecedent legal contexts. Each case is based on flawed reasoning. They have in common an exaggerated account of autonomy or self-determination, insufficiently qualified by the duty to protect human life or by other ethical constraints. The Italian and Austrian Courts also appeal to the principle of equality and to a supposed analogy with refusal of life-sustaining treatments, both of which raise concerns in relation to further expansion of the provisions. In responding to these flawed judgements, legislators should favour proposals that prevent the normalisation of assisted and non-assisted suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is based on a paper presented at the conference "How to Tell About Art?" (Vilnius Academy of Arts, 7-8 May 2021; curated by Lina Michelkevičė, Laura Petrauskaitė, and Aušra Trakšelytė). The topic of the presentation was suggested by the growing interest among the Lithuanian public in historical art exhibitions. Both the conference report and the article are based on the assumption that the increasing visibility of the historical art exhibitions in the Lithuanian cultural field and their growing popularity might have an impact that goes beyond the art historical reflections. Such exhibitions not only develop the audience's sensitivity to artefacts, but also stimulate and partially satisfy the desire to learn about the history of culture, society and politics. The immanent characteristic of art - the perpetual movement of a visual artwork from (total) invisibility to (partial) visibility - implies the significance of an art exhibition and its capacity to communicate the 'inconvenient', and therefore silenced and distorted, memory. A fragment of the past will remain irrelevant for as long as it is unrecognised. By bringing the viewer face to face with the artefacts of a forgotten reality, the exhibition brings the latter closer, sharpens its colours, and makes it vivid. By taking the series of exhibitions dedicated to Lithuanian art and artistic life during WWII as its case study, the article aims to at least partially answer the question: how relevant, influential, and meaningful is the communication of 'inconvenient' and therefore silenced historical topics, particularly in an art exhibition that uses catalogue as its integral part? The article explains the motives for organising these exhibitions, analyses their brief descriptions along with their narrative structure, and overviews the forms and methods of dissemination. In order to provide a broader context for the issues at stake, a juxtaposition is made with similarly themed exhibitions recently held in Germany and Italy. They became renowned for their local and international focus on art produced under the Fascist and National Socialist regimes, as well as under the conditions of WWII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relation between risk of job automation and participation in adult education and training (AET) and examines variation in that relation across welfare regimes distinguishing between situational and institutional barriers. Using microdata of PIAAC, we analyze participation in formal or nonformal AET for job-related reasons in relation to the risk of automation of the respondents' occupation after controlling for main sociodemographic characteristics. Logistic regression models are run on respondents from 14 European countries representing different welfare regimes: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Scandinavian countries); Italy, Greece, and Spain (Southern European); Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (Central and Eastern Europe), Belgium, France, and Germany (Continental); and United Kingdom and Ireland (Anglo-Saxon countries). Our findings confirm that workers in occupations at high risk of automation were found to be consistently less likely to participate in job-related AET, quite irrespective of welfare regime. [The paper was presented at XIII Conferenza Espanet Italia--Il welfare state di fronte alle sfide globali (Venezia, 17 September 2020).]

Linked Article: Calabrese et al. Br J Dermatol 2022; 186:925–941. The interleukin‐1 (IL‐1) family are a group of chemicals called cytokines that form part of our immune system. Unfortunately, the body may start to use these cytokines inappropriately (dysregulation), and they may stimulate certain white blood cells (neutrophils) to increase in number causing inflammation without an infectious trigger. In this paper, the authors from Italy and Germany review the role of the different members of the IL‐1 family in inflammatory skin disorders and the progress being made to develop antibody treatments aiming to reverse their effects. Interleukin‐1 antagonists such as anakinra and canakinumab have already proved useful in the treatment of disorders directly related to neutrophil proliferation, but there is evidence that this group of drugs may also be beneficial in commoner disorders such as psoriasis and atopic eczema. Sometimes a drug that blocks a single cytokine molecule may have limited effect. Laboratory studies suggest that agents that block receptors on the cell surface membrane may be more effective at reducing skin inflammation caused by several IL‐1 subsets. One promising target is IL‐1 receptor accessory protein (IL‐1R3). The authors stress the need for drugs that target the harmful effects of the IL‐1 family at several levels. Linked Article: Calabrese et al. Br J Dermatol 2022; 186:925–941. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

Purpose: Free and open-source software (FOSS) has been used worldwide because of the advantages of user control, cost-saving, flexibility, openness, freedom, more security and better stability. The purpose of this study is to explore the status quo of educational application of FOSS and the trends from international perspectives and its implications for higher education in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The method of cluster analysis was used in this study. The Web of Science database was used as the data source and all relevant literature for the year 2010-2020 on the theme of "FOSS" was collected for analysis. The information visualization software CiteSpace was used for citation visualization analysis, revealing the research results of FOSS worldwide, including hot spots and development trends. Findings: This paper found that FOSS has become an important research area and is playing an important role in the reform and development of education. Meanwhile, the development and application of FOSS have regional imbalances and strong differentiation, including the educational sector. The paper also found that although FOSS has entered the stage of interdisciplinary development, the research and development of FOSS in the field of education is insufficient, which poses a huge challenge to decision-makers, teachers and students. Originality/value: Implications for higher education in Hong Kong including: attach importance to and vigorously promote FOSS research and practice to benefit more teachers and students; teachers and students need to be trained for acquiring the awareness and skills of FOSS applications and formulate different strategies; the government should provide greater support to formulate and implement a short and middle-term development plan to facilitate the application of FOSS; and Hong Kong higher education institutions may strengthen exchanges and cooperation with counterparts around the world to jointly promote the development of FOSS. It is hoped that the findings will provide a reference for the study and application of FOSS in higher education in Hong Kong.

Over the past two decades, historians have become increasingly fascinated by the question of what enabled the emergence of a stable model of democracy in post-war Western Europe, characterized by the persistence of pre-war elites and top-down forms of decision-making. This article reveals the importance of the British occupations during and after the Second World War in fostering this model of democracy. It does so by comparing and weaving together British occupation strategies in Germany and Italy between 1943 and 1949. Based on a novel examination of archival sources, it demonstrates that British ruling strategies influenced the form of democracy that emerged in these two states. As such, the article reveals the centrality of 'indirect rule' practices and their multifaceted impact. Building on imperial precedents, the occupations were primarily run through pre-existing local elites who commanded authority and influence amongst the population. The article argues that this choice explains why the British produced, first, functioning occupation regimes and, subsequently, contributed to the emergence of remarkably stable democracies. At the same time, however, this ruling strategy aided the creation of political regimes that were elite-led and that strongly limited popular participation, leaving many democratic aspirations unfulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency in stock markets is essential for economic stability and growth. This study investigates the efficiency and herding behavior of the stock markets from the top economies of the world (known as G20 countries). We classify stock market indices using MSCI classification for the developed and emerging markets to provide a comparative examination using the latest data and by employing the robust multifractal detrended fluctuation (MFDFA) method. In addition to the full sample, the analysis uses sub-sample periods to reveal the hidden features and efficiencies of the G20 markets during the Russia–Ukraine War and COVID-19 for the first time. The findings show the availability of varied multifractality among all G20 stock markets during the overall and crisis periods, exhibit long-range correlations, and may support the fractal market hypothesis. In addition, Italy remains the least efficient, while Germany remains the most efficient stock market. The sub-sample results further reveal unevenness in the local fluctuations and resultant higher inefficiency considering the sheer magnitude and impact of crises on the G20 stock markets. However, the efficiency of developed stock markets performed better as compared to emerging markets. The study of G20 stock markets is useful and provides several implications for a wider audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the EU2030 strategy for poverty alleviation, this paper provides an assessment on the quality of estimates of poverty and inequality indicators at sub-national level (NUTS2) in Germany and Italy. Given the elaborated survey design of EU-SILC and the complexity of some poverty and inequality indicators that we consider in this paper, we use the Taylor linearization approach to estimate their variance. As a further assessment on the goodness of these estimates, we use a Fay–Herriot model to see in what extent we can obtain estimates with lower mean squared error using small area estimation. Our results reveal high territorial heterogeneity in living conditions across sub-national domains, in particular in some southern regions of Italy and some eastern government regions of Germany. Moreover, results from Fay–Herriot model reveals higher gains in efficiency for the 36 government regions of Germany especially for income-inequality indicators. • we use the Taylor linearization approach to estimate variance in poverty indicators. • we use a Fay–Herriot model to obtain estimates with lower mean squared error. • we map the spatial distribution of poverty indicators at NUTS-2 level. • Our results reveal high territorial heterogeneity across sub-national domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy and Germany have similar geographical differences in firm productivity—with the North more productive than the South in Italy and the West more productive than the East in Germany—but have adopted different models of wage bargaining. Italy sets wages based on nationwide contracts that allow for limited local wage adjustments, while Germany has moved toward a more flexible system that allows for local bargaining. We find that Italy exhibits limited geographical wage differences in nominal terms and almost no relationship between local productivity and local nominal wages, while Germany has larger geographic wage differences and a tighter link between local wages and local productivity. As a consequence, in Italy, low-productivity provinces have higher non-employment rates than high-productivity provinces, because employers cannot lower wages, while in Germany the relationship between non-employment and productivity is significantly weaker. We conclude that the Italian system has significant costs in terms of forgone aggregate earnings and employment because it generates a spatial equilibrium where workers queue for jobs in the South and remain unemployed while waiting. If Italy adopted the German system, aggregate employment and earnings would increase by 11.04% and 7.45%, respectively. Our findings are relevant for other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last ten years have witnessed an increase in publications focusing on bioeconomy as a proposal to confront the global challenges of climate change, depletion of non-renewable resources and ecosystem degradation. This paper investigates the scientific literature on issues related agricultural bioeconomy by applying a bibliometric network analysis. Bibliometric analysis is applied to the publications of the Scopus database during the period 2010–2020 in order to provide an overview of the main aspects that characterize agricultural bioeconomy. The results showed that out of a total of 1100 scientific papers, only 2.45% were published in 2010, while the corresponding share in 2020 was 20.81%. In the five years of 2016–2020, cumulatively, 70.63% of the publications were made, showing the dynamic evolution of bioeconomy. In addition, out of 85 countries in total, Germany and Italy are the two countries with most publications, while the fragmentation of research is evident with the creation of two main nodes, the European and the American. Moreover, keyword analysis showed that biomass and sustainability are two main recurring concepts, confirming that, currently, bioeconomy operates at three different levels: energy demand, land demand, and governance. It is apparent that to boost the development of agricultural bioeconomy, the following aspects should be assessed: the effective use of resources, an understanding of the key drivers of agricultural bioeconomy, and a clear perception of their associations. There is still no consensus as to which are the key factors that will accelerate its sustainable development. Our pursuit is to use the tools of bibliometric analysis to reach more critical conclusions regarding the agricultural bioeconomy, rather than approach it in a static way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, this paper compares the earnings premium and employment share of jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across 11 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The results reveal that the STEM wage premium is higher in the United States than in any of the other comparison countries, despite the fact that the U.S. has a larger share of workers in STEM jobs. We also find evidence that the premium varies significantly across STEM sub-fields and education levels, and that the premium tends to be higher in countries with lower unionization rates, less employment protection, or a larger share of employment in the public sector.

This work aims to assess the impact of renewable energy incentives, particularly that of the feed-in tariff (FiT), on the long-term development of solar photovoltaics (PVs). With this aim, the paper introduces a dynamic model based on nonlinear delay differential algebraic equations to simulate the evolution of the PV capacity and its commitment in the power grid. The model assumes the FiT budget, the PV cost and willingness of the public to install PVs as the main drivers for solar PV installations. In particular, the learning-by-doing concept to model the PV cost and consequently the PV deployment is proposed for the first time in this paper. The accuracy of the model is validated against historical data of two of the biggest PV markets in the world driven by FiT, namely, Italy during 2008–2014, and Germany during 2000–2014. A sensitivity analysis based on the Italian PV market is carried out to identify the impact of the parameters of the proposed model. Results indicate that the proposed model is a valuable tool that can help policymakers in the decision-making process, such as the definition of the FiT price and the duration of the incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset.

Comprehending the morphological disparities between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV viruses can shed light on the underlying mechanisms of infection and facilitate the development of effective diagnostic tools and treatments. Hence, this study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis and comparative assessment of the morphology of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. The dataset encompassed 519 isolated SARS-CoV-2 images obtained from patients in Italy (INMI) and 248 isolated SARS-CoV images from patients in Germany (Frankfurt). In this paper, we employed TEM images to scrutinize morphological features, and the outcomes were contrasted with those of SARS-CoV viruses. The findings reveal disparities in the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, such as envelope protein (E) 98.6 and 102.2 nm, length of spike protein (S) 10.11 and 9.50 nm, roundness 0.86 and 0.88, circularity 0.78 and 0.76, and area sizes 25145.54 and 38591.35 pixels, respectively. In conclusion, these results will augment the identification of virus subtypes, aid in the study of antiviral medications, and enhance our understanding of disease progression and the virus life cycle. Moreover, these findings have the potential to assist in the development of more accurate epidemiological prediction models for COVID-19, leading to better outbreak management and saving lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Educators require focused training to foster the development of intercultural competence in nurses. Training programs for educators need to be based on a comprehensive profile with a focus on intercultural learning. This study aims to define and validate a profile of the Intercultural Nursing Educator (INE). Method: The Delphi method was used with an iterative, multi-stage process to transform opinions into group consensus. A total of 46 European, African, and American experts from the nursing and intercultural field participated. Inclusion criteria required English at a level of B2, expertise in the field of intercultural competence, experience in teaching intercultural competence in the nursing context, and publications focused on intercultural topics. Results: The INE profile was developed and all 126 competencies were validated. Discussion and conclusion: The profile is freely available on the project website and provides the basis for curricula, training programs and assessment of the required competences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard when comparing treatment effectiveness, and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies state a clear preference for such direct comparisons. When these are not available, an indirect treatment comparison (ITC) is an alternative option. The objective of this study was to assess the acceptance of ITC methods by HTA agencies across England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, using oncology cases for a homogeneous sample of HTA evaluations. Methods: The study was conducted on the PrismAccess database in May 2021 to retrieve HTA evaluation reports for oncology treatments for solid tumors, in which an ITC was presented. The analysis was restricted to HTA evaluation reports published between April 2018 and April 2021 in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Identified HTA evaluation reports were screened and reviewed by two independent reviewers. For each ITC presented, the methodology and its acceptance by the HTA agency were analyzed. Results: Five hundred and forty-three HTA evaluation reports were identified, of which 120 (22%) presented an ITC. This proportion was the highest in England (51%) and lowest in France (6%). The overall acceptance rate of ITC methods was 30%, with the highest in England (47%) and lowest in France (0%). Network meta-analysis (NMA; 23%) was the most commonly used ITC technique, with a 39% acceptance rate overall, followed by Bucher ITC (19%; 43% acceptance rate) and matching-adjusted indirect comparison (13%; 33% acceptance rate). The most common criticisms of the ITC methods from HTA agencies related to data limitations (heterogeneity and lack of data; 48% and 43%, respectively) and the statistical methods used (41%). Conclusions: The generally low acceptance rate of ITC methods by HTA agencies in oncology suggests that, whilst in the absence of a direct comparison ITCs may provide relevant evidence, this evidence is not widely considered sufficient for the purpose of HTA evaluations. The perception of ITC methods for the purpose of HTA evaluations varies substantially between countries. There is a need for further clarity on the properties of ITC techniques and the assessment of their results as ITC methods continue to evolve quickly and further techniques may become available in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sustainable forest management has proved to be a crucial issue for forestry companies becoming more and more sensitive to environmental problems. This resulted in the inherent expansion in forest certifications formally promoting long-term environmental sustainability and a wider spectrum of forest ecosystems. In this context this study aims to assess the main motivations that encourage the adoption of sustainable forest management certification for PEFC and FSC standards and how these motivations vary depending on the characteristics of the companies. Specifically, online questionnaire surveys were submitted to a sample of Italian and German forest owners and managers considering five main motivational factors offered by the economic literature: three external mechanisms represented by the market, signalling and legal mechanism and two internal mechanisms consisting of the moral and learning mechanism. Results highlighted that the main drivers are represented for both countries by the reporting mechanism, in particular certification is seen as a tool to demonstrate externally the implementation of sustainable forest management practices. Other mechanisms that guide the intentions of forest owners and managers include the legal mechanism, in particular in the Italian case, especially for publicly owned forest areas, more driven by the interest of complying with forestry regulations and the moral mechanism, in the case of Germany. The implications of this research are seen in development of forest certification, through understanding forest owners' reasons for adopting it and providing background information to improve the design of certification programs to attract greater adoption by forest companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]