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Global competition in higher education has facilitated the growth of English‐medium instruction universities in countries where English is not a national language. In Europe, for example, the number of such programs at the bachelor's level has grown from only 55 in 2009 to 2900 in 2017. Colleges of business and management at these universities take a leading role in providing English‐taught programs and courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. A number of management education faculty and administrators encounter challenges related to teaching and course development in English as a second language. One of these challenges is teaching research paper writing. The purpose of this study was to explore how an approach to a research writing course used at a university in an English‐speaking country could be implemented at an English‐medium instruction university. The course involved 153 undergraduate students majoring in management and included seven sessions. To the students and the instructor English was a second language. Data were collected using qualitative and quantitative tools. Overall, the results indicate that a carefully designed course on writing a research paper can increase student writing self‐efficacy in just seven class sessions. We provide implications for instructors and administrators at English‐medium instruction universities and areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The WHO definition of palliative care includes bereavement support as integral to palliative care, yet a previous survey of bereavement support in palliative care in Europe has shown a range of service responses to loss. A rigorous approach to agreeing and implementing a palliative care bereavement framework was required. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop consensus on best-practice recommendations for bereavement care principles, structures, processes and delivery based on current practice and evidence. Design: In accordance with Guidance on Conducting and Reporting Delphi Studies, a consensus-building five-round Delphi technique was performed. A scoping review of research literature informed drafting of 54 statements by the EAPC Bereavement Task Force. Evaluation of the statements was performed by an expert panel using a 5-point Likert scale. ⩾80% agreement were defined as essential items and 75%–79% agreement were defined as desirable items. Items with a consensus rating <75% were revised during the process. Setting/participants: The Delphi study was carried out by an expert panel among membership organisations of the European Association for Palliative Care. Results: In total, 376 email requests to complete Delphi questionnaire were distributed with a response rate of 23% (n = 87) and a follow-up response-rate of 79% (n = 69). Of the initial 54 statements in six dimensions, 52 statements were endorsed with 26 essential statements and 26 desirable statements. Conclusions: The six dimensions and 52 statements agreed through this Delphi study clarify a coherent direction for development of bereavement services in palliative care in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outcome measurement plays an increasing role in improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency and availability of palliative care. Aim: To provide expert recommendations on outcome measurement in palliative care in clinical practice and research. Methods: Developed by a European Association for Palliative Care Task Force, based on literature searches, international expert workshop, development of outcome measurement guidance and international online survey. A subgroup drafted a first version and circulated it twice to the task force. The preliminary final version was circulated to wider expert panel and 28 international experts across 20 European Association for Palliative Care member associations and the European Association for Palliative Care Board of Directors and revised according to their feedback. The final version was approved by the European Association for Palliative Care Board for adoption as an official European Association for Palliative Care position paper. Results: In all, 12 recommendations are proposed covering key parameters of measures, adequate measures for the task, introduction of outcome measurement into practice, and national and international outcome comparisons and benchmarking. Compared to other recommendations, the White Paper covers similar aspects but focuses more on outcome measurement in clinical care and the wider policy impact of implementing outcome measurement in clinical palliative care. Patient-reported outcome measure feedback improves awareness of unmet need and allows professionals to act to address patients’ needs. However, barriers and facilitators have been identified when implementing outcome measurement in clinical care that should be addressed. Conclusion: The White Paper recommends the introduction of outcome measurement into practice and outcomes that allow for national and international comparisons. Outcome measurement is key to understanding different models of care across countries and, ultimately, patient outcome having controlled for differing patients characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with intellectual disabilities often present with unique challenges that make it more difficult to meet their palliative care needs. Aim: To define consensus norms for palliative care of people with intellectual disabilities in Europe. Design: Delphi study in four rounds: (1) a taskforce of 12 experts from seven European countries drafted the norms, based on available empirical knowledge and regional/national guidelines; (2) using an online survey, 34 experts from 18 European countries evaluated the draft norms, provided feedback and distributed the survey within their professional networks. Criteria for consensus were clearly defined; (3) modifications and recommendations were made by the taskforce; and (4) the European Association for Palliative Care reviewed and approved the final version. Setting and participants: Taskforce members: identified through international networking strategies. Expert panel: a purposive sample identified through taskforce members’ networks. Results: A total of 80 experts from 15 European countries evaluated 52 items within the following 13 norms: equity of access, communication, recognising the need for palliative care, assessment of total needs, symptom management, end-of-life decision making, involving those who matter, collaboration, support for family/carers, preparing for death, bereavement support, education/training and developing/managing services. None of the items scored less than 86% agreement, making a further round unnecessary. In light of respondents’ comments, several items were modified and one item was deleted. Conclusion: This White Paper presents the first guidance for clinical practice, policy and research related to palliative care for people with intellectual disabilities based on evidence and European consensus, setting a benchmark for changes in policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that defines the optimal palliative care in dementia. The study provides a brief overview about the disease. The study invited 89 experts from 27 countries to evaluate a two-round online survey with feedback. It also suggests the availability of immediate and full consensus on the eight domains, including the recommendations person-centered care, communication and shared decision-making and optimal treatment of symptoms.

Focuses on the publication of the Green Paper on entrepreneurship by the Commission in Europe. Fundamental issues for Europe; Presentation of the nine key actions of the Entrepreneurship Action Plan; Action taken by the European Charter or Small Enterprises on calling the Member States and the Commission to take action to support and encourage small businesses.

Objectives: To retrospectively evaluate the impact of early(<6 months) vs standard(>6months) return to play(RTP) on the rate of failure, volume of play, and career longevity following ACL reconstruction in a cohort of professional European soccer players. It was hypothesized that athletes returning to professional competition earlier than 6 month after ACL reconstruction would not have an increased risk of failure, volume of play, and a shorter professional career. Methods: Professional soccer players treated for anterior cruciate ligament tear by a single surgeon were included in this retrospective study. The study was approved by the institutional review board. The inclusion criteria were that the patient was a (1) male, (2) professional soccer player with an (3) injury of the anterior cruciate ligament. Exclusion criteria were revision ACL, extra-articular ligamentous reconstruction, and previous contralateral ACL reconstruction. A total of 178 players who were all in the first or second division of their league met criteria for the study over a ten year period. Time from intervention to return to the first official game was recorded in days. Information if the patient was able to return to the same season was recorded, as well as the number of games and total and average minutes played in the return season. Number of seasons played after injury and if the player was active at the time of data collection (September 2019) was also recorded. If the player was still active, the player's current club was recorded. Results: 90-early RTP and 88 standard RTP players were identified. Players in the early RTP group returned to professional level soccer at a mean of 4.76 months, which was significantly sooner than players in the standard RTP group who returned at a mean of 9.21 months (p < 0.01) following ACLR. A significantly greater number of players in the early RTP group returned during the same season of intervention (n = 56/92, 60.9%) than in the standard RTP group (n = 18/88, 20.5%) (p < 0.01). Players in the early RTP group competed in an average of 11.5 games during their return season while those in the standard RTP group competed in an average of 12.9 games (p > 0.05). The early RTP group played, on average, a total of 759.2 minutes and 56.5 minutes/game in their return season, while the standard RTP group played an average of 812.8 total minutes and 50.0 minutes/game in their return season (p > 0.05). Players in the early RTP group had significantly longer careers following ACLR, averaging 5.62 seasons, compared to those in the standard RTP group who competed in an average of 4.75 seasons after surgical intervention (p < 0.01). The early RTP group had 4 failures while the late RTP group had 1 failure failure. Conclusions: Professional European soccer players who return to play earlier than 6 months after ACL reconstruction returned more frequently during the same season, played the same number of games and minutes during their return season, had longer careers, but had more ACL graft failures when compared with those who returned greater than 6 months after surgery. Professional European soccer players who returned early after ACL reconstruction (<6 months) did not appear to have poorer outcomes, however caution should be taken before extrapolating this to the general population as these athletes have exceptional resources, fitness, and athletic capacity. Decision on return to play ultimately lies with the patient/athlete as prolonged RTP has significant financial and career consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the White Paper of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. It mentions White Paper ignoring the extensive experience and substantial body of relevant empirical evidence in jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia. It states the Canadian palliative care community reflecting on ways of reconciling traditional palliative care values.

Most people who experience trauma want to thrive and often find paths to well-being and healthy functioning. This scoping review explores the existing evidence on adversity and resilience in southeastern European countries, focusing on Kosovo. There is a lack of research on trauma and resilience in cultures outside the US and Western Europe. The paper provides a brief cultural and historical overview of this region and the collectivist cultures found there. We draw from a range of interdisciplinary literatures to identify key strengths that have the potential to improve health outcomes for trauma victims in this region. Overall, 42 papers from PsycInfo and PubMed were identified, using keywords such as "resilience" or "health" and "Kosovo," "Balkans," and "Southeastern Europe." Findings from this scoping review show that different cultural values, norms, and societal ecologies impact resilience within these societies. Some strengths, such as social support and sense of purpose, echoed similar research in the US and Western Europe. There was also evidence that factors such as dignity, family solidarity, social activism, and nationwide meaning-making are strengths associated with resilience for these collectivist societies of southeastern Europe. We also consider the implications of the results for other post-conflict societies. Finally, findings from this review call for culturally sensitive strength-based perspectives in promoting health and well-being after the high dosages of trauma common in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise of our research paper is that large (by the size of the population) municipalities are more complex to govern and manage, and this, in turn, calls for a more professional and apolitical local government. Using data from the largest European survey of mayors, we analyzed the influence of mayors and chief administrative officers in Europe and checked for correlations with the size of the local government. We present empirical evidence to support that the perceived influence of mayors varies with the size of the municipality regardless of the institutional configuration of power relationships. We found that very large municipalities (80,000 or more inhabitants) had weaker mayors. The presumption that a larger, more complex local (urban) environment calls for more professional leadership has been addressed in numerous publications; however, the answer was usually beyond the reach of the empirical tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research is important internationally, impacting on health service provision and patient benefit. Journals play an important dissemination role, but there may be geographical bias, potentially affecting access to evidence. Aim: To understand if there is a relationship between the continent of journals and that of contributing authors. Design: Bibliometric analysis of journal citation report data (June 2018). Odds ratio of association of an author being from region, region of journal publication, publication model and the number of papers. Setting: Journals specialising in palliative care research, with an impact factor above the median impact factor for their most common indexing category. Results: Five journals: three published in Europe (Palliative Medicine, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, and BMC Palliative Care) and two in North America (Journal of Pain and Symptom Management and Journal of Palliative Medicine). Authors were from 30+ countries, but mostly North America (54.18%) or Europe (27.94%). Preliminary sensitivity tests show that the odds of an author being from a North American institution increase 16.4 times (p < 0.01; 95% confidence interval: 12.9, 20.8) if the region of journal publication is North America. The odds of an author being from a European institution is 14.0 times (p < 0.01; 95% confidence interval: 10.9, 17.9) higher if the region of journal publication is Europe. Conclusion: Publishers, editors and authors are concentrated in North America or Europe. North American authors are more present in North American journals and European authors in European journals. This polarised approach, if replicated across readerships, may lead to research waste, duplication, and be sub-optimal for healthcare development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particularly in the current context of rapid political change, it is crucial to understand the political participation of young people and what underpins their political engagement patterns as well the as the inequalities that may lie beneath them. While there is a rich literature on youth participation, to date we have lacked the data to carry out detailed subgroup analyses to understand differences in the political participation between different groups of youth cross-nationally. The papers in this Special Issue all examine different aspects of youth participation in the current context. They examine key questions for participation including the inequalities, socialising influences, polarisation, online participation, radical political views, tolerance, life engagement and opportunities for social inclusion. This Special Issue thus provides a contemporary analysis of youth participation in Europe in the current historical juncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses Will Kymlicka's targeted approach to cultural rights by focusing on the case of the Roma minority in Europe. In Multicultural Odysseys, Kymlicka praises the European management of Roma issues as a promising way to overcome the flaws of the generic approach to cultural rights that dominates European minority rights otherwise. The article intends to evaluate Kymlicka's statement in two ways : it combines an empirical study of the arguments that justify the institutional targeting of the Roma in the Council of Europe and a normative analysis about the specific type of transnational minority that these populations seem to form. The empirical part of the paper casts doubts on the assumption that cultural recognition matters primarily in the case of the Roma. The normative part of the paper argues that the concept of transnational minority gains more normative consistency when it is understood in terms of political mobilization against racial oppression than when it is justified in terms of cultural recognition. It concludes that Iris M. Young's "politics of difference" provides a fruitful normative approach to make sense of the Roma's claims of justice in Europe and that it is as such likely to refine and possibly complete the targeted to approach to multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on the importance of procedural justice in policing is extensive. Using the context of information sharing in community policing, this paper argues that interactional, procedural and distributive justice are salient in interactions between the police and the public, both online and face-to-face. Structured interviews (n = 161) were conducted with members of young minority groups and intermediaries (who work with minorities and police agencies) across nine countries in Europe. Our analysis of barriers and facilitators to sharing information with the police highlights processes of interactional, procedural and distributive justice in building public confidence. We highlight theoretical and practical implications of relevance to policing internationally. Our findings show that demonstrating aspects of interactional justice (attitude and behaviour, accessibility and communication, personal contact and relationships); procedural justice (responsiveness and efficiency, data protection and security); and distributive justice (outcomes and effectiveness, equity in distribution of policing services) have a role in building public confidence and facilitating information sharing with police online and face-to-face. We conclude that in addition to micro-level interactions, meso-level social processes (e.g. community policing models and data protection and security procedures) can be useful in enhancing public confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okun's law is one of the best-known stylized facts in the economic literature, as well as one of the most widely used policy tools. The aim of this paper, which utilizes a comprehensive sample of 265 European regions by using annual observations covering the period from 2000 to 2019, is to deepen our knowledge of Okun's law from two perspectives: on one hand, by checking the existence and intensity of regional differences, and on the other hand, by assessing the factors that explain them. To this end, in the first part, we apply a heterogeneous panel approach that deals with cross-sectional dependence, which allows us to obtain an average coefficient as well as region-specific coefficients. In the second part, a cross-sectional spatial model is used to uncover explanatory factors. Our findings reveal quite remarkable regional differences, as well as a somewhat geographical pattern in them. Moreover, they point out the importance of demographic factors (such as gender and age), labor market variables (share of employment in industry and construction, as well as self-employment and part-time employment and the severity of long-term unemployment), R&D expenditure, and some national institutional factors when it comes to explaining differences across regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how local news organizations seek to strengthen their bond with audiences in French-speaking Europe (Belgium, France, and Switzerland). It does so by suggesting a new methodological approach focusing on the different ways in which this bond can be observed, i.e., the "initiatives" implemented by the news organizations. The study identifies 20 types of initiatives undertaken to (re)connect with audiences and presents a model of audience inclusion in news media in line with the literature on modalities of audience participation in news media. The discussion identifies changes in the positioning of local news organizations and journalists towards audiences regarding existing literature on participatory journalism but also on new practices more rooted in engagement, dialogue, and transparency towards audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activities of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and the yearly European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) are mainly organised in standing networks. Through the example of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education network, this article takes a closer look at network activity and the ways in which it contributes to the development of educational research. Since most network activity is focused around the yearly conferences, the first part of the article discusses the conference session space, its forms and its links to the broader community of educational researchers. The second part of the article traces the origin and development of the Policy Studies and Politics of Education network, emphasising how the network has provided a space for critical analysis and discussion of education policies and forms of governance being pursued by national and trans-national actors in and beyond Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policies and services to support informal caregivers vary considerably across countries, This paper examines the role of caregivers and how perspectives on that role may influence the availability of benefits and services in three countries that differ considerably in their care systems - Sweden, Ireland and the United States. We developed a nine-dimensional framework for examining differences, including policies and how the role of caregiver is conceptualized. We found differences in the three countries in how services are organized, which reflected assumptions about the caregiver role. There were also similarities in the three countries. Caregivers held an ambiguous position within each social system and there was little concern for equity in the delivery of support services. Increased clarity about the role of caregivers may facilitate development of policies that more effectively meet their varied needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses aspects of the quality of care of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Europe based on the Multiple Sclerosis--Nurse Empowering Education (MS-NEED) European survey. It is critical of the increase in the number of MS nurses in the continent wit the arrival of the disease-modifying therapies. Also investigated is the variation of the role from country to country to country.

Noise pollution has been impacting negatively on living comfort and working environment for a long time. Acoustic treatment on building façade is one of the effective means to tackle this issue. Numerous articles were published over the past decades to address the acoustic related problems of building façade. However, a systematic review of the research development on façade acoustic technology is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the published research articles from seven selected journals, in terms of the annual number of articles, citation counts, co-authorships, research locations, and keywords. The analyses show that interest in façade acoustics increased during the last two decades. Researchers from Europe and areas with a high density of tall buildings made significant contributions to this development. Based on keyword analysis, articles are categorized into three groups. These include sound insulation studies, studies on the effect of façade on street noise, and noise reduction techniques. The surveyed research topics comprise numerical modeling, experimental studies, ISO standard development, and analyses on annoyance level. Potential future directions are presented based on a summary of the limitations of the existing research. This paper offers researchers and engineers an in-depth understanding of the state-of-the-art of the current façade acoustic research. Additionally, potential future directions are identified based on the findings and limitations of the previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the winners of the 2006 Bodycote International Prize Paper Competition. The competition attracted entries from students across the UK, continental Europe and the USA. The first prize winners are M. Esfandiari and H. Dong, for their papers concerning plasma surface engineering of precipitation hardening stainless steels. Y. N. Kok, J. G. Wen, I. Petrov and P. Eh. Hovsepian combined their efforts to win the joint second prize for their papers concerning ion bombardment.

This paper focuses on seasonal demand swings in the European natural gas market. We quantify and compare the role of different flexibility options (domestic production, gas storage, and pipeline and LNG imports) to assess European demand fluctuations in monthly resolution. We contribute to the existing literature on seasonal flexibility by addressing the problem with a mathematical gas market optimization model. Our paper provides valuable empirical insights into the decline of gas production in northwestern Europe. Furthermore, we focus on how specific flexibility features differ between pipeline supplies and LNG supplies and between gas imports and storage dispatch. In terms of methodology, we construct a bottom-up market optimization model and publish the complete source code (which is uncommon for gas market models). Furthermore, we propose a new metric--the scaled coefficient of variation--to quantify the importance of supply sources for seasonal flexibility provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major theme of the European Enlightenment was the rationalization of value, the use of reason to determine the value of things, from diamonds to civilizations. This view of the Enlightenment is well-established in the human sciences. It is ripe for extension to the natural sciences, given the rich recent literature on affect, evaluation, and subjectivity in early modern science. Meanwhile, in art history, the new history of connoisseurship provides a model for the historical study of the evaluation of material things. Historians of natural history have already noted the connections between science, Enlightenment, and connoisseurship. The time has come to extend their insights to other areas of Enlightenment science. This means recognizing the breadth of connoisseurship – the social, linguistic, and disciplinary diversity of the practice – as understood in Europe in the eighteenth century and the latter part of the seventeenth century. An outline of the three papers in this special section gives an indication of how this historiographical project might be carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solitude is a rising phenomenon in the western world. The share of people affected by solitude has been rising for some time and the Covid-19 pandemic has further brought this trend to the fore. Yet, we know next to nothing about the aggregate subnational economic impact of the rise in solitude. In this paper, we analyse the consequences of solitude on regional economic performance across Europe, distinguishing between two of its key dimensions: alone living, proxied by the regional share of single-person households and loneliness, proxied by the aggregate share of social interactions. We find that solitude has important implications for economic development, but that these go in different directions. While alone living is a substantial driver of economic growth across European regions, high shares of lonely people undermine it. The connection of loneliness with economic growth is, however, dependent on the frequency of in-person meetings, with large shares of the population meeting others socially on a weekly basis, alongside a small percentage of people who never meet others, yielding the best economic returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was inspired by empirical encounters with students and teacher-administrators who engaged with an online European education initiative, which raised questions about whether and how their practices were situated as local, transnational, or national(ist) endeavors. The conceptual, theoretical, and methodological resources of social topology and critical border studies guided our inquiry by a focus on bordering practices and how these generate spatiotemporal forms and movements, and evoked a typical national form which is characterized as a singular, stable, linear, and flat "topography." An innovative methodology is deployed to scrutinize how practices with this online, European initiative continue, challenge or complement that typical national form. The findings demonstrate how the use of topographical indexes and tropes (re-)materialized characteristics of these typical national forms, while the combination with topological relations introduced multiplicities and "levels" in these forms. Moreover, spherical forms, bouncing movements, and tunneling movements challenged the singularity, stability, linearity, and flatness of the typical national form. Building on these findings, the paper sets forth the argument that this online European education initiative mainly challenges the enactment of nationalism in classrooms by encouraging learning and thinking through translocalities, which accentuates distances and differences that are being crossed without appealing to the typical imaginary of the "nation" with linear, stable, flat borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German offshore wind tender, launched in April 2017, resulted in three out of the four winning projects being delivered with zero subsidies, relying only on the wholesale price. This result has been regarded as a turning point for the industry. This paper analyses the 2017/18 German offshore wind tenders and the bidding strategies of the winning developers. We then propose a re-design of the tenders with the aim of achieving optimality/zero-subsidies and efficiency - two key properties in mechanism design. The paper contributes to the discussion on how to design offshore wind tenders with both a policy and theoretical perspective. This is of particular relevance given the rapid expansion of this type of investment in Europe and the use of auctions to select developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papers in this special issue offer a wide range of political economy and sociological perspectives to explain the development and impacts of short-term rentals (STRs) in European cities. Empirically, they provide insights regarding STR providers, socio-spatial impacts, and regulation. Authors reveal the professionalization of the sector vis-à-vis the connection between STRs and the wider financialization of housing. STRs are predominantly supplied by professional property managers as well as by middle-class individuals for which renting on digital platforms is their main professional activity. Furthermore, the increasing professionalization of hosts and the intrinsic competition among them is largely stimulated by the business model of digital platforms which has progressively favoured professional operators. Understanding how STRs are shaped by platform capitalism helps to explain the socio-spatial impacts of this market as well as why current regulations have not mitigated such impacts. In terms of impacts, contributions to this special issue document processes of displacement, gentrification, and how the penetration of visitors in neighbourhoods is experienced by residents as a process of loss and dispossession. However, due to the lobbying campaigns of professional operators and industry players, regulation has led to the legitimization of this new market rather than to the limitation of the activity. Therefore, the special issue challenges the use of a 'sharing economy' and 'peer-to-peer platforms' as analytical categories, and, instead, provides evidence of why the STR market should be seen as part of the wider expansion of platform capitalism, consolidating the neoliberal and financialized urban paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed countries in general and European countries in particular devote a substantial share of national resources to income redistribution programs that seek to alleviate and reduce poverty. This Symposium contributes to the analysis of such pro grams. It presents three papers written in a perspective that reflects European concerns with both social policies and analytical rigor. In particular the papers deal with the costs and consequences of anti-poverty programs no only in terms of the effect iveness in achieving poverty reduction but also looking at other impacts on welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to Reviel Netz's attempt to link modernizing development in Europe to the legacy of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. It defends the value of the kind of counterfactual reasoning that underpins Netz's effort and contextualizes his argument within the broader context of the debate about the origins of the 'Great Divergence' between Europe and other parts of the world. The nexus between Archimedean insights and the development of the modern steam engine posited by Netz receives critical attention: we must ask to what extent counterfactual alternative modes of modernization might allow us to dissociate modernization from ancient Greek legacies. Finally, this paper draws attention to the political implications of presenting an exceptionalist vision of developmental features that are held to be uniquely associated with ancient Greece and early modern Europe, concluding that special care needs to be taken in employing this contentious perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates attitudes towards the welfare state measured as government responsibility towards the standard of living of the unemployed and the old. The article focuses on the differences between post-communist countries and the rest of Europe, contextualised using the self-interest theory, specifically economic strain. Data on thirty one European countries gleaned from the European Social Survey collected in 2008 and 2016 are analysed using multilevel methods. The findings show that even though citizens in post-communist countries are purportedly more in favour of government intervention in regard to the welfare state, perceptible differences emerge based on individual characteristics, namely economic strain, combined with whether the respondent lives in a post-communist country. The cross-national differences in welfare support between post-communist countries and the rest of Europe are largely driven by differences in economic strain, with citizens in post-communist countries that struggle financially exhibiting higher support for welfare state provisions in comparison to their peers in countries without a communist legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first European Union Survey on Violence against Women (EU-VAW) released in 2014 revealed the unexpected result indicating that the world's most egalitarian countries have relatively high rates of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women (IPVAW). This phenomenon, referred to as the "Nordic Paradox," revived a heated, intermittently ongoing discussion dating back four decades where several competing hypotheses about the relationship between gender inequality and IPVAW have been proposed, but no consensus has been reached. The main aim of this paper is to revisit the most important of such hypotheses proposed in the last four decades, while proposing a new one that could potentially throw some light on understanding the "Nordic Paradox." Multilevel linear regression models are estimated using data from the EU-VAW survey conducted in 2012, and an alternative operationalization of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) (our measure of gender equality). We did not find any significant effect of gender equality on IPVAW repetition. However, we found that higher country-level status of women and men go together with less IPVAW, with a larger effect of women's status in economic domains compared to the impact of men's economic status, and a larger effect of men's overall status. These findings support the Marxist feminist hypothesis, stating that women's absolute status in the economic and labor domain is critical in lessening IPVAW, as women's real and potential access to resources is key for leaving a violent relationship. At the same time, our results support the "male privilege protection" hypothesis, which states that gains in women's status in certain domains—such as in the economic sphere considering our results for the European Union—would not suppose a threat to men, allowing ameliorative effects. In contrast, if the overall status of men is threatened, backlash effects would be triggered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2010s, collateralized loan obligations rapidly became a trillion-dollar industry, mirroring the growth profile and peak value of its cousin—collateralized debt obligations—in the 2000s. Yet, despite similarities in product form and growth trajectory, surprisingly little is known about how these markets evolved spatially and relationally. This paper fills that knowledge gap by asking two questions: how did each network adapt to achieve scale at speed across different jurisdictions; and to what extent does the spatial and relational organization of today's collateralized loan obligation structuration network, mirror that of collateralized debt obligations pre-crisis? To answer those questions, we draw on the global financial networks approach, developing our own concept of the networked product to explore the agentic qualities of collateralized debt obligations and collateralized loan obligations—specifically how their technical and regulatory "needs" shape the roles and jurisdictions enrolled in a global financial network. We use social network analysis to map and analyze the evolving spatial and relational organization that nurtured this growth, drawing on data harvested from offering circulars. We find that collateralized debt obligations spread from the US to Europe through a process of transduplication—that similar role-based network relations were reproduced from one regulatory regime to another. We also find a strong correlation between pre-crisis collateralized debt obligation- and post-crisis collateralized loan obligation-global financial networks in both US$- and €-denominations, with often the same network participants involved in each. We conclude by reflecting on the prosaic way financial markets for ostensibly complex products reproduce and the capacity for network stabilities to produce market instabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to assess the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab in first-line for microsatellite-instability-high or mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer. We have considered the pivotal phase III randomized controlled trial of pembrolizumab in first-line for microsatellite-instability-high mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer. The last available update of each trial was considered as the original source. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated as the ratio between the difference of the costs in the intervention and in the control groups (pharmacy costs) and the difference between the effect in the intervention and in the control groups (progression-free survival). The costs of drugs are at the Pharmacy of the Mater Salutis Hospital of Legnago (VR, Italy) and are expressed in euros (€). Three hundred and seven patients were considered in the pivotal phase III randomized controlled trial. Pembrolizumab obtained a cost per month progression-free survival gained ranged from 6471 € towards mFOLFOX (5-FU, oxaliplatin and leucovorin) plus cetuximab to 7886 € towards mFOLFOX. To sum up, combining pharmacological costs of drugs with the measure of efficacy represented by progression-free survival, at the actual prize pembrolizumab cannot be considered cost-effectiveness for first-line treatment for microsatellite-instability-high mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer. A reduction in pharmacological costs is mandatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses why and how public attitudes should matter in regulating asylum and refugee protection in rich democracies, with a focus on Europe. Taking a realistic approach, I argue that public views constitute a soft feasibility constraint on effective and sustainable policies towards asylum seekers and refugees, and that a failure to take seriously and understand the attitudes of the host country's population can have a very damaging effect on refugee protection and migrants' rights in practice. Bringing together insights from political philosophy, the politics of asylum, and research on public attitudes, I develop my argument by discussing why 'what the people think' should matter in asylum and refugee polices; how public views can and should matter given the well-known challenges with measuring attitudes and policy preferences; and what the prevailing public views might mean for the reform of asylum and refugee policies in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last years, European intraday power markets have gained importance for balancing forecast errors due to the rising volumes of intermittent renewable generation. However, compared to day-ahead markets, the drivers for the intraday price process are still sparsely researched. In this paper, we propose a modelling strategy for the location, shape and scale parameters of the return distribution in intraday markets, based on fundamental variables. We consider wind and solar forecasts and their intraday updates, outages, price information and a novel measure for the shape of the merit-order, derived from spot auction curves as explanatory variables. We validate our modelling by simulating price paths and compare the probabilistic forecasting performance of our model to benchmark models in a forecasting study for the German market. The approach yields significant improvements in the forecasting performance, especially in the tails of the distribution. At the same time, we are able to derive the contribution of the driving variables. We find that, apart from the first lag of the price changes, none of our fundamental variables have explanatory power for the expected value of the intraday returns. This implies weak-form market efficiency as renewable forecast changes and outage information seems to be priced in by the market. We find that the volatility is driven by the merit-order regime, the time to delivery and the closure of cross-border order books. The tail of the distribution is mainly influenced by past price differences and trading activity. Our approach is directly transferable to other continuous intraday markets in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) carries the potential for unprecedented disruption in radiology, with possible positive and negative consequences. The integration of AI in radiology holds the potential to revolutionize healthcare practices by advancing diagnosis, quantification, and management of multiple medical conditions. Nevertheless, the ever‑growing availability of AI tools in radiology highlights an increasing need to critically evaluate claims for its utility and to differentiate safe product offerings from potentially harmful, or fundamentally unhelpful ones. This multi‑society paper, presenting the views of Radiology Societies in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, defines the potential practical problems and ethical issues surrounding the incorporation of AI into radiological practice. In addition to delineating the main points of concern that developers, regulators, and purchasers of AI tools should consider prior to their introduction into clinical practice, this statement also suggests methods to monitor their stability and safety in clinical use, and their suitability for possible autonomous function. This statement is intended to serve as a useful summary of the practical issues which should be considered by all parties involved in the development of radiology AI resources, and their implementation as clinical tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Makeshift camps have increasingly become a permanent presence along border areas and in cities around Europe and elsewhere, constituting a 'hidden geography' that is crucial to overland mobilities of thousands of migrants each year and essential to understanding contemporary informal migration. While there is rich and burgeoning scholarship on makeshift camps, substantial gaps remain in the understanding of these informal geographies which have not yet been conceptualized in terms of the key roles they play in the production of informal migration corridors nor the unique forms of daily life en route that they support, as this paper intends to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ways of knowing "the Roma" as a category of people. It attends to mobility and its obstructions, and the ways that coincide with bureaucratic, institutional, and everyday modes of sorting and racializing groups of people. Our case study is situated in Romania. Whereas "the Roma" do not exist as a category in the Romanian national registry of citizens, mainstream public discourses regarding "Roma migration" have significantly proliferated over the past decades. Yet, how do authorities come to know "the Roma" and how do they render groups of citizens into racialized populations? We examine two bureaucratic practices in Romania, the census and the registry of citizens, and show how the latter is enacted through various "technologies of vision." We focus on the category of "the Roma" as a material semiotic configuration enacted by various "data" regarding issues such as territorial segregation, phenotypic appearance, smell, and dialect. Situated at the intersection of Border and Surveillance Studies, Romani Studies, and Science and Technologies Studies, this paper contributes to debates about how "the Roma" are rendered visible in practices of identification and migration management in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conference, organised by the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining, took place on 9–12 May 2005 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, UK and was attended by over 300 delegates from 27 countries. The technical programme covered the full spectrum of electric arc furnace technology, new plant developments and environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the results of an investigation of willingness to pay (WTP) for new vaccines. The vaccines considered are for infections with several subtypes. One option is to cover a broad combination of these within one vaccine although this is associated with additional development complexities. The associated durations of effect of such vaccines are not yet known; therefore the impact of variations in this and the subtype coverage, as well as that of opting for a non-reimbursement status, were among the issues that needed to be assessed. One important group for a determination of WTP is parents, in that they could be paying for vaccination of themselves and/or their children. This paper reports the findings of WTP among this group for their children for alternative outcomes in the vaccine product profile. For reasons of confidentiality, results from only this group in the context of paying for their children are reported. The exact wording of the product features tested have also been changed for the same reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An informal electronic European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) forum was set-up in September 2000 to bring together Ph.D. students, junior academics and researchers to promote participation and communication among those who are part of the EGOS community. The aim of the EGOS Network is to enable participants - particularly those who are, or feel, new' to EGOS - to become more actively involved in shaping and running events, workshops, discussion groups and similar activities. The question that ran through most of the presentations and returned in the discussion was one of self-reflection. The implication behind the colloquium theme was that organization theorists often discuss people events, and things by focusing on who or what is the case. Organization theorists, even when they take a constructivist or constructionist perspective, usually assume that it is individuals with minds who do the constructing, so constructed products are examined, rather than construction processes. This theme group turned attention to us academics. to our disciplinary communities and to our academic work practices.

Since timber frame constructions can help to reduce CO2-emissions and lower the embodied energy of buildings, the market share of timber-based buildings is growing across Europe. Unfortunately, timber frame constructions are found to be susceptible to moisture damage, such as interstitial condensation, mould growth and wood rot. To avoid moisture damage, a correct design of the wall composition is crucial, with special emphasis on the ratio between vapour resistance of wind and vapour barrier. Given that experimental investigations are time-consuming and expensive, numerical tools are common to assess the hygrothermal behaviour of building components. And although timber frame constructions are inherently two- or even three-dimensional due to the embedded wooden elements, most often, 1D-simulations focussing on the basic configuration with insulation between wind and vapour barrier are conducted. This paper investigates to what extent neglecting the embedded wooden elements influences the risk assessment of the wall. Three different wall configurations have been considered and their hygrothermal response, as predicted by 1D- and 2D-numerical simulations, are compared. Variability of the exterior climate is included by using four distinct different climate regions. Contrary to common assumptions, buffering of moisture in wooden elements does not always lower the risk on moisture damage, but might even increase it. While the predicted risk on mould growth was found to be similar between 1D and 2D-simulations, the opposite was found for the risk on interstitial condensation. Mainly for cold climates and wall configurations with hardly any other hygric buffering capacity, levels of interstitial condensation were found to be significantly higher when taking the wooden elements into account in the numerical simulations. Hence, care should be taken when assessing the reliability of timber frame walls based on 1D-simulations only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the Delphi methodology employed to select a final dashboard of 30 indicators on the socio-educative inclusion of refugee and migrant children in Europe. Firstly, a procedure for identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was carried out, including a specialized scientific literature review, the mapping of previous indicators, and qualitative workshops with key stakeholders at micro, meso, and macro levels in six countries. Then, a Delphi design was implemented to assess, rate, and provide meaningful qualitative improvements to a pool of pre-selected indicators. The Delphi methodology involved a group of international experts on the matters of inclusive education or migration, researchers, NGOs, and public officers. As an alternative to traditional "benchmark-based" consensus, we introduced the use of a) the CARA model and b) an alternative multi-input and mixed-method consensus-building procedure. The results provided a significant contribution to qualitative methods on the one hand and to migration and integration literature on the other. The methodological innovations, the diversity of experts' perspectives involved in the process, and the structured nature of the method constituted significant advantages to improve the robustness of the Delphi methodology for selecting and validating indicators. Future research involving a Delphi methodology can benefit from applying the present procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objective of this review is to provide a systematic and critical summary of findings regarding empirical studies conducted on commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Europe. The purpose is to gain an understanding of the characteristics and main topics addressed in European research on CSEC, identify gaps, and give suggestions for future studies. Method: The review was guided by the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis—Protocols". A comprehensive search on several databases was conducted to identify published and unpublished empirical research on CSEC in Europe, revealing 3,846 documents. In total, 56 research papers that focused specifically on CSEC in European samples were included. Synthesis: Research concerning European studies of CSEC and trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation has developed significantly over the last 20 years but is still rather limited and mainly focused on the UK and Sweden. Most of the studies reviewed suffer from important methodological flaws such as an inaccurate definition of the phenomenon analyzed, small and convenience samples, and nonvalidated and nonspecific instruments. Conclusions: Findings from this study demonstrate the need for greater exploration and research around a number of areas of sexual exploitation of children in Europe. Further work is necessary in terms of capacity building, training, and awareness-raising for society as a whole and, specifically, professionals providing direct support to children and young people at risk of exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-examines the problem of EU subsidiarity in the light of the political economy of federalism and centre–right thinking. It argues that if Christian Democratic, conservative and liberal parties are serious about strengthening subsidiarity, they should urge the EU to take steps in the direction of scenario four of the European Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe. Misleadingly titled 'Doing less more efficiently', this scenario is in fact about 'delivering more and faster in selected policy areas, while doing less elsewhere', as the subtitle correctly states. A new compact combining the targeted strengthening of key federal policies at the EU level with the EU's gradual disengagement from other policy areas seems the most promising way to take the Union out of the doldrums and strike a compromise between Eurosceptics and Europhiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 25 March 2017, leaders of the EU27 and European Union (EU) institutions ratified the Rome Declaration. They committed to invite citizens to discuss Europe's future and to provide recommendations that would facilitate their decision-makers in shaping their national positions on Europe. In response, citizens' dialogues on the future of Europe were instituted across the Union to facilitate public participation in shaping Europe. This paper explores Ireland's set of dialogues which took place during 2018. Although event organisers in Ireland applied a relatively atypical and more systematic and participatory approach to their dialogues, evidence suggests that Irelands' dialogues were reminiscent of a public relations exercise which showcased the country's commitment to incorporating citizens into the debate on Europe while avoiding a deliberative design which could have strengthened the quality of public discourse and the quality of public recommendations. Due to an absence of elite political will for a deliberative process, as well as structural weaknesses in design, participants' recommendations lacked any clear and prescriptive direction which could shape Ireland's national position on the future of Europe in any constructive or meaningful way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the salient features of the recent populist turn in Europe has been a redefinition of the European. Traditionally, (far) right-wing parties defined themselves as Eurosceptic and focused on national identity. Increasingly, however, they have referred to pan-European heritage, although against the mainstream conceptualization of it. The article looks at the case of Hungary and the image of Europe constructed by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose rhetoric has become a key reference point for other European populist movements. The past decade his government has witnessed, on the one hand, a tendency to redefine what is European against the dominant and institutionalized interpretations, and, on the other, an attempt to single-out the concept of Central Europe as the locus for maintaining and nurturing European values in contrast to perceived Western decline. This paper examines this discourse through a close reading of major speeches delivered by Orbán on the anniversaries of historical events. Analysis of these speeches reveals the ideological foundations of his political project and presents historical and philosophical interpretations of the European political situation. It seeks to identify how Orbán's discourse evolved across time, by putting the speeches about the past into the present political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) are ecosystems bolstering European companies to overtake innovation hindrances and drive Europe to become the world leading innovator in the industry digital revolution. Each of such organizations can provide a certain list of services, that can be classified and grouped in five macro-classes according to the Data-driven Business-Ecosystem-Skills-Technology (D-BEST) reference model, able to decode DIHs' service portfolio and to shape collaborative networks in the Industry 4.0 age. However, to support an easier codification of DIH support actions, which also directly entails the engagement of enterprises in the DIH ecosystems, a method able to analyze typical Customer Journeys (CJs) is needed. Therefore, this paper proposes the D-BEST based DIH CJ analysis method, able to configure DIHs' unique value proposition, mapping on the five macro-classes of services of the D-BEST the digital transformation processes of the two main categories of DIH customers (technology end-users and technology providers). The method analyses the service provision process of single DIHs, evidencing their strengths and weaknesses, and is also effective in suggesting possible collaborations and joint service provision in a network of multiple DIHs, being able to unveil the commonalities and complementarities among the different journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic self-efficacy (ASE) refers to a student's global belief in his/her ability to master the various academic challenges at university and is an essential antecedent of wellbeing and performance. The five-item General Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (GASE) showed promise as a short and concise measure for overall ASE. However, of its validity and reliability outside of Scandinavia is limited. Therefore, this paper aimed to investigate the psychometric properties, longitudinal invariance, and criterion validity of the GASE within a sample of university students (Time 1: n = 1056 & Time 2: n = 592) in the USA and Western Europe. The results showed that a unidimensional factorial model of overall ASE fitted the data well was reliable and invariant across time. Further, criterion validity was established by finding a positive relationship with task performance at different time stamps. Therefore, the GASE can be used as a valid and reliable measure for general ASE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses discourse analysis to study the continuities in British foreign policy thinking within the Labour party from the 1960s to the present day. Using representative extracts from speeches by Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, it identifies the ideational consistencies in the leaders' attitudes to: Empire; federalism in the EEC/EU; and laying down conditions that have to be met before any constructive engagement with ‘Europe’ can be countenanced. We argue that these consistencies, spanning a 50-year period, exemplify a certain stagnation both within Labour's European discourses and within British foreign policy thinking more widely. We develop the idea that Labour party thinking has been crucially framed by both small ‘c’ conservative and upper-case Conservative ideology, popularised by Winston Churchill in his ‘three circles’ model of British foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the analysis of American citizens travelling to Europe, examining the degree of persistence of the series and testing whether shocks are of a transitory or of a permanent nature. For this purpose, we use a methodology based on fractional integration, including seasonal autoregressions to describe the short-run (seasonal) dynamics underlying the series. We show that the series is highly persistent with an order of integration slightly below one. Moreover, the existence of a unit root cannot be rejected at standard significance levels. In the final part of the paper, we also examine the existence of a structural break, comparing the degree of persistence before and after the September 11th attacks. The results indicate that there has been a substantial reduction in the degree of persistence after the break in 2001.Tourism and Hospitality Research (2009) 9, 3–8. doi:10.1057/thr.2008.38; published online 24 November 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of key EU Member States to respect the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) a few years after its inception triggered a heated debate on how to reform the framework of fiscal policy coordination in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper analyzes 101 reform proposals presented by professional academic and non-academic economists prior to March 2005, when the Council of the European Union adopted a revised version of the SGP. Roughly four different schools of thought concerning the reform of the SGP are identified. In line with the main findings of the political economy literature, all four schools of thought share the view that in the absence of specific rules fiscal policy would lead to excessive deficits and hence affect the conduct of the common monetary policy. However, beyond this common denominator, there is no consensus on how best to co-ordinate fiscal policy. We present several explanations for the multitude of proposals, the most important being the present lack of a consensus in the economics profession concerning the role of fiscal policy. Economists hold diverging views on the goals, instruments, efficiency and institutions for fiscal policy-making. This state of affairs is in sharp contrast to the case of monetary policy. Also, the euro area is the first case where monetary policy-making is centralized while fiscal policy-making is decentralized to national governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a response to Hwa Yung's paper on the shift of the centre of the gravity of the church from the West into the Majority World. It reflects on the reasons why the church grew in the West, particularly in Europe, in the past and suggests what can be learned from the strengths of the Western church, as well as its weaknesses and failures. Three periods of Western church history are covered: The Early Church from AD 30 to AD 330, the sixteenth century European Reformation, and the modern missionary expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the subsequent decline of the Western church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with dementia requiring palliative care have multiple needs, which are amplified in long-term care settings. The European Association for Palliative Care White Paper offers recommendations for optimal palliative care in dementia integral for this population, providing useful guidance to inform interventions addressing their specific needs. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the components of palliative care interventions for people with dementia in long-term care focusing on shared decision-making and examine their alignment to the European Association for Palliative Care domains of care. Design: Systematic review with narrative synthesis (PROSPERO ID: CRD42018095649). Data sources: Four databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and CENTRAL) were searched (earliest records – July 2019) for peer-reviewed articles and protocols in English, reporting on palliative care interventions for people with dementia in long-term care, addressing European Association for Palliative Care Domains 2 (person-centred) or 3 (setting care goals) and ⩾1 other domain. Results: Fifty-one papers were included, reporting on 32 studies. For each domain (1–10), there were interventions found aiming to address its goal, although no single intervention addressed all domains. Domain 7 (symptom management; n = 19), 6 (avoiding overly aggressive treatment; n = 18) and 10 (education; n = 17) were the most commonly addressed; Domain 5 (prognostication; n = 7) and 4 (continuity of care; n = 2) were the least addressed. Conclusion: Almost all domains were addressed across all interventions currently offered for this population to various degrees, but not within a singular intervention. Future research optimally needs to be theory driven when developing dementia-specific interventions at the end of life, with the European Association for Palliative Care domains serving as a foundation to inform the best care for this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street-level bureaucracy literature ascertains that policies get made not only in the offices of legislatures or politicians but through the discretion bureaucrats employ in their day-to-day interactions with citizens in government agencies. The discretion bureaucrats use to grant access to public benefits or impose sanctions adds up to what the public ultimately experience as the government and its policies. This perspective, however, overlooks policy-making that gets done in the back offices of government, where there might not be direct interaction with citizens. Furthermore, it treats discretion as inherently anthropogenic and ignores that it is exercised in relation to sociotechnical arrangements of which bureaucrats are a part. In this paper, based on extensive ethnography at national statistical institutes and international statistical meetings across Europe, I make two arguments. The first is that, statisticians emerge as back-office policy-makers as they are compelled to take multiple methodological decisions when operationalizing abstract statistical guidelines and definitions, thus effectively making rather than merely implementing policies. This is the "discretion" they employ, even when they may not interact with citizens. The second argument is that the exercise of discretion is sociotechnical, that is, it happens in relation to the constraints and affordances of technologies and the decisions of other bureaucrats in their institutions and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature by examining gender inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people from a comparative perspective. By analysing data on young people from nine European countries collected in 2018, we examine gender inequalities in participation in various modes of conventional and unconventional activism as well as related attitudes, broader political engagement and key determinants, cross-nationally, in order to provide a detailed picture of the current state of gender inequalities in political activism among young people in Europe. Our results allow us to speak to extant theorising about gender inequalities by showing that the extent of political inequality between young men and women is less marked than one might expect. While the gender gaps in political participation for activities such as confrontational types of protest are small or absent, we find that young women are actually more active in petitioning, boycotting, and volunteering in the community. Young men instead are more active than young women in a majority of the nine countries analysed with respect to more institutional forms of participation linked to organizations and parties, various types of online political participation, and broader political engagement measures, such as internal political efficacy and consumption of political news through various channels. However, young men also appear to be more sceptical at least of certain aspects of democratic practice relative to young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have documented the critical market barriers that suppress consumer investments in energy efficiency well below economically optimal levels. Meanwhile, the policy imperatives for increasing such investments - particularly the need to address global climate change - have never been more compelling. This paper examines how a new policy construct - an energy efficiency feed-in-tariff (EE FiT) - might be designed to address this problem. While an EE FiT will not always be the best approach, its potential benefits merit serious consideration where alternative programmatic routes to efficiency are not well-established. In particular, EE FiTs offer the potential to create new markets and enable new market entrants to uncover and deliver EE resources. This market-based approach may also have advantages in jurisdictions facing political objections to other methods of funding efficiency initiatives. However, as the European experience with FiTs for renewable power reveals, any jurisdiction considering adoption of an EE FiT will need to consider a range of questions, both fundamental and practical. This paper identifies key policy issues and options for EE FiT design. No jurisdiction to date has created an explicit EE FiT; this paper draws on experience in Europe with white certificate programmes, and in the US with utility efficiency mandates and regional capacity markets, in particular the "standard offer" programmes that have been offered by obligated entities over the past two decades. The standard offer programmes differ from a pure efficiency FiT, as they have been offered as part of a portfolio of measures designed jointly to meet an energy savings obligation, not as the fundamental policy construct for achieving savings. Nevertheless, they offer valuable insights into the policy and implementation choices that would need to be made to enable an EE FiT to effectively deliver on its promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article intends to discuss the 1970s as a breaking point in both urban and transport history. The dominant narrative of urban planning sets two periods after 1945 in opposition: the post-war modernist and car-oriented city on the one hand, and on the other hand the (more) sustainable and pedestrian-oriented city that supposedly started to arise in the 1980s. This time frame reveals the importance given to the narrative of the avant-garde, the great intellectual figures, and the national policies in urban history. The paper decentres the investigation into the history of pedestrianisation in Europe and highlights how "anonymous" city engineers and local urban planners produced alternative pathways to modernisation as early as the 1950s. The European municipal movement for pedestrianisation appears as the missing link between the radical functionalist approach of post-war modern planning, and the present trend in favour of public space and walkability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Overdiagnosis, the detection through screening of a breast cancer that would never have been identified in the lifetime of the woman, is an adverse outcome of screening. We aimed to determine an estimate range for overdiagnosis of breast cancer in European mammographic service screening programmes. Methods We conducted a literature review of observational studies that provided estimates of breast cancer overdiagnosis in European population-based mammographic screening programmes. Studies were classified according to the presence and the type of adjustment for breast cancer risk (data, model and covariates used), and for lead time (statistical adjustment or compensatory drop). We expressed estimates of overdiagnosis from each study as a percentage of the expected incidence in the absence of screening, even if the variability in the age range of the denominator could not be removed. Estimates including carcinoma in situ were considered when available. Results There were 13 primary studies reporting 16 estimates of overdiagnosis in seven European countries (the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK and Spain). Unadjusted estimates ranged from 0% to 54%. Reported estimates adjusted for breast cancer risk and lead time were 2.8% in the Netherlands, 4.6% and 1.0% in Italy, 7.0% in Denmark and 10% and 3.3% in England and Wales. Conclusions The most plausible estimates of overdiagnosis range from 1% to 10%. Substantially higher estimates of overdiagnosis reported in the literature are due to the lack of adjustment for breast cancer risk and/or lead time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the links between oil prices and inflation in the euro area by means of a DSGE model reflecting the structure of the energy markets in the euro area and calibrated to match the data using reduced-form time series techniques. The analysis focuses on the impact on inflation (through the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) and its energy component) in the short and medium run. The main conclusion is that, in the short term, changes in oil prices are of vital importance for the understanding of inflation, but that at longer horizons their impact on inflation is much more complex and depends on the initial shock. An analysis of the sources of oil price increases remains therefore a pre-requisite for a proper understanding of historical fluctuations of oil prices and the related developments in the euro area, and for drawing policy conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study on problems in labor market and unemployment in Europe. The study shows that the government supports the employment of people who has been out of the labor market through long-term sickness or disability. The study also shows that unemployment is cause by lack of jobs as well as deindustrialization and decentralization. The paper also emphasizes the need for urban as well as regional policy.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an investigation into missionary-refugee relationships in Europe. The main research question guiding this study was: How do missionaries understand and describe their relationship with the refugees they serve? The data for this study were collected at an international consultation on ministry with refugees held in the fall of 2017 from 21 missionaries using semi-structured interview protocols. Findings demonstrate that missionaries shared a liminal identity with the refugees in their ministry, viewed hospitality as a Christian lifestyle, perceived Christianity to be an inclusive faith, and discussed the challenges and opportunities in their ministry with refugees. Based on the findings we offer implications for mission theorizing and practice in the 21st century church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to showcase different decarbonization pathways for Europe with varying Carbon dioxide (CO2) constraints until 2050. The Global Energy System Model (GENeSYS-MOD) framework, a linear mathematical optimization model, is used to compute low-carbon scenarios for 17 European countries or regions. The sectors power, lowand high-temperature heating, and passenger and freight transportation are included, with the model endogenously constructing capacities in each period. Emission constraints differ between different scenarios and are either optimized endogenously by the model, or distributed on a per-capita basis, GDP-dependent, or based on current emissions. The results show a rapid phase-in of renewable energies, if a carbon budget in line with established international climate targets is chosen. It can be shown that the achievement of the 2° target can be met with low additional costs compared to the business as usual case, while reducing total emissions by more than 30%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a shift from exceptionalism to normalisation, this study examines recommendations/evidence in current pan-European/global guidelines regarding pre-test HIV testing and counselling practices in health care settings. It also reviews new research not yet included in guidelines. There is consensus that verbal informed consent must be gained prior to testing, individually, in private, confidentially, in the presence of a health care provider. All guidelines recommend pre-test information/discussion delivered verbally or via other methods (information sheet). There is agreement about a minimum standard of information to be provided before a test, but guidelines differ regarding discussion about issues encouraging patients to think about implications of the result. There is heavy reliance on expert consultation in guideline development. Referenced scientific evidence is often more than ten years old and based on US/UK research. Eight new papers are reviewed. Current HIV testing and counselling guidelines have inconsistencies regarding the extent and type of information that is recommended during pre-test discussions. The lack of new research underscores a need for new evidence from a range of European settings to support the process of expert consultation in guideline development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on original empirical research to investigate popular understandings of prejudice in two national contexts: Poland and the United Kingdom. The paper demonstrates how common-sense meanings of prejudice are inflected by the specific histories and geographies of each place: framed in terms of ‘distance’ (Poland) and ‘proximity’ (United Kingdom), respectively. Yet, by treating these national contexts as nodes and linking them analytically the paper also exposes a connectedness in these definitions which brings into relief the common processes that produce prejudice. The paper then explores how inter-linkages between the United Kingdom and Poland within the wider context of the European Union are producing – and circulating through the emerging international currency of ‘political correctness’ – a common critique of equality legislation and a belief that popular concerns about the way national contexts are perceived to be changing as a consequence of super mobility and super diversity are being silenced. This raises a real risk that in the context of European austerity and associated levels of socioeconomic insecurity, negative attitudes and conservative values may begin to be represented as popular normative standards which transcend national contexts to justify harsher political responses towards minorities. As such, the paper concludes by making a case for prejudice reduction strategies to receive much greater priority in both national and European contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on his appointment as editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Hand Surgery." He acknowledges his predecessors and discusses his plans for the journal. His plans include the expansion of the journal to include contributors from other European countries and the introduction of a podcast discussion of at least one paper in each volume of the journal.

The Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) has garnered intense attention over the past 15 years. We examined the structure of these traits' measure—the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD)—in a sample of 11,488 participants from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., Asia, Middle East, non-Western Europe, South America, sub-Saharan Africa) world regions. The results confirmed the measurement invariance of the DTDD across participants' sex in all world regions, with men scoring higher than women on all traits (except for psychopathy in Asia, where the difference was not significant). We found evidence for metric (and partial scalar) measurement invariance within and between W.E.I.R.D. and non-W.E.I.R.D. world regions. The results generally support the structure of the DTDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A code of ethics for the practice of nursing seeks to capture, in a written document, the normative values, ethical principles and standards of good care to guide nurses – qua moral agents. A codification of the accepted collective values of nursing can play a constitutional and directional role for the profession. It can further stimulate discussions about nursing that reflect the dynamic essence of the profession. Consequently, there is merit to continually reflecting on a code's function and role especially when a new or revised code is introduced to the nursing profession and the wider public such as the European Nursing Council's Code of Ethics and Conduct for European Nursing. This paper examines codes of ethics in general and the European Nursing Council Code in particular using the framework of Gaumnitz and Lere. Although the European Nursing Council Code has all the ingredients of a contemporary professional ethics code, our position is that future iterations or addenda to this Code should be aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and take a more radical step in becoming an exemplar of a nursing code that can be a catalyst for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural fiber-reinforced composites (NFRCs) are expected to find growing applications in near future, especially in Europe where stringent environmental codes are being legislated and public pressure for their enforcement is increasing. Study has shown that NFRCs are also gaining recognition among civil engineers as a viable alternative to traditional materials for use as concrete reinforcement in load-bearing structural members as in building frames and bridge decks. The present review strives to provide a brief overview of NFRCs, state-of-the-art developments in their manufacture, and examples of their structural applications. Another aspect of the review involves investigation of the challenges facing the use of fiber composite materials in civil engineering. These include the high manufacturing costs, difficulties associated with appraisal of its potential benefits, uncertainties about their properties, lack of understanding among civil engineers of the material and its service life, and the relatively small battery of standards developed for the composite industry. Finally, the study will conclude with the prospects of bio-composite applications and the emerging trends in novel bio-composites for future structural applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, an agreement between the key EU institutions--the Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council--was reached after a long-lasting discourse over the 2030 EU climate and energy policy package. This paper offers a comprehensive assessment of the EU package, with its three main targets: lower greenhouse gas emissions, higher renewable share in final energy consumption, and improved energy efficiency. We find that the renewable and energy efficiency targets have been set so high that the derived emissions reduction (50 percent) exceeds the EU climate target (40 percent). Hence, there is no need for an EU climate policy, for example, to use carbon prices to reach the EU climate goals. It is, however, not cost-efficient to achieve the climate target by imposing the three EU targets. We demonstrate that a cost-efficient policy that obtains a 50 percent GHG emissions reduction would increase annual welfare (relative to the Reference scenario) by an amount corresponding to 0.6 percent of GDP in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is a dramatic challenge for Europe: the press has a large influence in determining the opinion climate at this regard. This article investigates how a selection of newspapers in Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy covers the immigration issue from 1 January 2013 to 30 April 2014, before and after the Lampedusa shipwreck on 3 October 2013. Departing from the hypothesis that the media ownership may have a large influence on the content of the news, we investigate 12 different media companies in conjunction with other variables that may affect the coverage of the topic as well. A quantitative content analysis has been first used to derive information from a collection of 2602 articles retrieved through a set of specific keywords from different online database. Afterward, a Multiple Correspondence Analysis has been performed to explore and synthetize the collected information into a small number of 'factors'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the first EU wide analysis of the variation in Capacity Remuneration Requirements throughout Europe which aim to resolve the "missing money" problems in various member states. The findings of this analysis point to an asymmetric investment case for gas-fired peaking power plants throughout the EU. Under the assumptions of the European Commission Reference Scenario, pan-European power optimisation and investment models are specified for 2030. The results show that future investment in gas generators will depend on the availability of capacity payments. Capacity remuneration mechanisms can provide this "missing money," but we show that capacity remuneration requirements vary considerably across countries. We consider and model the impacts of country specific climate policy targets, sovereign risk, capital allowances, corporate taxes and future gas network tariffs on investor returns and therefore remuneration requirements. In the context of harmonised energy trading, this raises questions of how generation adequacy should be achieved, particularly in the context of higher penetrations of renewables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of efforts to harmonize asylum procedures, large unexplained differences in asylum outcomes persist across European Union member states. Unfortunately, relatively little empirical literature has examined the causes of disparities in asylum recognition rates. In this paper, I suggest that domestic politics impact how asylum claims are adjudicated. I analyze origin-specific asylum recognition rates in 27 European Union member states from 2000-2018. The findings show that right-wing parties in government are associated with lower asylum recognition rates. This effect is strongest for far-right parties. When far-right parties gain legislative seats and cabinet positions, there is a substantive reduction in recognized asylum claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on developments related to organizational research. The programme TEMPUS, proposed by the Commission of the European Community and adopted by the Council on May 7th 1990 will provide in the framework of the overall PHARE budget for assistance to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, financial support to promote the quality and support the development of the higher education systems of Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The increasing pace of global change is already providing a powerful challenge for change agents operating as consultants independently or internally to corporations or public utilities. In Europe, however, the challenge is even greater, as the struggle to establish economic and political unity attempts to accommodate the collapse of iron-curtain communism. The 1992 conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Personnel Research seeks research on the management of information systems developers and users.

This article provides the first systematic assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market for immigrant workers in Europe. The authors estimate that in 2020 extra-EU migrants were twice as likely and EU migrants were 1.6 times as likely to experience employment loss relative to comparable natives. To understand the determinants of these large gaps, the article focuses on three job characteristics— essentiality, temporariness, and teleworkability —and documents that migrants were overrepresented among essential, temporary, and low-teleworkable occupations at the onset of the pandemic. The authors estimate that pre-pandemic occupational sorting accounts for 25 to 35% of the explained migrant–native gap in the risk of employment termination, while sorting into industries accounts for the rest of the explained gap. More than half of this gap remains unexplained. Although major employment losses were averted thanks to the massive use of short-time work programs in Europe, migrant workers—particularly extra-EU migrants—suffered from high economic vulnerability during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the emergence of metrosexuals among millennial men in five South-East Europe (SEE) countries and their subculture of consumption. It qualitatively studies their beliefs about masculinity and metrosexuality, and it identifies their purchasing behaviours' of grooming products online and offline by employing digital extended self-theory to provide strategic guidance for marketers and new insights for academics. This qualitative study includes ten semi-structured in-depth interviews and one hundred qualitative open-ended questionnaires. Additionally, it employs netnography to analyze the subculture of consumption of male metrosexuality in two representative blogs. The findings reveal that SEE millennial men embrace a dual identity, a traditional masculine identity, which co-exists with their metrosexuality, creating an emotional conflict as they differ along an accepted to extreme continuum. Metrosexual men are heavy users of personal grooming products favouring online purchasing (1) due to the frequent lack of retail availability in SEE countries and (2) their sense of embarrassment––the underlying emotional conflict. This study directly challenges the existing academic literature, which supports the dominance of traditional masculine identity among developing countries. For both marketers and academics, it presents a different market reality. Metrosexual males show a distinctly different self-identity online from offline. Social media provides them with a safe space, which is often subject to public embarrassment in offline settings. These findings have note-worthy implications for marketing practitioners including communication messaging, social media strategy, brand identity and presence, and product development. They provide insights for both practitioners and academics regarding the subculture of consumption of metrosexuals in the historically macho male-dominated SEE regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the optimal capacity choices of conventional power generators after the introduction of renewable production. We start with a basic and generally accepted model of the liberalized wholesale electricity market in which firms have insufficient incentives to invest and we illustrate how the entry of renewable generation tends to aggravate that problem. We show that the incentives to invest in firm capacity (e.g. conventional thermal plants) may be restored by means of a capacity auction mechanism. That mechanism is vulnerable and, hence, may prove ineffective unless governments can credibly commit not to sponsor the entry of new capacity outside the auction mechanism. We explain that such commitment may be particularly difficult in the current political context where energy policy is conditioned by environmental and industrial-policy goals. We finally propose a way to enhance the credibility of capacity auctions by committing to optimally retire idle (conventional) power plants in response to entry outside the auction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response from the author of an article on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in a 2016 issue is presented.

Energy consumption reduction and energy efficiency improvement are recognized as global priorities in the context of the green economy and sustainable development. In this paper, determinants of energy efficiency and energy consumption for the panel of 11 post-communist countries in the Eastern Europe during 1996-2013 are investigated. The stochastic frontier function approach and comparative analysis were used to examine long-run dynamic relations. The research results show that GDP growth is a key factor increasing both energy efficiency and energy consumption. The research results on energy efficiency relations show that CO2 emissions per capita, a fixed capital and the share of industry in the economy are other important drives. In the context of per capita energy consumption growth, the factors of structural changes determined by industry share in the national economy and innovation concerned with development and implementation of high technologies are significant. The European Union accession and participation in the European energy policy promote to energy efficiency improvements in the post-communist countries while progress in governance and enterprise restructuring as measured by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is not important for energy efficiency and per capita energy consumption in the post-communist countries. According to the research results, energy efficiency policy in the sample countries should be aimed at providing further economic growth enhancing a positive impact of other factors and implementing energy efficiency projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This descriptive scoping aims to understand how the prevalence of cyberbullying has been estimated across studies. A systematic scoping review of cyberbullying empirical studies was conducted by using three bibliographic databases to search for papers published between January 2004 and August 2014. A protocol was defined to identify the relevant papers. Papers selected were included in a data sheet developed by the authors to record specific findings. In total, 159 studies were included in the scoping review. Most of the prevalence studies were conducted in the last 4 years, mainly in North America (n = 77) and in Europe (n = 65). High methodological heterogeneity was found among the studies, which may contribute to explain variability in prevalence estimates. Cyberbullying experiences were assessed through several different perspectives: focused only on victims, focused only on perpetrators, or focused on both victims and perpetrators (without differentiating between if they are victims or perpetrators). Most of the studies tend to assess cybervictimization experiences. However, even considering the same perspective, the same country, and the same recall period, a high variability in the estimates was observed. As a main conclusion, the way in which the prevalence of cyberbullying is estimated is influenced by methodological research options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pissarides and Weber propose using data on income and food consumption for estimating the extent of income underreporting by the self-employed, a group seen to be prone to income underreporting. This paper is the first to investigate the importance of the way in which these households are identified in such analyses. Using household budget data from Estonia, different ways are used to identify households prone to income underreporting and to estimate the extent of the underreporting. The share of unreported income is estimated to be substantially larger when underreporting households are identified using their share of reported business income than when they are identified using their employment status. Further analysis combines the different identification methods and reveals that the employment status provides no information on underreporting when the share of business income is taken into account. The share of reported business income is the most informative indicator of underreporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation examining provision of physical education continuing professional development (CPD) in European countries undertaken to identify the types of practices being employed. We begin by providing a brief overview of what we currently know about CPD internationally in general education and physical education. Data are reported to reflect Parker and Patton's (2017) key characteristics of CPD that highlight effective CPD, summarise current trends and issues in physical education, and are intended to serve as a guide to how teachers learn and how they might be better served in that learning in these European countries. Studying current practices in CPD provision identified in this study provided modest insight to inform teacher education programmes and CPD providers on the current status of physical education CPD currently being employed in Europe. We propose these findings might inform international and comparative education with respect to CPD and set the foundation for physical education colleagues in Europe to develop a CPD network where endeavours such as sharing of CPD practices, engaging in discussion of those practices, and the design of collaborative research on such CPD practices are based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 refugee crisis has held the attention of Romanian news media, as one of the most challenging issues for the European Union in the last decade, even though Romania is not situated on the main routes on which refugees arrive. Our research focuses on the variation of issue-specific news frames in time, according to media type, and by the countries covered, also addressing the locally salient issue of religion. Articles from the websites of the top-ranked six Romanian news outlets were analyzed, including three quality papers and three tabloids (N=6,183), from 1 April 2015 to 30 September 2017. Using a computer-assisted, cluster-based frame analysis, we identify six primary, mutually exclusive and six secondary, nonexclusive frames: European crisis, context/victimization, relocation/distribution, international conflict, and social problem, national costs, religious issues, US immigration policy, humanitarian/international. The variations in their salience follow the general European tendency toward securitization. At the same time, the emphasis on the issue as a European crisis indicates a tendency characteristic of Central and Eastern European media coverage. Co-occurrence patterns of frames and specific countries also indicate that the salience of some globally recurrent frames varies by countries covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity markets are increasingly influenced by variable renewable energy such as wind and solar power, characterized by a pronounced weather-induced variability and imperfect predictability. As a result, the evaluation of the capacity value of variable renewable energy, i.e., its contribution to security of supply, gains importance. This paper develops a new methodology to endogenously determine the capacity value in large-scale investment and dispatch models for electricity markets. The framework allows balancing effects to be accounted for that arise due to the spatial distribution of generation capacities and interconnectors. The practical applicability of the methodology is shown with an application for wind power in Europe. We find that wind power can substantially contribute to security of supply in a decarbonized European electricity system in 2050, with regional capacity values ranging from 1-40%. Analyses that do not account for the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of the contribution of wind power to security of supply therefore lead to inefficient levels of dispatchable back-up capacity. Applying a wind power capacity value of 5% results in an overestimation of firm capacity requirements in Europe by 66 GW in 2050. This translates to additional firm capacity provision costs of 3.8 bn EUR per year in 2050, which represents an increase of 7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New generators located far from consumption centers require transmission infrastructure and increase network losses. The primary objective of this paper is to study signals that affect the location of generation investment. Such signals result from the electricity market itself and from additional regulatory instruments. We cluster them into five groups: locational electricity markets, deep grid connection charges, grid usage charges, capacity mechanisms, and renewable energy support schemes. We review the use of instruments in twelve major power systems and discuss relevant properties, including a quantitative estimate of their strength. We find that most systems use multiple instruments in parallel, and none of the identified instruments prevails. The signals vary between locations by up to 20 EUR per MWh. Such a difference is significant when compared to the levelized costs of combined cycle plants of 64-72 EUR per MWh in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, airport regulation has been generating a lot of interest in Europe, and despite the passing of Airport Charges Directive in 2009, there is ongoing debate on the need for introducing tighter airport regulations. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, acknowledging that regulation is usually applied in markets where competition is weak or absent, we evaluate the ex-ante need for price regulation in the air transport industry. By focusing on the Italian airport industry, our analysis provides evidence of a high level of competitive pressure faced by airports (both inside and outside the industry), suggesting that tighter price regulation may not be the optimal solution. Second, assuming that stricter regulation of the airport industry is necessary, we empirically investigate the applicability of yardstick regulation to the Italian airport system, outlining critical challenges and issues that may arise when applying benchmarking techniques in setting the optimum level of efficiency at regulated airports. According to current literature, applicability of empirical benchmarking techniques requires some basic research requirements to be met, such as high-quality data, a homogeneous production function, and a sufficient number of comparable observations. We find that both heterogeneity and the relatively small number of comparable airports, along with the complexity of gathering proper data, may compromise the applicability of a regulation scheme based on yardstick principles at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, votes registered by parties with a high anti-elite and anti-European salience are mapped, in order to identify potential geographical patterns in European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the policy paper entitled "State Aid and the Credit Crunch" that was published in Europe in April 2008. He says that it aimed at affecting the policy stance of Directorate General (DG) of Competition at the European Commission (EU), but it did not respond to the paper. He also stresses that the global banking crisis have implications for economic development projects and the supply of finance for small businesses across Europe is disappearing.

A key challenge for public criminology is the translation between concepts employed in policy discourse and those used by social scientists. Given that concepts constitute social problems and they can have multiple meanings for policy-makers and social scientists, then deliberation about what they signify matters in understanding how these actors can talk to, rather than past, one another in framing policy discourse about crime and revealing alternative policy agendas. This challenge is accentuated in the comparative context of European criminology, which is characterized by competing tendencies to generalize about problems of ‘Freedom, Security and Justice’ and to recognize the variegated problems and cultures of control across Europe. In this context, the presumption of universality can mistranslate concepts of crime and control by obscuring contextual insight, while the presumption of particularity can inhibit cross-cultural dialogue and deliberation. The paper explores this challenge in relation to the concept of ‘urban security’, which is prevalent in the policy discourse on social crime prevention, particularly in Central and Southern Europe. To establish the provenance, prevalence and significance of this concept, the paper discusses findings from a policy Delphi that structured deliberation about the meaning of urban security among criminologists sampled from the European Society of Criminology and policy-makers sampled from the European Crime Prevention Network. It concludes with reflections on the value of deliberative methods, such as the policy Delphi, for the cross-cultural validation of criminological constructs in comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and renewable-energy promotion, the prevailing view on China-EU relations is one of conflict rather than cooperation. In order to evaluate the prospects of cooperation between China and the EU in these policy fields, empirical research has to go beyond simplistic narratives. This paper suggests a conceptual apparatus that will help researchers better understand the complexities of the real world. The relevant actors operate at different levels and in the public and private sectors. The main message of the paper is that combining the multilevel governance and value-chain approaches helps clarify the multiple relationships between these actors [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shifts discussion on social diversity from ethnic diversity to broader social diversity. We explore spatial social diversity and assess opportunities to encounter diversity in an urban context. In doing so, we prepared a description of diversity in the residential communities of two cities, Leeds and Warsaw, using census data for small areas (UK 2001, Poland 2002). Selected variables were used to represent the key social dimensions of difference: demographic, socioeconomic, ethnic, and disability. A cluster analysis using a k-means algorithm was implemented for each city separately and for the two cities combined using harmonized indicators. We selected eight cluster solutions for each city which had diff erent profiles and spatial distributions. A combined cluster analysis showed that there was little overlap in community types across the two cities. The paper illustrates that Leeds and Warsaw residents experience very different opportunities to encounter difference which need to be taken into account when local diversity policies are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the accommodation of renewable energy and privatisation of electric supply industry in Europe. It states that the energy accommodation would incur big costs, while the industry privatization would allow the industry to become competitive, diverse, and would prompt low electricity prices. The article also discusses consequences of the privatization, electric generation technologies, and electric supply network in Great Britain.

Objective Analysing trends in population breast cancer mortality statistics appears a simple method of estimating the effectiveness of mammographic screening programmes. We reviewed such studies of population-based screening in Europe to assess their value. Methods A literature review identified 17 papers, of which 12 provided quantitative estimates of the impact of screening. Due to differences in comparisons and outcome measures, no pooled estimate of effectiveness was calculated. Results Comparisons included breast cancer mortality before and after the introduction of screening, trends in early and late starting areas and trends in age groups affected and unaffected by screening. Studies that calculated the percentage annual change after the start of screening found reductions of 1-9% per year (1%, 2.3-2.8% and 9% for those with adequate follow-up). Of studies that compared mortality in time periods before and after introduction of screening, three single country studies all had adequate follow-up and estimated mortality reductions ranging from 28% to 36%. Limitations of studies of population mortality rates include the inability to exclude deaths in women with breast cancer diagnosed before invitation to screening, diluting any observable impact of screening, and the gradual implementation of screening in a country or region. Conclusions Although analysing population breast cancer mortality rates over time can be a first step in examining changes following the introduction of screening, this method is of limited value for assessment of screening impact. Other methods and individual data are necessary to properly quantify the effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border trade remains a contentious issue in the restructuring of the European electricity market. This paper analyzes the cross-border trade problem through a set of models that represent different degrees of coordination both between the energy and the transmission markets and among national Transmission System Operators (TSOs). We first present a nodal price-like organization of the system, where Power Exchanges (PXs) and Transmission System Operators are integrated to operate the energy and transmission markets. This system is not implemented in Europe but its success elsewhere makes it the natural reference for the study. We then move to a more realistic representation of the European electricity market based on the so-called market coupling design where energy and transmission are operated separately by PXs and TSOs. We consider different degrees of coordination of the national TSOs' activities to assess the range of inefficiencies that the lack of integration can lead to. The paper supposes price taking agents and hence leaves aside the incentive to game the system induced by zonal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates in migration studies have emphasized the importance of attending to the urban as part of an effort to respatialize the study of mobility and transnationalism. This paper critically expands on these interventions through a more detailed engagement with ideas of relationality and territoriality moving beyond permanent settlement to consider temporary migrants, and considering urban centres outside North America and Europe through discussion of cities in the Asia-Pacific. The paper discusses two potential avenues towards a more sophisticated conceptualization of transnational mobilities and urban spatialities: moving beyond rupture in analysis of migrant settlement, and interrogating transnational and urban mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As part of a larger European Union (EU)-funded project, this paper investigates the coverage of corruption and related topics in three European democracies: France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Based on Freedom House data, these countries are characterized by different levels of press freedom. A large corpus of newspaper articles (107,248 articles) from the period 2004 to 2013 were analyzed using dedicated software. We demonstrate that freedom of press is not the only dimension that affects the ability to and the way in which news media report on corruption. Because of its political partisanship, the Italian press tends to emphasize and dramatize corruption cases involving domestic public administrators and, in particular, politicians. The British coverage is affected mainly by market factors, and the press pays more attention to cases occurring abroad and in sport. The French coverage shares specific features with both the British and the Italian coverage: Newspapers mainly focus on corruption involving business companies and foreign actors, but they also cover cases involving domestic politicians. Media market segmentation, political parallelism, and media instrumentalization determine different representations preventing the establishment of unanimously shared indignation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report and analyse, for 83 European cities, the share of respondents aged 65 years or older agreeing that the city where they live is a good place to live for elderly people. Results contribute to identify common patterns and inform policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review of the current state of the Carbon Capture, Transport and Storage (CCTS) technology, this paper analyzes the layout and costs of a potential CO2 infrastructure in Europe at the horizon of 2050. We apply the mixedinteger model CCTS-Mod to compute a CCTS infrastructure network for Europe, examining the effects of different CO2 price paths with different regional foci. Scenarios assuming low CO2 certificate prices lead to hardly any CCTS development in Europe. The iron and steel sector starts deployment once the CO2 certificate prices exceed 50 €/tCO2. The cement sector starts investing at a threshold of 75 €/tCO2, followed by the electricity sector when prices exceed 100 €/tCO2. The degree of CCTS deployment is found to be more sensitive to variable costs of CO2 capture than to investment costs. Additional revenues generated from utilizing CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (CO2 -EOR) in the North Sea would lead to an earlier adoption of CCTS, independent of the CO2 certificate price; this case may become especially relevant for the UK, Norway and the Netherlands. However, scattered CCTS deployment increases unit cost of transport and storage infrastructure by 30% or more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of the European electricity transmission network for different policy scenarios at the horizon 2050. We apply a bottomup techno-economic electricity sector model to determine transformation scenarios of the European electricity sector. It has a very detailed spatial disaggregation that allows for a fine representation of domestic and international electricity flows and transmission expansion. The cost-minimizing mixed-integer model calculates investments for time steps of ten years. The model results indicate that network requirements are lower than generally assumed. The largest share are domestic upgrades, rather than country interconnectors. Most investments (20bn EUR) occur in the near future, by 2030 the latest. Only the high-mitigation scenarios require large additional network investments. The timing and location of investments differ, depending on generation scenarios and cost assumptions for interconnectors. The results indicate that carbon emission reduction targets alone provide insufficient information for long-term network planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse infrastructure needs of the European natural gas market in response to decarbonisation of the European energy system. To this end, we use numerical modelling and apply the Global Gas Model. We investigate three pathways of future natural gas consumption: i) a decreasing natural gas consumption, following the scenarios of the EU Energy Roadmap 2050; ii) a moderate increase of natural gas consumption, along the lines of the IEA's New Policies Scenario; and iii) a temporary increase of natural gas use as a "bridge" technology, followed by a strong decrease after 2030. Our results show that current import infrastructure and intra-European transit capacity are sufficient to accommodate future import needs in all scenarios. This is despite a pronounced reduction of domestic production and a strong increase in import dependency. However, due to strong demand in Asia, Europe must increasingly rely on exports from Africa and the Caspian region, leading to new infrastructure capacity from these regions. When natural gas serves as a "bridge" technology, short-term utilisation rates of LNG import capacity temporarily increase instead of instigating large scale pipeline expansions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]