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Aims: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines state that heart failure nurse specialists (heart-failure nurses) with specific competences are essential for a successful heart-failure-management programme. Thus, the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC developed the heart failure nurse curriculum (HFA curriculum). Several ESC member states developed cardiovascular education programmes to enable nurses to deliver high specialist care, but little is known of whether these curricula are in line with the HFA curriculum. Therefore, this paper describes the extent to which cardiovascular education programmes in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany correspond to the HFA curriculum. Methods and results: A case study approach was adopted to obtain an in-depth understanding of the programme contents in relation to the HFA curriculum. For this purpose, representatives of the educational programmes and/or delegates of the national cardiovascular nursing organization shared their educational curricula. All of the studied cardiovascular education programmes aim to provide heart failure and/or cardiovascular nurses with essential competences for implementation of evidence based and guideline derived care. However, every cardiovascular education programme has a different focus/area of attention. Cardiovascular education in Belgium discusses aspects of all core-learning objectives of the HFA curriculum and emphasizes mostly knowledge aspects of these. Learning objectives in cardiovascular education in The Netherlands focus on chronic diseases in general and on learning objectives concerning patient education, support in self-care and management of device and pharmacological therapy. Cardiovascular education in Germany discusses most learning objectives; however, not all learning objectives receive equal attention. Conclusions: Although local cardiovascular education programmes adopt certain aspects of the HF curriculum, the curriculum as a whole is not adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overeducation describes the situation whereby workers are located in jobs for which they are deemed overqualified. This paper examines patterns in overeducation between countries using a specifically designed panel data set constructed from the quarterly Labour Force Surveys of 28 EU countries over a 12- to 15-year period. It is not the case that overeducation has been rising rapidly over time in all countries, and where overeducation has grown, the trend has been very gradual. Furthermore, overeducation rates were found to be static or falling in approximately 50% of the 28 EU countries. The evidence points towards convergence in overeducation at a rate of 3.3% per annum. In terms of the determinants of overeducation we find evidence to support policies aimed at improving effective female participation, labour market flexibility and the practical aspects of educational provision as a means of reducing the incidence of overeducation within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Type-2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension (HTN) are two of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases (NCDs): they both cause a relevant number of premature deaths worldwide and heavily impact the national health systems. This study illustrates the impact of HTN and T2D in four European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Spain) and compares their policies towards the monitoring and management of HTN and T2D and the prevention of NCDs as a whole. This analysis is conducted throughout the DigiCare4You Project (H2020)—which implements an innovative solution involving digital tools for the prevention and management of T2D and HTN. Methods The analysis is implemented through desk research, and it is enriched with additional information directly provided by the local coordinators in the four countries, by filling specific semi-structured forms. Results The countries exhibit significant differences in the prevalence of HTN and T2D and available policies and programs targeted to these two chronic conditions. Each country has implemented strategies for HTN and T2D, including prevention initiatives, therapeutic guidelines, educational programs and children's growth monitoring programs. However, patient education on proper disease management needs improvement in all countries, registries about patients affected by HTN and T2D are not always available, and not all countries promoted acts to contain the increasing rates of risk factors related to NCDs. Conclusions While political awareness of the risks associated with HTN, T2D and NCDs in general is growing, there is a collective need for countries to strengthen their policies for preventing and managing these chronic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STUDY QUESTION: What is the recognition of clinical embryology and the current status of clinical embryologists in European countries, regarding educational levels, responsibilities and workload, and need for a formal education in assisted reproductive technology (ART)? SUMMARY ANSWER: It is striking that the profession of clinical embryology, almost 40 years after the introduction of IVF, is still not officially recognized in most European countries. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Reproductive medicine has developed into a sophisticated multidisciplinary medical branch since the birth of Louise Brown 37 years ago. The European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG) has recognized reproductive medicine as a subspeciality and has developed a subspeciality training for gynaecologists in collaboration with the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). However, nothing similar exists for the field of clinical embryology or for clinical embryologists. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Aquestionnaire about the situation in clinical embryology in the period of 2012-2013 in the respective European country was sent to ESHRE National representatives (basic scientists only) in December 2013. At this time, 28 European countries had at least one basic scientist in the ESHRE Committee of National Representatives. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: The survey consisted of 46 numeric, dichotomous (yes/no) or descriptive questions. Answers were obtained from27 out of 28 countries and the data were tabulated. Data about the numbers of 'ESHRE Certified Embryologists' were taken from the ESHRE Steering Committee for Embryologist Certification. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: In 2012, more than 7000 laboratory staff from 1349 IVF clinics in 27 European countries performed over 700 000 fresh and frozen ART cycles. Despite this, clinical embryology is only recognized as an official profession in 3 out of 27 national health systems. In most countries clinical embryologists need to be registered under another profession, and have limited possibilities for organized education in clinical embryology. Mostly they are trained for practical work by senior colleagues. ESHRE embryologist certification so far constitutes the only internationally recognized qualification; however this cannot be considered a subspecialization. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Data were obtained through different methods, by involving national embryologist societies and cycle registers, collecting information from centre to centre, and in some cases by individual assessment of the situation. For these reasons, the results should be interpreted with caution. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: This paper presents the current status of clinical embryology and clinical embryologists in Europe and is an important step towards implementation of clinical embryology as an officially recognized profession. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): None. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: No. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the gender training gap (i.e. the disadvantage of women in receiving work-related continuing training) based on individual data from the first wave of the Adult Education Survey (AES). The interaction of gender and education, we argue, has been overlooked in previous work. For only one of 22 European countries do we find a statistically significant training gap for women with a university degree—but in six countries, we find a statistically significant and sizeable training gap for women without a university degree. Multilevel analysis supports the results and shows that institutions are linked to the chances of training. In particular, a system of vocational education and training geared towards firm-specific skills enhances the female training gap. Overall, our paper shows that the widespread perception of a disappearing gender training gap is premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of student participation and learning about health from the perspective of health-promoting schools. The combination of the democratic approach to health-promoting schools, characterized by the concepts of student participation and action competence, and the sociocultural theory of learning provides the conceptual framework for the discussion. The two sets of concepts help the building of a heuristic that views teaching and learning as mutually constitutive, establishing an integrated unit of analysis. Data are generated from a Web-based international project 'Young Minds exploring links between youth, culture and health'. The project has its roots in the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS). The methodological framework is constructed as theoretically based qualitative case study, using Web contents analysis and interviews with the participating teachers and students. A model distinguishing between two different qualities of student participation—token and genuine—is used as an analytical tool in analyzing the empirical data. The analysis of the case study illuminated the trajectories of participation in which students learned about health in intentional, relational and purposeful ways. These participation trajectories were viewed as situated in activity structures consisting of a variety of mutual interactions and different forms of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The religious question of men's origin and destination can be answered by belief, unbelief, uncertainty and indifference. The degree of secularization should increase belief against the three remaining options, unbelief against uncertainty and indifference, and uncertainty against indifference. The paper asks if the enforced form of secularization of East European countries has the same effects even if the degree of secularization is controlled, and if these developments are reversed after the demise of communism Furthermore, it examines if the developments of countries and their reversal remain significant if the education, the age and the religious practice of individuals are controlled. Dependent variables are the belief in God and the Bible as surveyed in the ISSP 1991 and 1998. In 1991, the degree and the form of secularization affect the answers to the religious question as expected. Up to 1998, the effects of the degree and the form of secularization persist. Furthermore the effects of the degree and the form of secularization do not shrink if education and age of individuals are controlled, and do shrink but remain significant if additionally religious practice is controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the heterogeneity of European welfare states, governments' efforts in 'social investment' reform may reap different outcomes in different national contexts. Through multi-level modelling based on longitudinal microdata from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (2004–2013) and on country-level policy indicators, this article assesses: whether citizens of countries that put higher budgetary efforts into social investment have better employment prospects and whether increasing such efforts over time improves employment chances within a country; whether people living in social investment-oriented welfare states maintained higher employment chances in the years of the Great Recession; whether micro-level employment outcomes depend on (in-)complementarities between investment- and protection-oriented policies. The results reveal that the most social investment-oriented welfare states show higher individual-level employment chances, which they were able to preserve during the Great Recession. However, increasing resources on social investments does not always yield empirically discernible returns over the short-to-medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Individuals with more education are at lower risk of developing multiple, different age-related diseases than their less-educated peers. A reason for this might be that individuals with more education age slower. There are 2 complications in testing this hypothesis. First, there exists no definitive measure of biological aging. Second, shared genetic factors contribute toward both lower educational attainment and the development of age-related diseases. Here, we tested whether the protective effect of educational attainment was associated with the pace of aging after accounting for genetic factors. Methods We examined data from 5 studies together totaling almost 17,000 individuals with European ancestry born in different countries during different historical periods, ranging in age from 16 to 98 years old. To assess the pace of aging, we used DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation algorithm that reflects an individual's rate of aging and predicts age-related decline and Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. To assess genetic factors related to education, we created a polygenic score based on the results of a genome-wide association study of educational attainment. Results Across the 5 studies, and across the life span, higher educational attainment was associated with a slower pace of aging even after accounting for genetic factors (meta-analysis effect size = −0.20; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.30 to −0.10; p =.006). Further, this effect persisted after taking into account tobacco smoking (meta-analysis effect size = −0.13; 95% CI: −0.21 to −0.05; p =.01). Discussion These results indicate that higher levels of education have positive effects on the pace of aging, and that the benefits can be realized irrespective of individuals' genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational expansion has been taking place in European countries since 2000. We address the relationship between this educational expansion and the inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) by educational origin. We analyse the European Social Survey data from 20 European countries over five rounds (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018). Our analysis is restricted to the 25–34 age groups. We use a multilevel sequential logit (MLSL) model for three hierarchical educational transitions (sequences), delimited by four International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED97) categories. We apply the MLSL model to decompose IEO in completed education into the educational origin effects on passing transitions and the structural effects (weights) connected with transitions. Our results show that educational expansion slightly weakens IEO in completed education, but this is far from being a situation in which IEO does not exist. IEO is maintained in educational transitions by transitional inequality offset. The effect of the weight of each transition takes over the educational origin effect on passing transitions and vice versa over educational expansion. Both these effects are maintained in balance; educational expansion changes primarily their ratio. This holds true until one of the transitions becomes mostly universal. After that, its contribution (weighted origin effect) to IEO in completed education begins to diminish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research suggests that adult child educational attainment benefits older parents' cognitive outcomes via financial (e.g. direct monetary transfers) and nonfinancial (e.g. psychosocial) mechanisms. Quasi-experimental studies are needed to circumvent confounding bias. No such quasi-experimental studies have been completed in higher-income countries, where financial transfers from adult children to aging parents are rare. Using data on 8,159 adults aged ≥50 years in the Survey for Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (2004/2005), we leveraged changes in compulsory schooling laws as quasi-experiments. Each year of increased schooling among respondents' oldest children was associated with better verbal fluency (β = 0.07, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.12) scores; overall associations with verbal memory scores were null, with mixed and imprecise evidence of association in models stratified by parent gender. We also evaluated associations with psychosocial outcomes as potentially important mechanisms. Increased schooling among respondents' oldest children was associated with higher quality-of-life scores and fewer depressive symptoms. Our findings present modest albeit inconsistent evidence that increases in schooling may have an "upward" influence on older parents' cognitive performance even in settings where financial transfers from adult children to their parents are uncommon. Associations with parents' psychosocial outcomes were more robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We examined quit attempts, use of cessation assistance, quitting beliefs and intentions among smokers who participated in the 2018 International Tobacco Control (ITC) Europe Surveys in eight European Union Member States (England, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain). Methods Cross-sectional data from 11 543 smokers were collected from Wave 2 of the ITC Six European Country (6E) Survey (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain—2018), the ITC Netherlands Survey (the Netherlands—late 2017) and the Four Countries Smoking and Vaping (4CV1) Survey (England—2018). Logistic regression was used to examine associations between smokers' characteristics and recent quit attempts. Results Quit attempts in the past 12 months were more frequently reported by respondents in the Netherlands (33.0%) and England (29.3%) and least frequently in Hungary (11.5%), Greece (14.7%), Poland (16.7%) and Germany (16.7%). With the exception of England (35.9%), the majority (56–84%) of recent quit attempts was unaided. Making a quit attempt was associated with younger age, higher education and income, having a smoking-related illness and living in England. In all countries, the majority of continuing smokers did not intend to quit in the next 6 months, had moderate to high levels of nicotine dependence and perceived quitting to be difficult. Conclusions Apart from England and the Netherlands, smokers made few quit attempts in the past year and had low intentions to quit in the near future. The use of cessation assistance was sub-optimal. There is a need to examine approaches to supporting quitting among the significant proportion of tobacco users in Europe and increase the use of cessation support as part of quit attempts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of digital technologies, electronic learning and communication tools are becoming a firm part of academia to promote knowledge of health sciences. This study sought to analyse the attitude of students regarding social media and digital learning for study purposes in sport and exercise science. A survey was carried out with a questionnaire (20 main items) in six sport science faculties, equally spread across Germany (G), Italy (I) and the United Kingdom (UK) between February and October 2017. The focus areas were students' usage of social media (Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube) for academic purposes and their use of e-learning. Data were analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. 229 students participated in the study (G: 68, I: 121, UK: 40). While YouTube was mostly used for receiving knowledge, WhatsApp and Facebook showed additional preferences for peer contacts for learning purposes and knowledge discussions. Preferred online data sources were PubMed (77%), free access journals (67%), YouTube (66%) and Wikipedia (63%). Often used digital learning materials were own universities' PowerPoints (77%), scripts (59%) and scientific articles (53%). However, some preferences showed national differences. The evaluated participants showed an overall high use of social media and e-learning tools for their studies. Students would like more digital learning sources made available to them by their institutions. However, some differences in preferences of digital learning or communication tools may exist and this should be considered for international approaches to promote health knowledge among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Inequalities in the distribution of self-reported health (SRH) have been widely reported. Its higher expressivity among women, elderly and least educated groups has been partly attributed to differences in their health perceptions. However, this subjectivity may be masking the burden of mental illness in these groups. Thus, we sought to understand if depression symptoms mediate inequalities in SRH. Methods SHARE waves 4 and 6, pertaining to Spain, Italy and Portugal, were used (n 2011 = 8517, n 2015 = 11 046). Inequalities in SRH were calculated, comparing the risk amongst education level, gender and age groups, adjusting for chronic diseases, functional limitations and country fixed effects. We then tested depression symptoms as mediators. Results Depression symptoms were associated with poor SRH (odds ratio (OR)2011 = 1.379, OR2015 = 1.384, P < 0.001). Their inclusion reduced the magnitude of the association between SRH and education, annulled the statistical significance for age, and reversed the gender effect. As expected, chronic diseases and functional limitations remained significant predictors of poor SRH. Conclusions Depression symptoms, together with chronic diseases and functional limitations, explain the poorer SRH of the least educated, female and older groups in the Southern European population. Therefore, tackling inequalities in SRH must require focusing on mental health issues, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier studies report inconsistent associations between education and cognitive aging. We assessed the association, accounting for selective dropout due to death or dementia, and, in a subsample, accounting for confounding by early-life intelligence. Data from the Danish component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 3,400) were linked to registry data (education records, dementia diagnoses, and mortality) and the Danish Conscription Database (youth intelligence measurements for 854 men). Word recall and verbal fluency were assessed up to 4 times over 10 years (2004–2013) and combined by averaging the z scores. We fitted a joint model linking a time-to-event model for dementia or death to a linear mixed-effects model for cognitive change. Rate of cognitive decline was slower among people with high education compared with low education (β = 0.112, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.056, 0.170). Adjusting for youth intelligence did not attenuate the association between education and cognitive decline (crude β = 0.136, 95% CI: 0.028, 0.244 vs. adjusted β = 0.145, 95% CI: 0.022, 0.269). The results suggest that higher education may slow cognitive decline in later life. In this sample, results changed little when accounting for selective attrition and confounding by intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) Core Syllabus for Cardiac Computed Tomography (CT) is now available online. The syllabus lists key elements of knowledge in Cardiac CT. It represents a framework for the development of training curricula and provides expected knowledge-based learning outcomes to the Cardiac CT trainees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) Core Syllabus for Nuclear Cardiology is now available online. The syllabus lists key elements of knowledge in nuclear cardiology. It represents a framework for the development of training curricula and provides expected knowledge-based learning outcomes to the nuclear cardiology trainees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effect of education on lifetime earnings by distinguishing between individuals who lived in rural or urban areas during childhood and between individuals with access to many or few books at home at age 10. We instrument years of education using compulsory school reforms and find that, whereas individuals in rural areas were most affected by the reforms, those with many books enjoyed substantially higher returns to their additional education. We show that books retain explanatory power even when we select relatively homogeneous groups in terms of the economic position of the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does universal preschool constitute an effective policy tool to promote the development and integration of children from minority groups? We address this question for the children of the Roma-the largest and most disadvantaged minority group in Europe. To tackle the issue of non-random selection into preschool, we exploit variation in the individual distance to the nearest preschool facility. Non-parametric instrumental variable estimations reveal significant short-term gains in terms of children's literacy. Preschool attendance also increases the prevalence of vaccinations but has no effect on other observed health outcomes. Overall, preschool also does not seem to enhance integration measured by children's language proficiency or social-emotional development, at least not in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in England and Continental Europe, implemented between 1936 and 1975. We assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological children and the incidence of childlessness. While we find a negative relationship between education and fertility in England, this result cannot be confirmed for Continental Europe. The additional education generated by schooling expansions on the Continent did not lead to a decrease in the number of biological children nor to an increase in childlessness. These findings are robust to a number of sensitivity and falsification checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks whether the trend towards greater inequality in European countries has led to an increase in euroscepticism. Traditionally amongst the most equal societies, West European countries have recently witnessed a stark increase in income inequality. European integration is often presented as one of the main driving factors of this development. This raises the question whether Europeans blame the EU for the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and consequently develop eurosceptic attitudes. A multilevel analysis of 79 pooled Eurobarometer survey waves across 12 countries from 1975 to 2009 confirms that increasing income inequality boosts euroscepticism especially amongst the low educated. The findings are consistent with previous research on the link between income inequality and democratic legitimacy. They also provide empirical support for a new educational divide in the wake of European integration and globalisation, and deepen our knowledge on the predictors of EU support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional diversity-the variety of higher education institutions within a higher education system-has been a popular theme in higher education (policy) research. Despite the large amount of work, key challenges to a better understanding of institutional diversity have hardly been addressed. We argue that particularly the problems of conceptualizing and measuring diversity across higher education systems are underestimated. This article therefore focuses on selecting salient dimensions of difference (i.e. important dimensions of organizational action), setting the perimeter of the populations studied, dealing with outliers and choosing appropriate diversity measures. We highlight the careful steps that need to be taken to make comparisons across higher education systems meaningful and use European data to illustrate the consequences of particular choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To update the recommendations for the structural characteristics of general thoracic surgery (GTS) in Europe in order to provide a document that can be used as a guide for harmonizing the general thoracic surgical practice in Europe. METHODS A task force was created to set the structural, procedural and qualification characteristics of a European GTS unit. These criteria were endorsed by the Executive Committee of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons and by the Thoracic Domain of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and were validated by the European Board of Thoracic Surgery at European Union of Medical Specialists. RESULTS Criteria regarding definition and scope of GTS, structure and qualification of GTS unit, training and education and recommendations for subjects of particular interest (lung transplant, oesophageal surgery, minimally invasive thoracic surgery, quality surveillance) were developed. CONCLUSIONS This document will hopefully represent the first step of a process of revision of the modern thoracic surgeons' curricula, which need to be qualitatively rethought in the setting of the qualification process. The structural criteria highlighted in the present document are meant to help and tackle the challenge of cultural and language barriers as well as of widely varying national training programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how digital humanities research methods can be used to analyze the representations of gendered bodies in European fairy tales, a flexible and pervasive genre that has influenced Western children's education and acquisition of gender identity for centuries. By blending the theoretical and methodological concerns of folkloristics, gender studies, and large-scale scientific research, this article demonstrates the utility of cross-disciplinary collaboration in asking traditional questions of traditional materials with new methods. To facilitate this research, a hand-coded database listing every reference to a body or body part in the 233 fairy tales was created. Analysis revealed strong indications that the gender and age of fairy-tale protagonists correlate in ways that indicate societal value being placed on certain perspectives, with youthful and masculine perspectives being validated as universal, whereas feminine and aged bodies are often marked as ‘other’. Feminist scholars have articulated some of these ideas in the past, and this approach allows for a more empirical exploration of such claims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the explanation of cross-country variation in graduate overeducation using a multilevel analysis. We use data from representative surveys among graduates in 13 European countries and Japan, focusing on the first job and the present job 5 years after graduation. We find that cross-country differences in overeducation are explained by the quality and orientation (general versus specific) of the educational system/programme, the business cycle and the relative oversupply of highly skilled labour. Employment protection legislation has no impact on the incidence and persistence of overeducation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective. To document the current state of musculoskeletal US (MSUS) training and extent of implementation among rheumatologists in the member countries of EULAR.Methods. An English-language questionnaire, divided into five sections (demographics, clinical use of MSUS, overall MSUS training for rheumatologists, MSUS education in the rheumatology training curriculum and education in MSUS offered by the national rheumatology society) was sent by e-mail to three different groups: (i) all national rheumatology societies of EULAR; (ii) all national societies of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology; and (iii) 19 senior rheumatologists involved in MSUS training from 14 European countries.Results. Thirty-one (70.5%) out of 44 countries responded to the questionnaire (59.1% of national rheumatology societies, 34.5% of the national US societies and 100% of expert ultrasonographers). Rheumatology was listed among medical specialities that mainly perform MSUS in 20 (64.5%) countries; however, in most [19 (63.3%)] countries <10% of rheumatologists routinely perform MSUS in clinical practice. Training varies widely from country to country, with low rates of competency assessment. MSUS education is part of the rheumatology training curriculum in over half the surveyed countries, being compulsory in 7 (22.6%) countries and optional in 11 (35.5%).Conclusions. This study confirms the high uptake of MSUS across Europe. The reported variation in training and practice between countries suggests a need for standardization in areas including training guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article, part of a forum on the historiography of transnational sexuality, discusses the integration of the history of sexuality into all other fields of modern European historiography in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Three influential developments in approaches to the history of sexuality are first discussed, described as "archaeological," "integrationist," and "comparativist" approaches. Relevant topics studied by historians of Europe since the 1990s are then reviewed, followed by a lengthy discussion of the phenomenon of historical cycles of liberalism and conservatism regarding sexual norms in the societies of Western Europe.

The article presents a survey review of series of graded readers in English that are published in Great Britain, Europe and the U.S. Graded readers are books written for learners of English, which are categorized into two types: the rewrite and the simple original. This review, which covers 42 series containing 2,051 titles, was made possible due to the library and database of graded readers maintained by the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (EPER). The effect of the changing cultural and educational climate on graded readers is also discussed.

Although weighting seems to be a popular strategy for coping with panel attrition in sociological research it is not clear how effective it is in reducing attrition bias. This article aims to fill this gap by giving an assessment of the effectiveness of weighting in the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). Estimates of the distribution of social class and education appear to be dropout biased in the ECHP. Moreover, the direction of the bias differs across countries. Weighting with the ECHP longitudinal weight tends to reduce this bias to some extent; yet, unexpectedly, it also sometimes increases it. The latter problem is largely avoided, however, by replacing the available ECHP-weight with a new longitudinal weight that includes better predictors of dropout, such as covariates related to the interview process, to respondents' previous interview experiences, and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, many studies have documented the existence of knowledge gaps in a variety of public affairs and science topics and have tried to get a better understanding of how third factors mediate the development of knowledge gaps on the micro level. But there still is almost no comparative research on the macro level. The aim of this study is to analyze education and media based knowledge gaps in the field of biotechnology across i z European countries and across time. Our data is based on two representative and comparative Eurobarometer surveys carried out in 1996 and 1999. The results reveal that education and media input are important factors operating not only on the individual level, but also on the country level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attitudes of Polish historical scholarship towards the history of early modern Prussia has been deeply marked by the partitions of Poland and the anti-Polish coalition between Prussia, Russia and Austria, which denied Poland its own statehood for well over a century. In contrast to nineteenth-century German 'Landesgeschichte', which focused on local research and archival resources, historians from Poland have usually opted to stay more within patterns of national history-writing. When the Polish state was reconstituted after the First World War, hostilities built up between German and Polish historical schools on Prussia, expressed in the National Democratic-influenced myśl zachodnia (Western thought) on the Polish side, and a not less expansionist Ostforschung on the other side of the border. It was only after the catastrophe of the Second World War, the redrawing of national borders in east central Europe, and under the influence of Marxist historical concepts in the People's Republic of Poland that nationalist approaches as well as the 'black legend' of the Prussia's past were temporarily suppressed and finally replaced by a more research-led scholarship. During the second half of the twentieth century, Polish historiography was in fact much quicker and more thorough than its German counterpart to forge the history of Prussia into a major academic subject. Since the 1980s, if not earlier, an extremely fruitful dialogue has developed between scholars—a dialogue which does not always penetrate journalistic and public awareness, as recent polemics surrounding the controversially planned 'Centre for Expulsions' in Berlin have shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By ideological design, class inheritance was to have been eliminated in the USSR. We hypothesize that education had a potent effect on destination rank in Soviet society in its final years. We examine the effects of occupation and education of respondents' parents and of having parents in the nomenclatura using data on 5079 young adults in Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Russia's Sverdlovsk region, and Ukraine's Kharkiv region. We code occupations using a slight modification of Erikson and Goldthorpe's (1992) scheme. We estimate conditional multinomial logistic regression models to assess the net impacts of parental background and of own education and gender on destination in 1991, shortly before the USSR collapsed. We find relatively high intergenerational mobility in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine's industrial centres, and to a lesser extent in Estonia and Latvia. Destination is affected very strongly by education and somewhat less strongly by gender. Net of own education and gender, parental background had surprisingly weak effects. Father's education and direct inheritance had modest effects, with inheritance generally greatest in Estonia and Latvia. Parents in the nomenclatura had insignificant effects. Soviet society in its final years was quite open, though arguably not meritocratic, with limited social reproduction, occurring primarily in Estonia and Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigate the determinants of job mismatches with regard to the field of education among school-leavers in Europe. We also examine the effects of job mismatches on the labour-market position of school-leavers. Special attention is paid to cross-national differences in this respect. The data used are from the EU LFS 2000 ad hoc module on school-to-work transitions. The empirical results show that a number of individual, structural and job characteristics affect the likelihood of having a job mismatch. Moreover, in countries in which the education system is vocationally oriented, the incidence of job mismatches among school-leavers is higher than in countries in which the education system is mainly general. With respect to the labour-market effects of job mismatches, it is found that school-leavers with a non-matching job achieve a lower occupational status, more frequently look for another job, and more often participate in continuing vocational training than those with a matching one. These labour-market effects of job mismatches are smaller in countries in which the vocational orientation of the education system is stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the self-placement on a 10 point left-right scale in eight West European countries from 1973 to the beginning of the 1990s. The findings indicate a high degree of stability in the willingness of the mass publics in Western Europe to place themselves on the left-right scale. There is, however, a pronounced tendency for the mass publics to place themselves increasingly in the center of the left-right scale. This increase is analyzed in relation to political involvement and social background variables. The centrist increase is not concentrated among those with little political involvement, but is somewhat larger among those with less education and women. These findings are discussed on the basis of three interpretations of the increased centrist location: a genuine centrist location, a cognitive limitation and an irrelevance hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a domain of research that has grown apace and continues to expand rapidly. Yet scholarship in the field has been quite unidimensional, concentrating mainly on defining poverty in income terms and measuring it in relation to income cut-off points. This article sets out to identify the place of female poverty in research to date. First, some empirical findings are reviewed for what they reveal about poverty among women. This indicates that women have been largely ignored and indeed that the research, using the methodology it has used, is largely incapable of fully accounting for the position of women. Reasons why this is so are then outlined through a critical analysis of the definition and operationalization of the concept of poverty and of substantive methodological choices like the unit of analysis and the time series covered by the data. Finally, some implications for future research are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the funding availability for skin disease in Europe. Trustees of the British Skin Foundation conducts the announcement. The agency encourages the applicants to participate the said events. The agency emphasizes that one application is also equivalent to one category also. The award presentations for the winning applications are available on January 9, 2008 with closing date of April 25, 2008.

An updated version of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) Core Syllabus for the European Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) Certification Exam is now available online. The syllabus lists key elements of knowledge in CMR. It represents a framework for the development of training curricula and provides expected knowledge-based learning outcomes to the CMR trainees, in particular those intending to demonstrate CMR knowledge in the European CMR exam, a core requirement in the CMR certification process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An obituary for Professor Roger Nordmann, founder of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA), is presented.