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Information technology poses many challenges both to general management and to the IT industry itself. After extrapolating some of the technological trends that could have significant impacts on commercial and public sector IT in the 1990, the paper reviews four major challenges. These are the need to develop IT strategies, both nationally and for individual organisations; the need to create alliances: the need to avoid misalliances; mechanisms for converting ideas into action. A considerable emphasis is placed on the need to understand the managerial environment within which IT is used, and to see IT as only one element within wider organisational systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The literature mostly investigates the business cycle transmission of the United Kingdom (UK) and France as a part of a wider group (e.g. European Exchange Rate Mechanism or G7), despite their historical links and regional significance. Thus, herein paper aims to analyse the inter-dependence of these economies and how a shock from one of them affects the other for the data since 1978 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, first, preliminary statistics were calculated in order to describe the historical relationship between these countries. The econometric part estimates the vector auto-regression model (VAR) to assess the inter-dependence of the economies. VAR model allows further to inspect the impulse response functions that shows the shock dynamics from one country to another. In order to verify if a shock from one of the economies is important to another, the study uses granger causality test. Findings: The study establishes a strong link between these countries. A business cycle is transmitted significantly between the economies of France and UK, with a single standard deviation shock from France resulting in a long term effect of 0.4% change in gross domestic product (GDP) of UK and 1% vice versa. Additionally changes in GDP of both of the countries significantly Granger-cause change to GDP of the corresponding economy. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study investigating the business cycle transmission between France and UK and providing a quantitative assessment of their inter-dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Beginning in the mid-1980s, European governments have increasingly implemented performance-based funding systems for higher education. While a focus on the transnational pressures that contributed to the widespread adoption of performance-based funding in Europe accounts for the impetus for performance-based funding policies, it fails to address how and why the resultant performance-based funding policies are as distinct and different as they are. In this paper, I argue that an institutional logics perspective offers a theoretical account of the performance-based funding policy formation process. I use the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and France as case studies. I contend that in these three cases, different local logics drove the performance-based funding policy formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper presents an overview of the French policy mix towards labour market inequalities, consisting of a high minimum wage together with targeted payroll tax cuts around the minimum wage. It reviews the recent literature documenting the impact of that policy mix on employment and wage inequality. The main takeaways are that pre‐tax wage inequality has been increasing in France rather like it has in the UK and the US, while net wage inequality has decreased and then remained stable. The employment experience for the middle age group is also very close in France to the one in the UK and the US, while it differs markedly at young and older ages. The paper offers two more general thoughts on how to make progress in comparing policy options. First, most studies tend to give too much weight to tax and benefit reforms in being able to reduce inequality as they disregard incidence mechanisms, and fail to incorporate properly longer‐term effects of other policies on pre‐tax inequality. Second, the design of effective policy should always incorporate simplicity and salience. Failure to do so is likely to lead to little expected impact of such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition a paper that was being published at the same time by a highly respected European laboratory, EFECTIS, authored by Eric Guilluame directly supports the results we obtained.[3] Babrauskus goes on to criticize the study by claiming that it does not accurately reflect the real environment. The corresponding author of the letter has questioned the independence and ethics of the testing laboratory and authors. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports on the implementation of a supply chain optimization solution by the London, England-based Greycon Ltd. at the office papers group of the Espoo, Finland-based paper company, M-real Office Papers. The company has four mills in France, Sweden and Great Britain.

The article compares the administration of whooping cough immunization in France and Great Britain. It has been noted that the latter is not really active in the vaccination policy, while the former normally incorporates whooping cough vaccine with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids. However, administration of the vaccine had brought out various side effects in each of the country.

The article presents several researches related to veterinary medicine. A four-point photographic scale was used to assess footpad dermatitis in broiler chickens at two processing plants in Great Britain. An investigation on the purported bias system in France that may lead to inaccurate estimates of the prevalence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in sheep and goats in European countries has been done. A research on the lesion found in the oral mucosa of sheep is also conducted.

In the Global North, mass warfare created a huge demand for social protection, pushing governments to provide income for invalids, war victims, and the survivors of fallen soldiers. Most European colonial powers, including France and Great Britain, recruited soldiers and other security forces not only from their metropoles but also from their colonies during both World Wars. However, the question of how mass warfare influenced social reforms in former colonies has not been systematically addressed, particularly with respect to how these influences varied across colonial powers. To begin to address this gap, this paper explores the warfare–welfare nexus in the context of British and French colonies of West Africa around World War I (WWI). The paper finds that, while Britain and France had similar overarching imperial and military objectives in West Africa of securing their colonies, enforcing order within them, and promoting commerce to increase profit, they went about achieving them very differently, with direct and indirect implications for social reforms after WWI. While only a first step, research on the distinct nature of the warfare–welfare nexus in colonial contexts is critical in order to historicize and close research gaps by widening and deepening our understanding of social policy trajectories in countries of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging has led to the establishment of Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trusts (HC-REITs) to boost the supply of nursing homes, but these initiatives have met with contrasting success in different countries. This paper bridges two strands of research on financialization, social welfare and the built environment, to explain the uneven geography of HC-REIT development in France, the UK and Japan. It argues that nation-specific processes of nursing home securitization are shaped by the interrelationships between three crucial factors: (i) the regime of retirement income, (ii) public policies dedicated to long-term institutional care and (iii) the power relations between the REITs and care providers themselves. Drawing on discussions with experts in these sectors, the paper demonstrates that liberal welfare states such as the UK have an especially attractive profile for Healthcare REIT investors due to the advanced state of financialized pension reforms, significant state disengagement in the provision of long-term care and REIT-friendly regulations that facilitate investment operations and leases. On the one hand, these tendencies are driving financial investors to satisfy a growing demand for retirement savings in niche markets such as Healthcare REITs. On the other hand, value extraction is being increasingly sought through the capture of care-dependent residents' home equity. By linking social benefit provisioning to later life housing accommodation, this article casts important light on current debates on the political economy of real estate financialization, while also emphasizing the need for continued state support for long-term institutional care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the patterns of technology transfer from Britain to France during the early phases of industrializing using a dataset comprising all patents granted in France in the period 1791–1844. Exploiting the peculiarities of French legislation, we construct an array of patent quality indicators and investigate their determinants. We find that patents filed by British inventors or French inventors with personal connections to British inventors were of relatively higher quality. Overall, our results show that the French innovation system was capable of attracting and effectively absorbing key technologies from Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the large map as an innovative visual art tool in a frontline art therapy project with refugees. In a volatile and hostile setting on the France-UK border at Calais, inhospitable spaces, for a time, become human places, and the capacity to imagine both other (people) and somewhere other (place) become possible. Within this emergency setting, a safe space is temporarily activated. In the complicated times in which we live, art therapists are uniquely positioned to offer crisis support to people in diverse contexts with ethical and imaginative practice, using both their psychological skills and the art itself in equal weight. Critical examination of art therapy interventions is a necessary aspect of ethical practice and can lead to adaptations. This can feed into contemporary debates about how to deliver crisis intervention work, social action, social justice, as well as issues of definition. Dialogue, collaboration and co-production can open debate, challenge injustices and lead to social change. Social media as an extension of practice can serve as a further innovation and offer an alternative potential space, particularly in crisis contexts and where face-to-face work is not possible. Plain-language summary This paper looks at the role of the large map in an ongoing frontline art therapy project with refugees in Calais, northern France. The authors write about the border context in which the work takes place. They then present some thinking about the use of maps within this setting. This is followed by an example of the work in practice in the form of one Facebook post written in February 2019. The authors discuss the themes and ideas about space and materials emerging out of this extract. The authors propose that the innovative choice and application of materials, which helps to create a safe space in this border setting, can be translated into other physically and psychologically challenging contexts. The core tenets of art therapy practice and the skills brought by art therapists are needed now as much as ever. The paper also invites art therapists to think critically and imaginatively about the materials and media they choose in relation to their own wider work contexts with people. The authors suggest that an important part of the art therapy intervention in a difficult place needs to be about reflecting and adapting to context, which includes crisis support. This in turn supports a dialogue that can challenge injustices and lead to social change. The collaborative reflections about the work, written into blog posts during the return journeys from France back to the UK, form a second practice innovation. The posts are shared with an online audience and sometimes read, commented upon and further shared by those who use the service in Calais. The posts attempt to present creative, impactful narratives about the human aspect of the refugee experience. This is in contrast to the dominant media narratives in which refugees are often depicted with negative stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increasing attention on museum sustainability, this research adopts a dictionary‐based, content‐analysis approach to measure the degree of sustainability disclosed in European museum annual reports and similar documents. The analysis is carried out through the lens of institutional theory, assuming that the presence of formal and informal regulations positively affects the level of sustainability in annual reporting practices. Furthermore, the paper discusses the level of sustainability disclosed by different types of museums and the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the extent of sustainability‐oriented reporting. The article compares top public museums in the UK and France, the European countries where accountability practices are most deeply rooted for legal and cultural reasons, and where the most visited museums in the world are located. The findings show that the type of museum and the country significantly affect the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score, whereas mentioning COVID‐19 or the year of publication does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Legal Records / Pravni Zapisi is the property of Union University Law School, Belgrade 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 has developed an operation and maintenance (O&M) model for projected 20 MW tidal stream farm case studies at two sites in the northeast Atlantic in France and at EMEC's Fall of Warness site in the UK. The annual energy production, number of incidents, and downtimes of the farms for corrective and planned (preventive) maintenance strategies are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations that vary weather windows, repair vessel availabilities, and mean annual failure rates modelled by Weibull distributions. The trade-offs between the mean annual failure rates, time availability, O&M costs, and energy income minus the variable O&M costs were analysed. For all scenarios, a 5-year planned maintenance strategy could considerably decrease the mean annual failure rates by 37% at both sites and increase the net energy income. Based on a detailed sensitivity analysis, the study has suggested a simple decision-making method that examines how the variation in the mean annual failure rate and changes in spare-part costs would reduce the effectiveness of a preventive maintenance strategy. This work provides insights into the most important parameters that affect the O&M cost of tidal stream turbines and their effect on tidal energy management. The output of the study will contribute to decision-making concerning maintenance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Since 2008-2009, the governments in France and Great Britain have encouraged more rigorous penalization of tax evaders. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of these policies on the basis of an important and original empirical material.Design/methodology/approach The study done in France relies on interviews conducted with representatives of law enforcement agencies on public statistics and on an innovative database compiled from nearly 600 cases submitted to the judiciary. The comparison with Great Britain is developed through interviews conducted with different participants in the fight against tax fraud and statistical information.Findings This paper describes the recent evolution of the machinery for screening tax-related wrongdoings in France and in the UK. It demonstrates that whilst publicly calling for harsh punishment against tax dodgers, in practice, both governments tend to seek a balance between the growing demand for tax equality and the belief that the State should not intervene in the economic realm. This strategy leads to the over-representation of certain categories of taxpayers. Despite the commonalities resulting from the numerous filters before prosecution, the penal strategy takes on two different shapes on either side of the Channel: whereas the British institutions support an “exemplary punitive” system, French regulatory system favours a “quasi-administrative” treatment. The French tax authority continues to use the criminal procedures mainly as a financial instrument for the improved restitution of stolen taxes. The policy of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, supported by the “Sentencing Guidelines”, aims much more at obtaining exemplary convictions.Originality/value Based on a large empirical material, this paper highlights the different outcomes of the criminal trials against tax evaders in the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyse the role of shareholder approval and pre-emption rights in protecting shareholders in share issuances by listed corporations in the UK, Belgium and France. In these countries, shareholder approval and pre-emption rights are in principle required for share issuances, but the general meeting can authorise the board of directors to issue shares and disapply pre-emption rights. Proxy advisors and institutional investors have adopted guidelines that signal that they strongly support pre-emption rights and shareholder approval of share issuances. However, I provide empirical evidence that these guidelines are often not followed in France and Belgium, especially for smaller corporations with high levels of insider ownership. I contrast this with the strong impact of the guidelines in the UK. I also offer explanations for these differences, as well as policy options that would give shareholders a larger say on the balance between flexibility and accountability regarding authorisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper analyses the determinants of wealth inequality, measured as the share of wealth owned by the top 1 percent wealthiest individuals. We find that labor's bargaining power is a significant and important determinant of top wealth shares. Using a semi‐structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model for the period 1970–2019, we estimate that shocks to labor's bargaining power explain 32 percent, 8 percent and 32 percent of the variation around the long‐term trend in wealth inequality in the UK, USA and France, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the characteristics of the literature archieved in NASA ADS consortia on a topic 'Geophysics'. The study shows that the highest (570) number of articles was published in the year 2009 which constitute 17.32% followed by lowest (311 articles) which is 9.45% was published in the year 2005. Highest number of articles contributed by single author followed by two authors. With regard to Degree of Collaboration (DC) was 0.73 during the period 2005-2012 which clearly depicts collaborative research trend. The Collaborative Index (CI = number of authors per paper : Lawani) was 0.26 whereas Collaborative Co-efficient (CC) was 0.48. USA contributed highest number of articles followed by UK and France; it may be due to infrasture available for basic and applied research among these countries which lead to highest number of research output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of jurisprudence in Canada and its reconciliation. It mentions that Canada has been occupied by many different states like European nations such as Great Britain and France. It also mentions that Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) recognized then Aboriginal rights and the existence of Aboriginal title due to fiduciary obligations.

Do members of the committees under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) find that there are coalitions of specific member states in these committees? If so, then what kind of side payments hold these coalitions together? For the first time in scholarly literature, and based on an empirical investigation, the findings in this paper document that two opposing coalitions - with the United Kingdom and France as the respective leaders - exist in OMC committees where mutual learning is the raison d'etre. In the existing theory on this subject in the EU, it is claimed that consensus decision-making leads to a weakening of coalition-building. All three committees analysed in this paper build on consensus decision-making, which is achieved after intensive meetings between all the members. However, it is contended that the 'argumentative contest' working method of the OMC committees leads to more - not less - coalition-building. On the basis of a test, it is also shown that these committees are primarily held together by side payments in the form of 'promises relating to policy among the like-minded'; however, 'payments allied to subsequent decisions' add to the cement of the coalition-building processes stemming from the OMC working method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of piles in chalk is considered as an important issue for a number of geotechnical applications in Northern Europe. Few methods exist for predicting the ultimate axial pile capacity in chalk, but little guidance can be found regarding the design of driven piles in this complex material as experience is rather limited. This paper aims to study the short and long-term predictive performance of different pile design methods used in France and the UK where chalk is found widespread in the north-west coast and the south-east coast, respectively. Conventional methods used in France and the UK are compared by considering seven full-scale static load tests performed in Paris Basin and extracted from the LCPC pile database. The ratio of the measured vs calculated pile shaft resistance and base resistance value is analysed and the scatter of each method is studied. The comparison shows large differences between results. Extension of the database is of great importance to improve the predictive reliability. The last part discusses the evolution of the long-term capacity of driven piles in chalk due to ageing effects. Results show an increasing trend after driving, following a hyperbolic evolution curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Younger and older generations are differently motivated in relation to news consumption and online political expression. In this paper, we suggest that different modes of citizenship characterize younger and older generations. To test the differential role of political interest in news consumption and online political expression, we use a survey of 3,210 people from the United States, 3,043 from the United Kingdom, and 3,031 from France. Our findings suggest that young citizens are more frequent users of online news overall and that the rank order of different news activities replicates cross-nationally. The frequency of online political expression is negatively related to age, with older people less likely to post online. Age moderates the relationship between political interest and news consumption as well as news consumption and online political expression. The correlations of these sets of variables are stronger for younger respondents compared to older respondents. These findings hold across the three countries under study. We explain these patterns in terms of changing citizenship norms and discuss the implications for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the 1745–46 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland (the last major attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty – in exile since 1689 – to the throne of Britain), and its decades-long aftermath, as a transatlantic problem deeply embedded in the geopolitical and cultural entanglements of inter-imperial rivalry and warfare. Prevailing interpretations of the '45 consider it as primarily a culminating political event centred on dynastic rivalry and the relative security of the Hanoverian establishment, while overlooking more recent geographic insights from the fields Atlantic and New Imperial history. In exploring the long term imperial strategic repercussions of the '45 as understood through the dynamics of a rapidly expanding and interconnected British Atlantic press and public sphere, this paper demonstrates novel and lasting understandings of the connection between inter-imperial rivalry, warfare, and domestic fifth-column rebellions. Such understandings, continuing throughout the mid-eighteenth century wars between Britain and France, and the contemporary anxieties tied to them, disrupt linear narratives of post-'45 British political and cultural integration. The British polity and formations of Britishness and Scottishness were entangled with France to an unprecedented degree as a result of the inter-imperial problem of the '45. This ultimately draws attention to the overlooked historical novelties, continuities, and contingencies of the post-'45 period. This cultural context must be considered and periodized on its own historical terms, rather than as part of a straightforward eighteenth century process of nation-state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The literature has argued that accounting for intangible assets and goodwill provides a wide range for managers to manipulate earnings. Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of accounting treatment of intangible assets and goodwill on earnings management. Research methodology: The study included 115 French companies and 100 UK companies, during 2011–2019, employing multiple regression, where earnings management was measured through discretionary accruals; while accounting for intangibles and goodwill was divided into the capitalization and decapitalization of intangible assets, recognition and derecognition of goodwill, and depreciation and impairment of intangible assets and goodwill. Results: According to the results, accounting for intangible assets and goodwill has an impact on earnings management, while it is used differently between French and UK companies. In France, companies employ intangible assets capitalization to manipulate earnings, while UK companies use intangible assets capitalization and goodwill recognition. Novelty: This study provides supplementary evidence for standards setters, managers, and auditors about the contribution of accounting for intangible assets and goodwill in the quality of financial reporting and explores the new tools and practices of earnings management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines young people's experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between 'top down' policy formulation and the 'youth centric' practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places for young people must remain meaningful to them 'on their terms'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship largely sees fraud-based citizenship stripping as a tool for guaranteeing the consistency of the naturalisation process against applicants who do not respect the rules. This implies that the line between 'desirable' and 'undesirable' citizens is drawn in accordance with procedural norms. In contrast, this article argues that deprivation on grounds of fraud aims to create a virtuous and responsible political subject. Drawing on the cases of France and the UK, the paper shows how government officials and judges understand citizenship deprivation not simply as a means to safeguard the procedural integrity of naturalisation, but as a mechanism for the moralisation and responsibilisation of applicants. The article further contends that not everyone is made the subject of 'renationalisation'. British and French deprivation policies reproduce suspicions and stereotypes against specific categories of migrants, constructing them as second-class citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of UK corporate debt directly affects financial stability in the United Kingdom because a significant amount of the exposure of the UK financial system is to UK corporates. Our paper provides a comparison of the determinants of corporate debt in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The comparison serves to benchmark our findings about the determinants of UK corporate debt. In addition, the UK financial sector is significantly exposed to the corporate sectors in the United States, Germany and France. The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level. Debt was found to be positively related to the financing needs of the firm, and the optimum level of debt to be negatively related to the market-to-book ratio. This casts some light on the procyclicality of debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consultation process initiated by the Commission's Green Paper on the attachment of Bank accounts has sparked a lively debate among practitioners, governments and academics. This is evidenced by the three responses printed in this issue of the ECFR as well as by other comments available via the Internet. Although it is still too early to draw a final conclusion from the first published responses to the Commission's proposal, some general trends and pervasive problems may already be discerned. This synopsis will not deal with every technical detail discussed in the various comments, but focus on the basic issues of policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how gluten was discussed by chemists in the nineteenth century in Great Britain and France as a proxy for both nutritive and baking quality. It examines the role of gluten in the broader quest to measure and render the quality of wheat and flour through a set of objective and quantifiable criteria. The paper also shows how measuring quality proved to be an extremely complex task, and how chemistry was, by itself, unable to reduce the complexity of the wheat grain, and the various demands made upon it, to a simple numerical indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the rising public health phenomenon of workplace suicide drawing on comparative insights from the French and UK contexts. France has experienced what the media describes as a “suicide epidemic” in the workplace, with rising numbers of employees choosing to kill themselves in the face of extreme pressures at work.Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a comparative approach drawing on insights from the French context, in which workplace suicide is legally and officially recognised, to shed critical light on the UK context where workplace suicide remains a hidden phenomenon.Findings Whilst in France, workplace suicide is treated as an urgent public health phenomenon and data on suicides are collected centrally, in the UK, despite a deterioration in working conditions, suicide is not recognised in legislation and data are not collected centrally. Unless society recognises and document rising workplace suicides, we will be unable to deal with their profound human consequences for suicidal individuals, their families and society more widely.Research limitations/implications Research on workplace suicides in the UK and many other national contexts is hampered by fragmentary statistical data on this phenomenon.Practical implications The paper calls for greater recognition, analysis and monitoring of workplace suicide in the UK. Suicide should be included in the list of workplace accidents that are reported to the authorities for further investigation. In a context where workplace conditions are deteriorating, society need to recognises the profound human costs of these conditions for the individual employee.Social implications The paper has important implications for the contemporary workplace in terms of the contractual relationship between employer and employee.Originality/value Workplace suicide is an urgent, yet under-researched phenomenon. The paper brings a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective to bear on this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence is accumulating of the negative impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and related public health measures on mental health. In this emergent field, there has been little research into the role of risk perception on depressive symptoms and the contribution of health‐care resources to model risk perception and mental health. The aim of this paper is to describe the relationship between individual‐level perception of risk and depression, controlling for a set of confounders and for country‐level heterogeneity. A cross‐sectional and observational online survey was conducted using a non‐probability snowball sampling technique. We use data on 11,340 respondents, living in six European countries (Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Poland, Czech Republic) who completed survey questionnaires during the first months of the pandemic. We used a fixed‐effect approach, which included individual and macro‐level variables. The findings suggest that a high proportion of people suffering from depression and heightened risk perception is positively associated with reporting depressive symptoms, even if this relationship varies significantly between countries. Moreover, the association is moderated by contextual factors including health‐care expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, hospital beds for acute care, and number of medical specialists per head of population. Investment in health care offers a concrete means of protecting the mental health of a population living under pandemic restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/objectives: Sedentary behavior (SB), defined as sitting (nonexercising), reclining, and lying down (posture), or by low energy expenditure, is a public health risk independent to physical activity. The objective of this systematic literature review was to synthesize the available evidence on amount of SB reported by and measured in older adults. Data source: Studies published between 1981 and 2014 were identified from electronic databases and manual searching. Large-scale population studies/surveys reporting the amount of SB (objective/ subjective) in older adults aged ≥ 60 years of age were included. Appraisal and synthesis was completed using MOOSE guidelines. Results: 349,698 adults aged ≥ 60 within 22 studies (10 countries and 1 EU-wide) were included. Objective measurement of SB shows that older adults spend an average of 9.4 hr a day sedentary, equating to 65-80% of their waking day. Self-report of SB is lower, with average weighted self-reports being 5.3 hr daily. Within specific domains of SB, older adults report 3.3 hr in leisure sitting time and 3.3 hr watching TV. There is an association with more time spent in SB as age advances and a trend for older men to spend more time in SB than women. Conclusion/ implications: Time spent sedentary ranges from 5.3-9.4 hr per waking day in older adults. With recent studies suggesting a link between SB, health, and well-being, independent of physical activity, this is an area important for successful aging. Limitations: Different methodologies of measurement and different reporting methods of SB made synthesis difficult. Estimated SB time from self-report is half of that measured objectively; suggesting that most self-report surveys of SB will vastly underestimate the actual time spent in SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]