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Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is widely used in various industrial applications. It has concerns in its use as a color developer in thermal paper receipts since it is identified as an endocrine disruptor and causes hormonal disturbances. In this study, thirty thermal paper receipt samples were randomly collected from various locations in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Sixty percent (60%) of receipt samples showed BPA levels above the acceptable limit (200 ng/mg) set by the European Union (EU) for thermal papers. On the other hand, 40% of the samples reported very low BPA levels (< 0.02 ng/mg). However, estimated weight adjusted daily intakes (EDI) ranged between 8.22 ×10−11 and 0.000812 μg/kg bw/day for the general population, and between 7.89×10−9 and 0.0681 μg/kg bw/day for the occupationally exposed cashiers. Thus, all calculated EDIs were below the European Food Safety Authority Tolerable Daily Intake (4 μg/kg·bw/day) and the provisional Health Canada Tolerable Daily Intake (25 ug/kg bw/day) under varying paper-to-skin transfer coefficients and absorption fractions. Nevertheless, due to its health effects and recent legal restrictions by EU, the occurrence of co-exposure to dietary and non-dietary sources should be considered in the health risk assessment of Bisphenol A, mainly for people with frequent occupational exposure to thermal paper, and especially with the increased use of sanitizers. The current study is a first within the UAE context in relation to BPA in thermal paper receipts, thus its significance especially with the recent EU enforcement of BPA limits in paper receipts. The study highlights that proper policies as well as education and awareness may assist in limiting transdermal BPA exposure for the general and occupationally exposed populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic editing technologies are developing rapidly, promising significant developments for biomedicine, agriculture and other fields. In the present investigation, we analyzed and compared the process of innovation for six genomic technologies: viral vectors, RNAi, TALENs, meganucleases, ZFNs and CRISPR/Cas including the profile of the main research institutions and their funders, to understand how innovation evolved and what institutions influenced research trajectories. A Web of Science search of papers on viral vectors RNAi, CRISPR/Cas, TALENs, ZFNs and meganucleases was used to build a citation network of 16,746 papers. An analysis of network clustering combined with text mining was performed. For viral vectors, a long-term process of incremental innovation was identified, which was largely publicly funded in the United States and the European Union. The trajectory of RNAi research included clusters related to the study of RNAi as a biological phenomenon and its use in functional genomics, biomedicine and pest control. A British philanthropic organization and a US pharmaceutical company played a key role in the development of basic RNAi research and clinical application respectively, in addition to government and academic institutions. In the case of CRISPR/Cas research, basic science discoveries led to the technical improvements, and these two in turn provided the information required for the development of biomedical, agricultural, livestock and industrial applications. The trajectory of CRISPR/Cas research exhibits a geopolitical division of the investigation efforts between the US, as the main producer and funder of basic research and technical improvements, and Chinese research institutions increasingly leading applied research. Our results reflect a change in the model for financing science, with reduced public financing for basic science and applied research on publicly funded technological developments in the US, and the emergence of China as a scientific superpower, with implications for the development of applications of genomic technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale, aims and objective: Substituting outpatient hospital care with primary care is seen as a solution to decrease unnecessary referrals to outpatient hospital care and decrease rising healthcare costs. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effects on quality of care, health and costs outcomes of substituting outpatient hospital care with primary care-based interventions, which are performed by medical specialists in face-to-face consultations in a primary care setting. Method: The systematic review was performed using the PICO framework. Original papers in which the premise of the intervention was to substitute outpatient hospital care with primary care through the involvement of a medical specialist in a primary care setting were eligible. Results: A total of 14 papers were included. A substitution intervention in general practitioner (GP) practices was described in 11 papers, three described a joint consultation intervention in which GPs see patients together with a medical specialist. This study showed that substitution initiatives result mostly in favourable outcomes compared to outpatient hospital care. The initiatives resulted mostly in shorter waiting lists, shorter clinic waiting times and higher patient satisfaction. Costs for treating one extra patient seemed to be higher in the intervention settings. This was mainly caused by inefficient planning of consultation hours and lower patient numbers. Conclusions: Despite the fact that internationally a lot has been written about the importance of performing substitution interventions in which preventing unnecessary referrals to outpatient hospital care was the aim, only 14 papers were included. Future systematic reviews should focus on the effects on the Triple Aim of substitution initiatives in which other healthcare professions than medical specialists are involved along with new technologies, such as e-consults. Additionally, to gain more insight into the effects of substitution initiatives operating in a dynamic healthcare context, it is important to keep evaluating the interventions in a longitudinal study design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether nanotechnology projects funded under the European Union (EU) Framework Programmes (FPs) are a possible trigger for path upgrading (i.e., infusion of new technologies in existing traditional sectors) in less-advanced regions. First, the adoption of cluster analysis and a set of key indicators (i.e., technological intensity, scientific excellence, human capital, and research and development expenditure) allowed us to distinguish between 79 more-advanced and 127 less-advanced EU regions. Subsequently, through social network analysis and nonparametric testing we were able to demonstrate how the less-advanced EU regions (average degree centrality: 40.5) play a marginal role compared with the more-advanced ones (average degree centrality: 98.5) in the nanotechnology network created within Horizon 2020—i.e., the EU programming cycle implemented in the 2014–2020 period. Despite this, we observed that a few less-advanced regions (33 out of 127) were able to score higher than the EU median in terms of participation in the targeted nanotechnology network, thus benefiting from relevant knowledge flows potentially leading to re-industrialization processes. The adoption of qualitative comparative analysis allowed us to determine which combinations of key innovation, scientific and socioeconomic factors could facilitate such beneficial interregional interactions and related knowledge exchange in these types of regions (i.e., primarily what we defined as "relative innovativeness," excellence in nanotechnology research and a comparatively high level of gross domestic product per capita). Our empirical results provided some clear policy implications. For instance, the necessity to I) remove the barriers impeding a more balanced participation to promote a widespread renewal of traditional industries in less-advanced regions and II) implement coordinated EU and domestic actions designed to encourage the involvement of the great majority of the less-advanced regions, which remain marginal in the periodically launched FPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to assess the efficiency of the European Union's public sector from a quality of governance approach, employing a two-step methodology. In the first stage, EU states' efficiency scores are determined using Data Envelopment Analysis. Once quantifying public efficiency, the second step of the methodology examines the determinants of efficiency using a quantile regression estimation technique, with an emphasis on demographic features, corruption, economic freedom, and governmental digitalization. The novelty is provided by the assessment of the public sector's efficiency and efficacy from a broader approach in order to determine the efficiency scores of European Union countries, as well as the key factors that may impact the public sector's performance. The main findings, namely that governance quality can be considered an important resource in analysing public performance and that human resources, freedom, democracy, corruption, and digitalization have an impact on efficiency, are important considerations not only for policymakers but also for society, researchers, and the academic community. Reform measures should strive to improve both the technical and democratic components of public institutions in order to more effectively and transparently allocate public resources, while taking into consideration local and national peculiarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing risks and pandemics at a country level is a complex task that requires transdisciplinary approaches. The paper aims to identify groups of the European Union countries characterized by a similar COVID-19 Resilience Index (CRI). Developed in the paper CRI index reflects the countries' COVID-19 risk and their readiness for a crisis situation, including a pandemic. Moreover, the study detects the factors that significantly differentiate the distinguished groups. According to our research, Bulgaria, Hungary, Malta, and Poland have the lowest COVID-19 Resilience Index score, with Croatia, Greece, Czechia, and Slovakia following close. At the same time, Ireland and Scandinavian countries occupy the top of the leader board, followed by Luxemburg. The Kruskal-Wallis test results indicate four COVID-19 risk indicators that significantly differentiate the countries in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the significant factors are not only COVID-19-related factors, i.e., the changes in residential human mobility, the stringency of anti-COVID-19 policy, but also strictly environmental factors, namely pollution and material footprint. It indicates that the most critical global environmental issues might be crucial in the phase of a future pandemic. Moreover, we detect eight readiness factors that significantly differentiate the analysed country groups. Among the significant factors are the economic indicators such as GDP per capita and labour markets, the governance indicators such as Rule of Law, Access to Information, Implementation and Adaptability measures, and social indicators such as Tertiary Attainment and Research, Innovation, and Infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Less than seven years remain for Europe to meet the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However robust and accurate methods for assessing SDG progress are currently lacking. Through the development of several SDG indices, this study addresses this critical knowledge gap by providing the means to accurately identify national 'problem areas' and thereby accelerate SDG achievement. Specifically, an indicator-based approach has been used to create a composite index containing 166 unique SDG indicators that assess a nation's SDG performance compared to the best and worst performers in the European Union (EU). Our results indicate that each EU nation is on average, 58% of the way towards the best performer in the overall SDG indicator framework. A nuanced taxonomy has been developed that allows for the assessment of SDG performance in several critical dimensions of the SDGs, including in 'Means-of-Implementation (MoI)', 'Linkage', and 'Outcome' indicators. The index's comprehensive framework allows for EU's performance in individual SDG indicators to be investigated while providing the most accurate assessment of national SDG performance, to date. Overall, the indices presented in this paper can significantly enhance the understanding of SDG performance while concurrently guiding national and EU SDG policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a surge of studies in machine learning in health and biomedicine, driven by digitalization of healthcare environments and increasingly accessible computer systems for conducting analyses. Many of us believe that these developments will lead to significant improvements in patient care. Like many academic disciplines, however, progress is hampered by lack of code and data sharing. In bringing together this PLOS ONE collection on machine learning in health and biomedicine, we sought to focus on the importance of reproducibility, making it a requirement, as far as possible, for authors to share data and code alongside their papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of economic globalization, the problem of unequal distribution of globalization dividends among and within countries has become increasingly serious, and reverse globalization has a great impact on the national economy and export trade. This paper uses the KOF Globalization Index and the world input-output tables in World Input-Output Database (WIOD), and empirically studies the transformation of a country's export trade and export structure in the context of reverse globalization from the perspectives of world, country, industry, subdivided manufacturing and service industry. The results show that reverse globalization has a significant non-linear negative effect on economic development and export trade. Compared with developed and European Union (EU) countries, the exports of developing and non-EU countries are more affected by reverse globalization shocks. Reverse globalization has the greatest inhibition on the secondary industry exports, followed by the tertiary industry. The suppressive effects on the exports of 12 subdivided manufacturing and 14 subdivided service in China are significantly greater than that of the United States, but most of sub-industry exports in the United States are more sensitive. Besides, China's exports of high-product-complexity industry such as metal products, medicinal chemicals, electrical and optical products and mechanical equipments are greatly affected by reverse globalization, while the exports of water transportation, construction, land transportation are relatively less restrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study asks the question on which national “shoulders” the world’s top-level research stands. Traditionally, the number of citations to national papers has been the evaluative measures of national scientific standings. We raise a different question: instead of analyzing the citations to a countries’ articles (the forward view), we examine references to prior publications from specific countries cited in the most elite publications (the backward—citing—view). “Elite publications” are operationalized as the top-1% most-highly cited articles. Using the articles published from 2004 to 2013, we examine the research referenced in these works. Our results confirm the well-known fact that China has emerged to become a major player in science. However, China still belongs to the low contributors when countries are ranked as contributors to the cited references in top-1% articles. Using this perspective, the results do not support a decreasing trend for the USA; in fact, the USA exceeds expectations (compared to its publication share) in terms of references in the top-1% articles. Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands also appear at the top of the list. However, the results for Germany are lower than statistically expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper generally builds on the concept of justice in social science. It attempts to interpret this concept in a geographical and particularly in a spatial context. The paper uses the concept of accessibility to define the principle of spatial equity. The main objective of the paper is to propose an approach with which to assess the level of spatial equity in the administrative division of a territory. In order to fulfil this objective the paper theoretically discusses the concept of spatial equity and relates it to other relevant concepts, such as spatial efficiency. The paper proposes some measures of spatial equity and uses the territory of four Central European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia) as example of the application of the proposed measures and the corroboration of the proposed approach. The analysis is based on the administrative division of four countries and is carried out at different hierarchical levels as defined by the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space security has emerged as a concern for the European Union (EU), given that space systems have become integral to ensuring the safety of all European society. This strategy reflects the interaction of geopolitical dynamics and the rising specter of hybrid threats. However, grappling with hybrid threats targeting the EU space presents distinct challenges, primarily owing to their elusive nature. Hence, our objective is to develop practical methodologies to identify and mitigate such threats effectively. To meet this objective, we propose an innovative 8-step process. This approach streamlines the systematic identification and analysis of discourses of hybrid threats within online platforms dedicated to EU space discussions. Our methodology underwent rigorous scrutiny, including a comprehensive literature review that prioritized peer-reviewed manuscripts from sources such as Web of Science and Elsevier Scopus. Additionally, we selected documents from Google Scholar to ensure comprehensive coverage of diverse scholarly contributions, enriching the depth of our analysis. Our research yielded a conceptual framework for Online Discourse Analysis (ODA) tailored to evaluate hybrid threats targeting EU space defense and security. The results highlight the importance of leveraging advanced ODA techniques to deepen our understanding of emerging threats. In conclusion, we advocate for the adoption of these innovative methods to enhance the robustness of EU space defense strategies in the face of evolving security scenarios. The establishment of the 8-step ODA framework marks a pivotal milestone, offering a structured approach to deciphering hybrid threats. Looking ahead, we aim to empirically validate this framework by creating and deploying custom-tailored software designed to identify potential hybrid threats jeopardizing the security of European space assets. Through continued research and practical implementation, we endeavor to fortify the EU's defenses against emerging threats in the space domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Adverse events in health care affect 8% to 12% of patients admitted to hospitals in the European Union (EU), with surgical adverse events being the most common types reported. Aim: SAFEST project aims to enhance perioperative care quality and patient safety by establishing and implementing widely supported evidence-based perioperative patient safety practices to reduce surgical adverse events. Methods: We will conduct a mixed-methods hybrid type III implementation study supporting the development and adoption of evidence-based practices through a Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative (QILC) in co-creation with stakeholders. The project will be conducted in 10 hospitals and related healthcare facilities of 5 European countries. We will assess the level of adherence to the standardised practices, as well as surgical complications incidence, patient-reported outcomes, contextual factors influencing the implementation of the patient safety practices, and sustainability. The project will consist of six components: 1) Development of patient safety standardised practices in perioperative care; 2) Guided self-evaluation of the standardised practices; 3) Identification of priorities and actions plans; 4) Implementation of a QILC strategy; 5) Evaluation of the strategy effectiveness; 6) Patient empowerment for patient safety. Sustainability of the project will be ensured by systematic assessment of sustainability factors and business plans. Towards the end of the project, a call for participation will be launched to allow other hospitals to conduct the self-evaluation of the standardized practices. Discussion: The SAFEST project will promote patient safety standardized practices in the continuum of care for adult patients undergoing surgery. This project will result in a broad implementation of evidence-based practices for perioperative care, spanning from the care provided before hospital admission to post-operative recovery at home or outpatient facilities. Different implementation challenges will be faced in the application of the evidence-based practices, which will be mitigated by developing context-specific implementation strategies. Results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and will be available in an online platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC) is a national quality register that collects data about end-of-life care from healthcare providers that care for dying patients. Data are used for quality control and research. Data are mainly collected with an end-of-life questionnaire (ELQ), which is completed by healthcare staff after the death of a patient. A previous validity assessment of the ELQ showed insufficient validity in some items including symptom relief. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the revised ELQ. Materials and methods: Data from 100 consecutive patients’ medical records at two specialised palliative care units were used to complete new ELQs, which were then compared to the ELQ registrations from the SRPC for the same patients. The level of agreement was calculated for each ELQ item. To account for the possibility of the agreement occurring by chance, Cohen’s kappa was calculated for suitable items. To examine the extent of registration mistakes when transferring the paper form to the web, the original paper versions of the ELQ filled out at the units were compared to data from the ELQs reported to the SRPC. Results: Level of agreement between ELQ registrations from the SRPC and the new ELQs based on the medical records varied between 0.55 and 1.00, where 24 items showed level of agreement above 0.80 and 9 items showed level of agreement below 0.80. Cohen’s kappa with 95% confidence intervals was calculated for 24 items. The kappa values showed that two items had poor agreement, four fair agreement, 11 moderate agreement, five good agreement and two very good agreement. The level of agreement varied between 0.93 and 1.00 when comparing the ELQ registrations in the SRPC and the paper forms. Conclusion: The revised ELQ contains more items with high levels of agreement between registrations in the SRPC and notes in the patients’ medical records when compared to the previous version. Validating issues around symptom assessment remains a challenge in our model of quality assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes user interactions on the public-access online forum of the Human Brain Project (HBP), a major European Union-funded neuroscience research initiative, to understand the utility of the Forum for collaborative problem solving. We construct novel data using discussion forum posts and detailed user profiles on the HBP Forum. We find that HBP Forum utilization is comparable to that of a leading general-interest coding platform, and that online usage metrics quickly recovered after an initial Covid-19-related dip. Regression results show that user interactions on the Forum are more active for questions on programming and in HBP core areas. Further, Cox proportional hazard analyses show that such problems are solved faster. Forum posts with users from different countries tend to be discussed more actively but solved slower. Higher shares of administrator support tend to solve problems faster. There are no clear patterns regarding gender and seniority. Our results suggest that building novel collaborative forums can support researchers working on complex topics in challenging times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is a very important sector of the economy that has a great influence on rural areas. Almost sixty years of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union (EU) may impose a question on the impact of this policy on job creation and economic growth in rural areas. By analyzing key indicators, one should note that although there are still many problems to tackle, the CAP has been successful to some extend in increasing employment rate and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as well as decreasing poverty rate in the EU rural areas. There are also more and more households connected to the next-generation broadband network and there is still a significant number of bed places in the EU rural areas. Although, the situation in specific EU Member States and their rural regions may be different, the overall performance of the EU is satisfactory and shows positive prognostics for the current EU financial perspective of 2021-2027. This paper also provides an empirical approach which checks whether there is a connection between the employment rate and the rural development measured in GDP per capita based on the data from the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the period of 2000-2020. This research confirms that when increasing the level of rural employment, the economic growth rises in rural areas., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Science is becoming increasingly international in terms of breaking down walls in its pursuit of high impact. Despite geographical location and distance still being major barriers for scientific collaboration, little is known about whether high-impact collaborations are similarly constrained by geography compared to collaborations of average impact. To address this question, we analyze Web of Science (WoS) data on international collaboration between global leader cities in science production. We report an increasing intensity of international city-city collaboration and find that average distance of collaboration of the strongest connections has slightly increased, but distance decay has remained stable over the last three decades. However, high-impact collaborations span large distances by following similar distance decay. This finding suggests that a larger geographical reach of research collaboration should be aimed for to support high-impact science. The creation of the European Research Area (ERA) represents an effective action that has deepened intracontinental research collaborations and the position of the European Union (EU) in global science. Yet, our results provide new evidence that global scientific leaders are not sufficiently collaborative in carrying out their big science projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes toward immigrants can, to a large extent, be determined by certain macro contextual factors. This paper tests a number of proposed hypotheses to illustrate patterns of influence generated by economic and social globalization on perceived social distance relative to immigrants. The European Union (EU) constitutes an ideal study case as its Member States vary in exposure to globalization and attract immigrants from different countries of origin. We conduct a multilevel analysis combining individual level variables from Eurobarometer's recent dataset collected in 2017 and country-level variables from KOF of Globalization Index and other major sources. The results show that individuals in countries with higher degrees of social globalization have lower levels of social distance toward immigrants, while relative level of economic globalization has scant influence. Contact factors are also evaluated for their potential effects. Both casual and close contacts, as specified, reduce social distance. This study contributes to migration studies by offering a clearer specification of how social, rather than economic, globalization interact with contact factors to decrease one's perceived distance from immigrants in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy consumption across the European Union, so there is a requirement to strive for better energy performance to reduce the global impact of urbanised societies. However, energy performant buildings can negatively impact building occupants (e.g., comfort, health and/or wellbeing) due to a trade-off between airtightness and air circulation. Thus, there is a need to monitor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to inform how it impacts occupants and hence redefine value within building performance metrics. An individualised study design would enable researchers to gain new insights into the effects of environmental changes on individuals for more targeted e.g., health interventions or nuanced and improved building design(s). This paper presents a protocol to conduct longitudinal monitoring of an individual and their immediate environment. Additionally, a novel approach to environmental perception gathering is proposed that will monitor environmental factors at an individual level to investigate subjective survey data pertaining to the participant's perceptions of IEQ (e.g., perceived air quality, thermal conditions, light, and noise). This protocol has the potential to expose time-differential phenomena between environmental changes and an individual's behavioural and physiological responses. This could be used to support building performance monitoring by providing an interventional assessment of building performance renovations. In the future it could also provide building scientists with a scalable approach for environmental monitoring that focuses specifically on individual health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss from anthropogenic development has led to an unprecedented decline in global biodiversity. Protected areas (PAs) exist to counteract this degradation of ecosystems. In the European Union, the Natura 2000 (N2k) network is the basis for continent-wide conservation efforts. N2k is the world's largest coordinated network of protected areas. However, threats to ecosystems do not stop at the borders of PAs. As measured by a landscape fragmentation metric, anthropogenic development can affect the interiors of PAs. To ensure the long-term viability of the N2k network of PAs, this paper attempts to quantify the degree to which N2k sites are insulated from development pressures. We use a comprehensive dataset of effective mesh density (seff) to measure aggregate fragmentation inside and within a 5 km buffer surrounding N2k sites. Our results show a strong correlation (R² = 0.78) between fragmentation (seff) within and around N2k sites. This result applies to all biogeographical regions in Europe. Only a narrow majority (58.5%) of N2k sites are less fragmented than their surroundings. Remote and mountainous regions in northern Europe, the Alps, parts of Spain, and parts of eastern Europe show the lowest levels of fragmentation. These regions tend to hold the largest N2k sites as measured by area. In contrast, central and western Europe show the highest fragmentation levels within and around N2k sites. 24.5% of all N2k sites are classified as highly to very-highly fragmented. N2k PA age since initial protection does not correlate with the difference in exterior and interior fragmentation of N2k PAs. These results indicate that PAs in Europe are not sheltered from anthropogenic pressures leading to fragmentation. Hence, we argue that there is a high potential for improving PA efficacy by taking pre-emptive action against encroaching anthropogenic fragmentation and by targeting scarce financial resources where fragmentation pressures can be mitigated through enforced construction bans inside PAs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Generally, research and studies about commodities focus on price trends, analysis in terms of international competitiveness, market position structure, rate of net exports, market share, and concentration index. This paper has developed an analysis of the most influential agricultural commodities traded from Colombia to European Union, which are bananas, coffee, and palm oil. Analyzing the economic and commercial effects in two traditional agricultural commodities from Colombia (bananas and coffee) with the rise of palm oil as a commodity in the trade relation with its partner; the European Union. The structure draws from the overview of general aspects and the behavior of Colombian foreign trade, as diversification of export products and trade partners, to focus on the characteristics of the trade relationship between the European Union and Colombia. The aim is analyze the proportional relation between bananas, coffee, and palm oil exported to the EU, according to three indicators, the volume of production, exports share, and trade value, from 2008 until 2019, identifying the trends before and after the implementation of the free trade agreement. Finally, with the coefficient correlation, determine the agricultural commodity that has the strongest and positive relationship with the total agricultural exports value from Colombia to the European Union., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The objective of this paper is to identify the relationship between farm income and assets within the European Union (EU) in the context of economic and environmental sustainable development. The scientific context is connected to economic theory (the recognition of the nature of such a relationship, as well as the determination of whether sustainable development acts as a stimulant or destimulant under these conditions). The Farm Accounting Data Network system was employed in the article. The econometric models were estimated by panel data based on the reported results of the farms operations in EU member states for the period of 2004–2018. Accordingly, the relationship between income and assets is positive and statistically significant, but not very clear in the group of surveyed farms. Moreover, economic sustainability was found to positively influences the relationship between income and assets. In contrast, the relationship between incomes and assets was weakened. The situation is brought about by the intrinsic growth in the value of the land, as well as by the growing importance of non-productive assets. Thus, farmers in EU countries are becoming wealthier in terms of the value of their assets but, this is not reflected directly in their income. The reason is the growing importance of environmental and social functions in the agriculture the European Union. Greater skills in asset management at farm level are, therefore, required to mitigate the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial robots are a strategic future technology and an important part of the development of artificial intelligence, and they are a necessary means for the intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry. Based on global industrial robot trade data from 1998 to 2017, this paper applies the dynamic complex network analysis method to reveal the spatial and temporal variation characteristics and trade status evolution of the global industrial robot trade network. The results show that the global industrial robot network density has steadily increased, and the industrial robot trade has been characterized by ‘diversification’. The number of major industrial robot exporters in the world is increasing, and the import market is increasingly diversified. The export market structure is relatively tight, the centrality of the global industrial robot trade network shows a downward trend, and the dissimilarity of the ‘core-edge’ clusters decreases year by year. The trade status of ‘catch-up’ countries represented by China has rapidly increased. However, Japan, Germany, and Italy are still in the central position of the industrial robot trade. Moreover, trade of the ‘catch-up’ countries’ is dominated by imports, and exports of industrial robot products are insufficient. Finally, policy suggestions are provided according to the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal motivation is a key factor in the service of foster care, impending both on the welfare of the child and on the satisfaction of the carer. This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years. The principal hypothesis concerns whether the benefits, challenges and dilemmas identified by foster carers are influenced by the factors that led to their taking up this kind of work. Quantitative research was conducted using a questionnaire as the main tool. The paper takes a descriptive, cross-sectional and multifactorial approach. Sampling was carried out by self-selecting method, and the study involved 51 participants. The research project identified a statistically significant variation in the challenges and dilemmas reported by foster carers. Thus, the results of the study show that the majority of the carers indicate a primarily intrinsic motivation for their work. By way of conclusion, it is argued that social workers, operating in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, can offer carers support in managing more difficult periods in the child–carer relationship, thus enhancing the sustainability of the foster care service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies show that discrimination by identity found in offline markets also prevails online. This paper reveal that in a competitive market, buyers that intend to discriminate exist but they are prevented from influencing the market outcome. To this end, we construct a field experiment on eBay, where half of the sellers disclose their names in their usernames while the other half do not. eBay, however, automatically discloses the seller’s names to the buyer after the auction. In the anonymous auctions, winning bidders thus learn the identity of the seller after the auction ends, and here we find buyers to discriminate against sellers with foreign-sounding names by leaving them feedback less often. However, there is no such discrimination in feedback provision when the seller name was known to the buyer before the auction. When bidders know the names of the sellers, the bidders with animus towards individuals with specific names can select out of auctions from these sellers, leaving winners that do not discriminate. One would expect that the auctions of for example sellers with foreign-sounding names would receive fewer bidders and thus lower auction prices. However, we observe no such differences: there are no statistically significant differences in the number of bids or auction prices received by sellers with foreign or domestic sounding names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Non-medical prescribing was introduced into the United Kingdom (UK) to improve patient care, through extending healthcare professionals’ roles. More recent government health service policy focuses on the increased demand and the need for efficiency. This systematic policy review aimed to describe any changes in government policy position and the role that non-medical prescribing plays in healthcare provision. Method: The systematic policy review included policy and consultation documents that describe independent non-medical prescribing. A pre-defined protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015019786). Professional body websites, other relevant websites and the following databases were searched to identify relevant documents: HMIC, Lexis Nexis, UK Government Web Archive, UKOP, UK Parliamentary Papers and Web of Science. Documents published between 2006 and February 2018 were included. Results and discussion: Following exclusions, 45 documents were selected for review; 23 relating to policy or strategy and 22 to consultations. Of the former, 13/23 were published 2006–2010 and the remainder since 2013. Two main themes were identified: chronological aspects and healthcare provision. In the former, a publication gap for policy documents resulted from a change in government and associated major healthcare service reorganisation. In the later, the role of non-medical prescribing was found to have evolved to support efficient service delivery, and cost reduction. For many professions, prescribing appears embedded into practice; however, the pharmacy profession continues to produce policy documents, suggesting that prescribing is not yet perceived as normal practice. Conclusion: Prescribing appears to be more easily adopted into practice where it can form part of the overall care of the patient. Where new roles are required to be established, then prescribing takes longer to be universally adopted. While this review concerns policy and practice in the UK, the aspect of role adoption has wider potential implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is rapidly changing the way the results of academic research are communicated within communities and with the wider public. In a push to accelerate change and make the results of research immediately and freely available online for all to read and use, the European Commission, with support from a group of high-profile funders, has proposed a plan to influence the way academic research is published. Here, we discuss the likely impact of this plan on the publishing landscape, the potential benefits, and some possible unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of outlaw bikers is growing globally. Despite this, little research exists on these groups and their alleged violent tendencies. To address this, the current paper uses unique data to examine whether gang violence causes outlaw biker violence. The period examined runs from mid-2008 until early 2012 during which violent clashes occurred between outlaw bikers and street gang members involved in an alleged conflict in Copenhagen, Denmark. A precise description of each individual act of violence would make it possible to identify whether specific acts were carried out in furtherance of the alleged conflict. This would allow one to determine whether outlaw bikers commit violence on behalf of their club. However, such knowledge is unavailable. The paper therefore takes a different approach by examining whether acts of violence committed by the two groups are statistically associated. In other words, it considers whether one or more acts can be described as retaliatory during the observation periods. The sample consists of 640 individuals involved with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club or with non-biker street gangs–both of which are present in Copenhagen. Statistical models are used to predict 143 violent events committed by 196 outlaw bikers. The results suggest that violence committed by gang members predicts violence committed by outlaw bikers. This indicates that violent acts committed by outlaw bikers are at least partly a form of retaliation carried out on behalf of their club. The paper expands the literature on the kinds of inter-group, micro-level processes that can lead to reciprocal violence by including outlaw bikers in a literature that has previously focused on non-biker street gangs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Doha Development Agenda recognizes the central role that international trade can play in the promotion of economic development. In fact, the increase of exports from developing countries to developed nations' markets has been considered a key element for developing countries to realize the potential benefits of globalization. Over the last decades, developed countries have provided preferential access to their markets to developing countries through nonreciprocal trade agreements. Moreover, developing countries have also participated in reciprocal trade agreements. This paper re-examines comparatively the effect of both kinds of trade agreements on exports from developing countries but also from the developed world. In line with other studies, our results across specifications are unstable. However, the results of our preferred specification give additional support to the argument raised by critics of nonreciprocal preference regimes who consider that developing countries should abandon their reliance on one-way trade preferences in favor of reciprocal agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Do conservative econometric models that comply with the Golden Rule of Forecasting provide more accurate forecasts? Methods: To test the effects of forecast accuracy, we applied three evidence-based guidelines to 19 published regression models used for forecasting 154 elections in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S. The guidelines direct forecasters using causal models to be conservative to account for uncertainty by (I) modifying effect estimates to reflect uncertainty either by damping coefficients towards no effect or equalizing coefficients, (II) combining forecasts from diverse models, and (III) incorporating more knowledge by including more variables with known important effects. Findings: Modifying the econometric models to make them more conservative reduced forecast errors compared to forecasts from the original models: (I) Damping coefficients by 10% reduced error by 2% on average, although further damping generally harmed accuracy; modifying coefficients by equalizing coefficients consistently reduced errors with average error reductions between 2% and 8% depending on the level of equalizing. Averaging the original regression model forecast with an equal-weights model forecast reduced error by 7%. (II) Combining forecasts from two Australian models and from eight U.S. models reduced error by 14% and 36%, respectively. (III) Using more knowledge by including all six unique variables from the Australian models and all 24 unique variables from the U.S. models in equal-weight “knowledge models” reduced error by 10% and 43%, respectively. Originality: This paper provides the first test of applying guidelines for conservative forecasting to established election forecasting models. Usefulness: Election forecasters can substantially improve the accuracy of forecasts from econometric models by following simple guidelines for conservative forecasting. Decision-makers can make better decisions when they are provided with models that are more realistic and forecasts that are more accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the benefits of global financial reporting models for developing countries, discussing the case of Romania, which, at the recommendations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, exceeded the minimum requirements of the European Union, by imposing the full adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in individual financial statements of listed companies. Using regression analysis and decomposition techniques, the paper explores the evolution in value relevance of financial variables based on pre-(2009–2012) and post-(2014–2016) adoption samples, showing that after IFRS adoption financial information becomes significantly more relevant for equity valuations. We also provide empirical evidence showing that the degree of relevance for stock valuation, as well as the IFRS impact varies across types of firms. Overall, our findings tend to indicate the success of the financial reporting reform, which could be relevant for other jurisdictions facing similar decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the EU funded a four-year European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action to address the topic of childbirth. The COST Birth Action was a cross-European network, that brought together over 120 scientists, practitioners, activists and policy makers from 34 countries to work on intrapartum care. The central aim was to advance the state of research and practice in a specific area of great clinical and social importance, intrapartum care. The Action used inter and trans-disciplinary approaches to address birth from multiple perspectives and drew on complexity theory and the concept of salutogenesis (wellbeing). This special collection presents six papers produced from the Action and gives a sense of the range and depth of the work conducted. The Collection illustrates the knowledge that can be generated when a diverse group of people come together with a similar goals and perspectives., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Digital spaces, and in particular social networking sites, are becoming increasingly present and influential in the functioning of our democracies. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology for the data collection, the reconstruction, the analysis and the visualization of the development of a country’s political landscape from Twitter data. Method: The proposed method relies solely on the interactions between Twitter accounts and is independent of the characteristics of the shared contents such as the language of the tweets. We validate our methodology on a case study on the 2017 French presidential election (60 million Twitter exchanges between more than 2.4 million users) via two independent methods: the comparison between our automated political categorization and a human categorization based on the evaluation of a sample of 5000 profiles descriptions; the correspondence between the reconfigurations detected in the reconstructed political landscape and key political events reported in the media. This latter validation demonstrated the ability of our approach to accurately reflect the reconfigurations at play in the off-line political scene. Results: We built on this reconstruction to give insights into the opinion dynamics and the reconfigurations of political communities at play during a presidential election. First, we propose a quantitative description and analysis of the political engagement of members of political communities. Second, we analyze the impact of political communities on information diffusion and in particular on their role in the fake news phenomena. We measure a differential echo chamber effect on the different types of political news (fake news, debunks, standard news) caused by the community structure and emphasize the importance of addressing the meso-structures of political networks in understanding the fake news phenomena. Conclusions: Giving access to an intermediate level, between sociological surveys in the field and large statistical studies (such as those conducted by national or international organizations) we demonstrate that social networks data make it possible to qualify and quantify the activity of political communities in a multi-polar political environment; as well as their temporal evolution and reconfiguration, their structure, their alliance strategies and their semantic particularities during a presidential campaign through the analysis of their digital traces. We conclude this paper with a comment on the political and ethical implications of the use of social networks data in politics. We stress the importance of developing social macroscopes that will enable citizens to better understand how they collectively make society and propose as example the “Politoscope”, a macroscope that delivers some of our results in an interactive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates age variations in foreign-born vs. native-born mortality ratios in an international comparative perspective, with the purpose of gaining insight into the mechanisms underlying the so-called migrant mortality advantage. We examine the four main explanations that have been proposed in the literature for the migrant mortality advantage (i.e., in-migration selection effects, out-migration selection effects, cultural effects, and data artifacts), and formulate expectations as to whether they should generate an increase, a decrease, or no change in relative mortality over the life course. Using data from France, the US and the UK for periods around 2010, we then examine typical age patterns of foreign-born vs. native-born mortality ratios in light of this theoretical framework. We find that these mortality ratios vary greatly by age, with important similarities across migrant groups and host countries. The most systematic age pattern we find is a U-shape pattern: at the aggregate level, migrants often experience excess mortality at young ages, then exhibit a large advantage at adult ages (with the largest advantage around age 45), and finally experience mortality convergence with natives at older ages. The explanation most consistent with this pattern is the “in-migration selection effects” explanation. By contrast, the “out-migration selection effects” explanation is poorly supported by the observed patterns. Our age disaggregation also shows that migrants at mid-adult ages experience mortality advantages that are often far greater than typically documented in this literature. Overall, these results reinforce the notion that migrants are a highly-selected population exhibiting mortality patterns that poorly reflect their living conditions in host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Forensic odontology (FO) is regarded in the literature as one of the most reliable and economical scientific methods for victim identification in mass disasters (MDs). The present paper systematically reviews the role of forensic odontologists in various global MDs. Method: A comprehensive search of the literature databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar), along with cross-referencing published peer-reviewed articles, was conducted. The search included full texts, abstracts or titles, had no inclusion year limit (searched until September 2017) and was limited to the English language. Keywords included a combination of ‘Forensic odontology’, ‘Dental records’, ‘Victim identification’, ‘Natural mass disaster’, ‘Criminal mass disaster’, ‘Accidental mass disaster’ and ‘Victim disaster’. Results: Of the included disasters (20), 12 (57.14%) were accidental, 5 (23.80%) natural and 3 (19.04%) were criminal. The maximum number of victims was associated with the Japan tsunami (15892), followed by the Thailand tsunami (4280) and the Estonia ferry disaster (852). A total of 23654 victims were reported, of which 20569 (86.96%) were positively identified. Reports from 17 MDs included the use of FO in victim identification [3025 (14.70%) cases]. In addition, 1094 victims (5.31%; from 7 papers) were identified using FO in combination with other methodologies. The highest percentage of victims was identified using FO following the Kentucky air crash (47; 100%), followed by the Newark air crash (38; 76%), the Nepal air crash (10; 71.42%), the France air crash (56; 65.88%), the Australian bushfire (14; 63.63%), and the Estonia ferry disaster (57; 60.63%). Conclusion: FO has played a significant role in victim identification in several MDs around the world. The success of FO-based identification is heavily dependent on the availability of ante-mortem records from general dental practitioners. Hence, adequate knowledge about FO and appropriate dental record keeping among general dental practitioners are critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal diseases are global issues affecting the productivity and financial profitability of affected farms. Johne’s disease is distributed on farms worldwide and is an endemic contagious bacterial infection in ruminants caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis. In cattle, the clinical disease manifests itself as chronic enteritis resulting in reduced production, weight loss, and eventually death. Johne’s disease is prevalent in the UK, including Scotland. Direct costs and losses associated with Johne’s disease have been estimated in previous research, confirming an important economic impact of the disease in UK herds. Despite this, the distributional impact of Johne’s disease among milk consumers and producers in Scotland has not been estimated. In this paper, we evaluate the change in society’s economic welfare, namely to dairy producers (i.e. infected and uninfected herds) and milk consumers in Scotland induced by the introduction of Johne’s disease in the national Scottish dairy herd. At the national-level, we conclude that the economic burden falls mainly on producers of infected herds and, to a lesser extent, milk consumers, while producers of uninfected herds benefit from the presence of Johne’s. An infected producer’s loss per cow is approximately two times larger in magnitude than that of an uninfected producer’s gain. Such economic welfare estimates are an important comparison of the relative costs of national herd prevalence and the wider economic welfare implications for both producers and consumers. This is particularly important from a policy, public good, cost sharing, and human health perspective. The economic welfare framework presented in this paper can be applied to other diseases to examine the relative burden of society’s economic welfare of alternative livestock disease scenarios. In addition, the sensitivity analysis evaluates uncertainty in economic welfare given limited data and uncertainty in the national herd prevalence, and other input parameters, associated with Johne’s disease in Scotland. Therefore, until the prevalence of Johne’s is better understood, the full economic cost to Scottish dairy herds remains uncertain but in the meantime the sensitivity analysis evaluates the robustness of economic welfare to such uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores to what extent product and marketing channel diversification contributed to the economic success of small-scale agricultural producers involved in short food supply chains after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted between April and July 2020 in four countries of the European Union–Estonia, Hungary, Portugal and Romania,–resulting in a relatively large sample of farmers (N = 421). The analysis was built on a semi-nonparametric approach. Approximately 19 percent of small-scale producers were able to increase sales during the first wave of the pandemic, although country-level variation was significant. Fruits and vegetables were by far the most popular products. The importance of specific channels varied across countries, but farm gate sales were among the most important marketing channels both before and during the first wave. The importance of channels that were based on digital resources and home delivery increased. Our evidence indicates that diversification was a strategy that paid off, both in terms of marketing channels and different product categories. However, the impact appears to be nonlinear; the initial advantage generated by diversification rapidly tapered off, either temporarily (in the case of products), or permanently (in the case of marketing channels). Later research may clarify whether these findings are generalizable in other socio-economic contexts, as well as in a non-COVID situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to investigate spatial determinants of farmers' interest in pro-investment programs co-financed by the EU, by identifying and describing the territorial clusters of rural areas in Poland where the applications rates for these programs were above or below the national average. We tested for spatial autocorrelation using Moran's global spatial autocorrelation index, while the search for clusters was done using a local version of Moran's statistics. The results show significant regional variation in the farmers' interest in these programs in Poland. This interest was higher in regions with a greater level of agricultural development and better agrarian structure. In Poland, both of these factors are related not only to natural conditions, but also to strong historical context. We conclude that the pro-investment programs contribute to the deepening of development differences in Polish agriculture in the territorial dimension, which is not in line with the basic assumptions of cohesion policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relational aspects, such as involvement of donor's relatives or friends in the decision-making on participation in a research biobank, providing relatives' health data to researchers, or sharing research findings with relatives should be considered when reflecting on ethical aspects of research biobanks. The aim of this paper is to explore what the role of donor's relatives and friends is in the process of becoming and being a biobank donor and which ethical issues arise in this context. We performed qualitative analysis of 40 qualitative semi-structured interviews with biobank donors and researchers. The results show that relatedness to relatives or other types of close relationships played a significant role in the donors' motivation to be involved in a biobank, risk-benefit assessment, and decisions on sharing information on research and its results. Interviewees mentioned ethical issues in the context of sharing relatives' health-related data for research purposes and returning research findings that may affect their relatives. We conclude that the question of what information on family members may be shared with a biobank by research participants without informed consent of those relatives, and when family members become research subjects, lacks a clear answer and detailed guidelines, especially in the context of the introduction of the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation. Researchers in Latvia and EU face ethical questions and dilemmas about returning research results and incidental findings to donors' relatives, and donors need more information on sharing research results with relatives in the informed consent process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is commonly regarded as the key pillar of the European climate policy and as the main unifying tool to create a unique carbon price all over Europe. The UK has always played a crucial role in the EU ETS, being one of the most active national registry and a crucial hub for the exchange of allowances in the market. Brexit, therefore, could deeply modify the number and directions of such exchanges as well as the centrality of the other countries in this system. To investigate these issues, the present paper exploits network analysis tools to compare the structure of the EU ETS market in its first two phases with and without the UK, investigating a few different scenarios that might emerge from a possible reallocation of the transactions that have involved UK partners. We find that without the UK the EU ETS network would become in general much more homogeneous, though results may change focusing on the type of accounts involved in the transactions., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

A recurrent criticism concerning the use of online social media data in political science research is the lack of demographic information about social media users. By employing a face-recognition algorithm to the profile pictures of Facebook users, the paper derives two fundamental demographic characteristics (age and gender) of a sample of Facebook users who interacted with the most relevant British parties in the two weeks before the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016. The article achieves the goals of (i) testing the precision of the algorithm, (ii) testing its validity, (iii) inferring new evidence on digital mobilisation, and (iv) tracing the path for future developments and application of the algorithm. The findings show that the algorithm is reliable and that it can be fruitfully used in political and social sciences both to confirm the validity of survey data and to obtain information from populations that are generally unavailable within traditional surveys., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This paper develops an empirical agent-based model to assess the impacts of Brexit on Scottish cattle farms. We first identify several trends and processes among Scottish cattle farms that were ongoing before Brexit: the lack of succession, the rise of leisure farming, the trend to diversify and industrialise, and, finally, the phenomenon of the "disappearing middle", characterised by the decline of medium-sized farms and the polarization of farm sizes. We then study the potential impact of Brexit amid the local context and those ongoing social processes. We find that the impact of Brexit is indeed subject to pre-Brexit conditions. For example, whether industrialization is present locally can significantly alter the impact of Brexit. The impact of Brexit also varies by location: we find a clear divide between constituencies in the north (highland and islands), the middle (the central belt) and the south. Finally, we argue that policy analysis of Brexit should consider the heterogeneous social context and the complex social processes under which Brexit occurs. Rather than fitting the world into simple system models and ignoring the evidence when it does not fit, we need to develop policy analysis frameworks that can incorporate real world complexities, so that we can assess the impacts of major events and policy changes in a more meaningful way., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of material deprivation in European Union countries in 2016 from both a local and a global perspective. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used in the study. Based on research, five main types of the level of the material deprivation of European Union countries were identified. Research findings suggest that the population of old EU countries is less severely affected by material deprivation than people living in new member states. Also, the level of global material deprivation was assessed. The study was based on 2016 statistical data delivered by Eurostat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper presents three studies, which suggest that perceiving one's nation as transgenerational (TG) is related to a differentiation in the evaluation of ethnically German diaspora migrants and ethnically non-German ('foreign') migrants. First, we find that unlike 'classical' concepts such as right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), and hierarchic self-interest (HSI), TG explains differences in derogatory sentiments expressed towards diaspora and 'foreign' migrants. Second, TG is differentially related to positive emotions and behavioral intentions expressed towards these two groups of migrants. Lastly, results indicate that people who perceive the ingroup as TG require 'foreign' migrants to fulfill more criteria that make them eligible for citizenship and are thereby more exclusionist than people who include only the current generation into their concept of national identity. The social implications of these findings in face of the so-called refugee crisis in Germany and the wider European Union are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant molecular farming (PMF) is a convenient and cost-effective way to produce high-value recombinant proteins that can be used in the production of a range of health products, from pharmaceutical therapeutics to cosmetic products. New plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) provide a means to enhance PMF systems more quickly and with greater precision than ever before. However, the feasibility, regulatory standing and social acceptability of both PMF and NPBTs are in question. This paper explores the perceptions of key stakeholders on two European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 programmes–Pharma-Factory and Newcotiana–towards the barriers and facilitators of PMF and NPBTs in Europe. One-on-one qualitative interviews were undertaken with N = 20 individuals involved in one or both of the two projects at 16 institutions in seven countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain and the UK). The findings indicate that the current EU regulatory environment and the perception of the public towards biotechnology are seen as the main barriers to scaling-up PMF and NPBTs. Competition from existing systems and the lack of plant-specific regulations likewise present challenges for PMF developing beyond its current niche. However, respondents felt that the communication of the benefits and purpose of NPBT PMF could provide a platform for improving the social acceptance of genetic modification. The importance of the media in this process was highlighted. This article also uses the multi-level perspective to explore the ways in which NPBTs are being legitimated by interested parties and the systemic factors that have shaped and are continuing to shape the development of PMF in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Domestic carnivores can introduce rabies into disease-free countries or areas if they are incubating the disease and transported during the pre-symptomatic period. For pets moved into the European Union, the European Commission decided to establish a system of community approval of laboratories willing to carry out the rabies serological controls to guarantee an effective control system. As the specific institute to coordinate the approval of the laboratories, designated by the European Commission in 2000, our laboratory organizes annual proficiency tests (PT) for laboratories already agreed or willing to be agreed to perform rabies serological controls (by detecting rabies virus neutralizing antibodies only) in the frame of international trade. Methodology/Principal findings: The assessment criteria of this PT rely on the analysis of the specificity and the intra-laboratory consistency. The approach used to evaluate the degree of laboratory consistency is based on the use of compiled data obtained from previous PT campaigns, and is measured by the quality of a regression model. By using historical data for calculating assigned values and associated standard deviations, instead of values obtained from only one campaign, they became robust without any additional statistical treatment. In the present paper, more than 800 historical values were compiled for each of the regression parameters. Conclusions/Significance: Since the beginning of these PT schemes in 1999, the overall percentage of failing laboratories remained stable over the years (4.1%) while the number of participants increased to 79 in 2018. This highlighted the robustness and the consistency of the statistical analyses used to assess the laboratory's performance over the years. The improvements carried out and the consistency of our statistical analyses have resulted in the compliance of the rabies serology PT with the ISO/IEC 17043 and ISO 13528:2015 International Standards. Author summary: Proficiency testing (PT) schemes also known as "external quality assessment schemes" are one means to assess the quality and validity of routine measurements. PT schemes are the most common, and perhaps the most important type of inter-laboratory comparisons. As the specific institute to coordinate the approval of the laboratories, designated by the European Commission in 2000, our laboratory organizes annual PT for laboratories already agreed or willing to be agreed to perform rabies serological controls in the frame of international trade. Our PT program is conducted in compliance with the requirements of the ISO/ IEC 17043 International Standards. To enhance the robustness of our statistical analyses, we used an original approach to assess the performance of participants consisting in comparing individual laboratory values with assigned values calculated from compiled PT historical data. Since the beginning of these PT schemes in 1999, the overall percentage of failing laboratories remained stable over the years. The improvements carried out and the consistency of our statistical analyses have resulted in the compliance of the rabies serology PT with the International Standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 wiped out US$37 trillions across global financial markets, this value is equivalent to the combined GDPs of the United States and the European Union in 2014. The defining moment of this crisis was the failure of Lehman Brothers, which precipitated the October 2008 crash and the Asian Correction (March 2009). Had the Federal Reserve seen these crashes coming, they might have bailed out Lehman Brothers, and prevented the crashes altogether. In this paper, we show that some of these market crashes (like the Asian Correction) can be predicted, if we assume that a large number of adaptive traders employing competing trading strategies. As the number of adherents for some strategies grow, others decline in the constantly changing strategy space. When a strategy group grows into a giant component, trader actions become increasingly correlated and this is reflected in the stock price. The fragmentation of this giant component will leads to a market crash. In this paper, we also derived the mean-field market crash forecast equation based on a model of fusions and fissions in the trading strategy space. By fitting the continuous returns of 20 stocks traded in Singapore Exchange to the market crash forecast equation, we obtain crash predictions ranging from end October 2008 to mid-February 2009, with early warning four to six months prior to the crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts forward a framework for probabilistic and holistic cost-effectiveness analysis to provide support in selecting the least-cost set of measures to reach a multidimensional environmental objective. Following the principles of ecosystem-based management, the framework includes a flexible methodology for deriving and populating criteria for effectiveness and costs and analyzing complex ecological-economic trade-offs under uncertainty. The framework is applied in the development of the Finnish Programme of Measures (PoM) for reaching the targets of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The numerical results demonstrate that substantial cost savings can be realized from careful consideration of the costs and multiple effects of management measures. If adopted, the proposed PoM would yield improvements in the state of the Baltic Sea, but the overall objective of the MSFD would not be reached by the target year of 2020; for various environmental and administrative reasons, it would take longer for most measures to take full effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Castanea sativa is classified as non-indigenous in Britain and Ireland. It was long held that it was first introduced into Britain by the Romans, until a recent study found no corroborative evidence of its growing here before c. AD 650. This paper presents new data on the genetic diversity of C. sativa in Britain and Ireland and potential ancestral sources in continental Europe. Microsatellite markers and analytical methods tested in previous European studies were used to genotype over 600 C. sativa trees and coppice stools, sampled from ancient semi-natural woodlands, secondary woodlands and historic cultural sites across Britain and Ireland. A single overall genepool with a diverse admixture of genotypes was found, containing two sub groups differentiating Wales from Ireland, with discrete geographical and typological clusters. C. sativa genotypes in Britain and Ireland were found to relate predominantly to some sites in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Romania, but not to Greece, Turkey or eastern parts of Europe. C. sativa has come to Britain and Ireland from these western European areas, which had acted as refugia in the Last Glacial Maximum; we compare its introduction with the colonization/translocation of oak, ash, beech and hazel into Britain and Ireland. Clones of C. sativa were identified in Britain, defining for the first time the antiquity of some ancient trees and coppice stools, evincing both natural regeneration and anthropogenic propagation over many centuries and informing the chronology of the species’ arrival in Britain. This new evidence on the origins and antiquity of British and Irish C. sativa trees enhances their conservation and economic significance, important in the context of increasing threats from environmental change, pests and pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the trends in today’s tourism sector is the development of environmentally-friendly tourism activities which rely on natural resources of cultural heritage and on biodiversity. This is definitely the case for agritourism, a form of rural tourism. The purpose of this paper is to identify the development aspects of Polish agritourism with particular emphasis on natural and cultural attractiveness. To demonstrate the relationship between agritourism activities of Polish farms and the cultural and natural attractiveness, the Hellwig’s synthetic development indicator was used. As shown by research, the cultural and natural attractiveness of a destination is an important exogenous development factor. Another finding was that the intensified efforts undertaken by the farmers to access EU funds were not focused on areas with valuable natural or cultural resources and an untapped agritourism potential; instead, they were oriented at regions dominated by semi-subsistence or family farms. For a large part of farmers, the new form of support is about to become a source of additional incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]