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Lomborg's (2001) book has generated passionate discussion about the state of the global environment. We performed a bibliometric evaluation of the peer-reviewed primary scientific literature to determine whether there is any consistent evidence that "things are getting better." The global literature primarily reported negative impacts on biodiversity caused by human actions, although Europe appeared to be doing better than the rest of the world. These results cannot be explained by publication bias alone because rejection rates of papers indicating improvements in the environment would have to be unrealistically high to change our results. There were nonrandom distributions of papers showing environmental recovery in developed countries and for ecosystems not strongly subjected to conservation-development conflicts. Although the literature did not paint a picture of universal gloom, the empirical evidence clearly showed growing environmental crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Human Rights Act 1998 came fully into force on 2 October 2000, enabling the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be relied on directly in our domestic courts.1 The Act lacked provision for a Human Rights Commission to advise and assist alleged victims in bringing proceedings for breaches of Convention rights, to research, intervene in court proceedings, and promote a culture of human rights, although such a Commission had been created for Northern Ireland. A White Paper has now been issued outlining plans for a Commission for Equality and Human Rights. This paper considers the future role and potential impact of the Commission and highlights opportunities that have been missed since October 2000 in its absence. We focus on its human rights aspects and summarize key conditions for the new Commission's success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the competitive strength and weaknesses of unifying and enlarging Europe in the global economy are examined. The focus is on people at work, their skills, and competencies. The idea of flexibility-based competition is developed implicating product and services portfolios, technologies, volumes, quality standards, distribution networks, and development cycles. Flexibility calls for speed maximizing management and special work force and labor markets characteristics. A new employment policy should change European labor markets making them more flexible and enabling “high-speed management.” People able to adjust to flexible labor markets are described as “niche finders.” Those who are equipped to excel in such markets and to win the competition game are presented in this paper as “top performers.” Educational systems and particularly management education and development have to undergo deep restructuring to meet the challenge. An outline of new management education is provided. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 15: 35–47, 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving from Michel Foucault's criticism, in the mid-1970s, of a‘theory of the State’, this paper addresses the relevance—for the current process of making the‘Constitution’ of the European Union—of the obsolescence of the state concept and the emergence instead, in the course of the twentieth-century, of an idea of‘social control’ as a way to represent conditions for social order within the new mass democratic society. Such conditions, and the theory thereof, first developed in North America, and then increasingly in Europe after World War II and especially since the 1970s. From such a comparative-historical perspective, the paper then tries to shed light on the debate that was ignited by Dieter Grimm on the very possibility of a‘democratic constitutionalisation’ of Europe. The connections between language, social control, and a (democratic) European constitution are then discussed, and specific attention is given to the nexus that has been constructed in today's Europe between migration, criminalisation and security, as a sort of test bench of those connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated in the context of recent geographical engagements with ‘landscape’, this paper combines ‘morphological’ and ‘iconographic’ landscape interpretations to examine how urban forms were perceived in late medieval Europe. To date, morphological studies have mapped the medieval city either by classifying urban layouts according to particular types, or by analysing plan forms of particular towns and cities to reveal their spatial evolution. This paper outlines a third way, an ‘iconographic’ approach, which shows how urban forms in the Middle Ages conveyed Christian symbolism. Three such ‘mappings’ explore this thesis: the first uses textual and visual representations which show that the city was understood as a scaled-down world - a microcosm - linking city and cosmos in the medieval mind; the second ‘mapping’ develops this theme further and suggests that urban landscapes were inscribed with symbolic form through their layout on the ground; while the third looks at how Christian symbolism of urban forms was performed through the urban landscape in perennial religious processions. Each of these ‘mappings’ points to the symbolic, mystical significance urban form had in the Middle Ages, based on religious faith, and they thus offer a deepened appreciation of how urban landscapes were represented, constructed and experienced at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the adoption of a number of Community regulations, each for a specific sector, to be implemented not just by a supranational administration (central or peripheral), but by a plurality of national, supranational and sometimes mixed authorities, with a special role assigned to a Community office set up by the same legislation for a given sector, and granting it legal personality. The purpose of this paper is to verify whether the various regulations by sector ought not to be regarded as variants of an emergent general model of joint exercise of certain Community functions. It is argued that such general model is still in the making, but it is in the process of becoming consolidated, notwithstanding the variety of approaches adopted by European legislators. Such a pattern is characterised by specific, differentiated organisational and procedural features. This conclusion is relevant in several different ways, the first of which is that it provides new conceptual tools for interpreting and explaining the process of administrative integration between supranational and national public authorities, in particular by specifying the taxonomy of the patterns through which a Community function can be carried out by two different authorities acting jointly. Second, the decentralised integration model should be considered as a sound and feasible option for the administrative evolution of the Community legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the influence of ecofeminism on policy concerning gender (in)equality and the environment during the past 20 years. It reviews the broad contours of the ecofeminist debate before focusing on the social construction interpretation of women's relationship with the environment. It will argue that there have been substantial policy shifts in Europe and the UK in both the environmental and equalities fields, and that this is in part a result of lobbying at a range of scales by groups informed by ecofeminist debates. Nevertheless, the paper cautions that these shifts are largely incremental and operate within existing structures, which inevitably limit their capacity to create change. As policy addresses some of the concerns highlighted by ecofeminism, academic discourse and grass roots activity have been moving on to address other issues, and the paper concludes with a brief consideration of contemporary trajectories of ecofeminism and campaigning on issues that link women's, feminist and environment concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore some of the public affairs principles involved in the EU mergers and acquisitions regulatory process, which affects most corporate restructuring of a European scope. Following a brief overview of the EU merger review process and the main role of public affairs in such cases, the paper explores some of the more sensitive issues that demand public affairs activities, and issues that are raised by public affairs activities. The paper focuses on the open nature of the EU merger review process, which allows for wide consultation; the imperfections within the EU merger review process, which lead to confusion as to where the exact point of decision lies; and the fact that the process is only quasi-legal, so that competition policy and industrial policy considerations may filter into the regulator's assessment. The impact of politics is also explored; from high-profile political interventions to low-key political negotiations. Finally, there is a review of the perception of lobbying and the question of the legitimacy of the public affairs discipline in the context of EU merger control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models externalities of production across regional economies. Under the assumption that knowledge diffuses without political or administrative barriers, we derive externalities that affect the steady state and the process of growth of each economy. The empirical counterpart of the reduced form equation summarizing the process of growth allows us to test for the presence of regional spillovers and to measure their magnitude. Our results for a sample of European regions show that spillovers are far from negligible, are robust to the consideration of variables within each region, and may cause nondecreasing returns at the spatial aggregate level. The paper also relates previous empirical evidence on spatial dependence in growth studies to the externalities modeled here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerial photography for archaeology has been developing its approaches and techniques over the past 100 years so that it now integrates the results of reconnaissance with extensive interpretative and analytical surveys. This paper introduces the philosophy and approach of the English Heritage (EH) Aerial Survey team, covering aerial reconnaissance and the National Mapping Programme (NMP), as well as the potential developments and opportunities in Europe. In the 1980s there was a debate over the nature of the evidence derived from aerial photographs, especially how to describe archaeological features. As part of NMP a classification and recording system has been devised which meets most of the users’ needs, be they national organisations, county archaeologists, commercial contractors or university-based researchers. The maps and records produced by NMP are used to further our understanding of the past human settlement in England, not only at the individual site level, but also in regional or landscape contexts. This paper provides an overview of the current progress of NMP and acts as an entrée for explaining the current research and recording of archaeological landscapes throughout Europe. Recent developments in Britain and Europe have provided the opportunity for a greater priority to be given to aerial survey and accelerating programmes of mapping. In Europe the ending of the cold war has allowed greater access to aerial photographs and the possibility of beginning new reconnaissance, as well as introducing new forms of remote sensing. All these developments have led to a transformation of our understanding of prehistoric, Roman and medieval archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Parliament has often been understood along the lines of theories of European integration—compared to regular parliaments by Federalists or belittled as merely an international assembly by intergovernmentalists. This paper proposes an understanding of the European Parliament not along theories about what the EU should become, but what it is and surely will continue to be, that is a very distinct federal structure. The European Parliament is a parliament in an executive federalism—with farreaching consequences for its form and functions. After outlining the characteristics of this federal structure, these consequences will be demonstrated by analyzing the European Parliament in contrast with two ideal types of parliaments: the working parliament, separated from the executive branch and centered around strong committees (like the US Congress), and the debating parliament, characterized by the fusion of parliamentary majority and government as well as plenary debates (like the British House of Commons). Dwelling thus on a comparison to a legislature in a non-parliamentary federal system, like the US Congress, this paper argues that the European Parliament might best be understood as a special case of a working parliament. Finally, it will be proposed to consider the influence of executive federalism not only as fundamentally shaping the European Parliament but also as rendering the EU generally a semi-parliamentary democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the impact of EC law on the legal status of national powers has been fairly well examined, little attention has been paid to the overall evaluation of the relations developed between national authorities. The paper argues that the mutation of the Judiciary and the Executive role vis-à-vis the Legislature appears to be an application of an emerging doctrine in EC public law that conspicuously resembles the 'Checks and Balances' theory of American constitutionalism. The action of one public authority is— or must be—countered by the reaction of another for the benefit of EC law. Apart from identifying the features of this 'principle' in comparison to its equivalent American doctrine, the paper deals with the question of a possible coexistence of this new model of governance with the traditional one. The comparative perspective is necessary here. Whereas in Germany the constitutional model appears to cope with European demands, in France it seems largely opposed to such a dynamic conception of the separation of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 100 leaders of European professional and lay bodies, representatives of the World Health Organisation, and health experts from governments and universities came together in 1998 to discuss and adopt a European Declaration on Epilepsy. As part of the Declaration, member States were urged to support the publication of a "White Paper" as a detailed public health statement on epilepsy in Europe. Consequently, in response to the European Declaration on Epilepsy, a number of experts and professional bodies from across Europe have been drawn together to produce the "European White Paper on Epilepsy."

In early 1990s Greece became one of the prime destination countries for the migrant peoples of the collapsing regimes of the Balkan and Eastern European countries, experiencing, thus, a historical reversal of the massive exodus, in the 1950s and 1960s, of Greeks to the labour markets of Germany, Australia and the USA. This historical reversal seems to identify a pattern that is common to the Southern European countries. Over the last ten years, immigrant population has grown to attain approximately one tenth of the population of Greece. This development occurs at a time when pressures are being exerted on agricultural incomes following the reform of the CAP and subsequent evidencing of the first consequences of market liberalization in the context of a globalizing international economy. This paper aims at analyzing and interpreting the main findings of an empirical research programme on the economic and social implications of migrant settlement and employment in rural Greece. The research was carried out in three paradigmatic regions of the country: a) in a mountainous, less favoured region, b) in a region with dynamic agriculture, and c) in an insular region of agricultural and tourist development. The paper draws from a qualitative study of administrators and opinion leaders. It is divided into four parts: the first part presents the main elements of migration in rural Southern Europe in the frame of what is known as the South European model of migration. The second part discusses migration towards Greece and reviews research work relating to rural migration. With reference to methodology and the main research hypotheses, the third part presents the analysis of empirical findings concentrating on the importance of migrant labour for the operation of the farm and rural restructuring followed by a discussion of the position and role of migrants in rural society and development. The final part summarizes the main conclusions of this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the space-time dynamics of European regional per capita GDP. A sample of 138 European regions over the 1980–1995 period provides clear evidence of global and local spatial autocorrelation as well as spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of regional per capita GDP. The detection of spatial clusters of high and low per capita GDP throughout the period is an indication of the persistence of spatial disparities among European regions. The dynamism of European regions is investigated by exploring the spatial pattern of regional growth. Implications for applied econometric work on the convergence of European regions are then suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing public spending, new accountability measures and calls for broader ranges of services to society have combined to encourage the reorganisation of European universities. Universities are asked to restructure themselves along lines suggested by corporate management. This paper examines this proposal by looking at four management models in the light of new and traditional universities. The paper discusses the principle of ‘heterarchical organising’, which has emerged spontaneously within the university, and argues that this appears to be a more appropriate model for university organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the latest information on both stocks and flows of migrants in Europe, focusing specifically on arrivals from developing countries. It starts out by setting this into its historical context by showing how flows of labour migrants were followed by flows of family members, and later by asylum seekers and refugees. Then it looks more closely at recent migration data, though it finds these to be frequently incomplete and inconsistent. The most comparable cross-national data come from the OECD and Eurostat, which indicate that Germany had the largest flows of migrants in the 1990s followed by the United Kingdom. In addition to these arrivals there are probably between 2 and 3 million undocumented immigrants in Europe — accounting for 10 to 15 per cent of the total population of foreigners. The paper also traces the countries from where immigrants are leaving. Sources vary considerably from one immigration country to another, reflecting a number of factors, of which the most important are former colonial links, previous areas of labour recruitment, and ease of entry from neighbouring countries. In recent years, however, immigrants have been coming from a wider range of countries and particularly from lowerincome countries. The paper also examines changes in immigration policy. National policies were fairly liberal during the 1950s and 1960s, before becoming more restrictive from the 1970s on. Recently, however, a number of governments have been revising their policies to take better account of employment and demographic needs. The paper also traces the emergence of a cross-national European response to immigration, as European Union (EU) countries have become more concerned about their common external frontier. Thus far European countries have done little to try to control migration through cooperation with sending countries. They could, for example, direct Official Development Assistance to those countries most likely to send immigrants,... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A research project about labwork at Upper secondary and Undergraduate levels was launched in 1996, funded by the European Commission. Seven research groups from six European countries participated in the surveys at European scale and carried out a number of case-studies. This common work allowed numerous discussions which, months later, permit to articulate renewed directions of research about labwork. In this paper, new research questions are presented, drawing upon the outcomes of the project. One of them was to disclose numerous potential objectives which can be aimed for in a laboratory. This means that conscious choices must be taken among objectives. These are studied in this paper under the three classical headings of conceptual/epistemological/procedural objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuro-oncology is a growing new subspeciality with a strong interdisciplinary character. This position paper explains the role of neurology in the multidisciplinary field of neurosurgeons, radiotherapists and general oncologists, dealing with neuro-oncological patients. The paper delineates the varied spectrum of the field of neuro-oncology which expands from primary brain tumours, to metastatic and non-metastatic effects of systemic cancer on the central and peripheral nervous system, neurotoxicity due to cancer treatment and issues of quality of life. It has been written by the scientific neuro-oncology panel of the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) to delineate the situation of neuro-oncology in Europe, and facilitate the understanding and implementation of this subspeciality in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional identity has become an important category in the ‘Europe of regions’, and one that is often taken as self-evident in the relations between a group of people and a bounded region. The movement of people, capital and information across spatial boundaries that takes place in the contemporary world challenges the supposed harmonious link between regions and people on all spatial scales. This paper analyses the meanings of region and identity, and the links between them. Regions are understood as historically contingent structures whose institutionalisation is based on their territorial, symbolic and institutional shaping. Regional identity is understood as an abstraction that can be used to analyse the links between social actors and the institutionalisation process. This paper suggests that an analytical distinction between the identity of a region and the regional identity of its inhabitants, i.e. regional consciousness, is useful for problematising these links. The conceptual arguments will be illustrated with analyses of identity discourses related to Finnish regions and of the mobility of the Finns between regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some models purported to legitimise a European supranational legal order. In particular, the author focuses on an application of the so-called regulatory model to the complex structure of the European Community and the European Union. First of all, he tackles the very concept of legitimacy, contrasting it with both efficacy and efficiency. Secondly, he summarises the most prominent positions in the long-standing debate on the sources of legitimation for the European Community. Thirdly, in this perspective, he analyses several, sometimes contradictory, notions of the rule of law. His contention is that we can single out five fundamental notions of the rule of law and that some but not all of them are incompatible with or oppose democracy. Finally, the paper addresses the regulatory model as a possible application of the rule of the law to the European supranational order. The conclusion is that the regulatory model should be rejected if it is presented as an alternative to classical democratic thought, though it might be fruitful if reshaped differently and no longer assessed from a functionalist standpoint of deliberation.** [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds in its first sections to a series of articles in which Rainer Schmalz-Bruns developed a concept of legitimate governance beyond the constitutional state, which he called ‘deliberative supranationalism’ and contrasted with what Jürgen Neyer and the present author had suggested under the same title. The Epilogue of the paper first comments on more recent critiques brought forward especially by contributors to this Special Issue of the ELJ and then on the programmatic rejection of comitology by the European Commission’s White Paper on Governance in the EU. Our querelles allemandes were not specifically Teutonic: while Schmalz-Bruns presented his approach as a systematic elaboration of the theories of deliberative democracy, based, in particular, on recent contributions by Joshua Cohen, Michael Dorf, and Charles Sabel, Jürgen Neyer and I had offered an interpretation of institutional innovations and decision-making practices as observed in the European market-building project. This discussion has had precursors and follow-ups in various contexts, among both lawyers and political scientists. This essay should hence be understood as a contribution to an ongoing debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichophyton raubitschekii is a rare dermatophyte which belongs to the Trichophyton rubrum species complex. Since 1981, only a few cases of dermatophytosis due to this anthropophilic causative agent were published. In this paper the authors report the first cases of Tinea corporis caused by Trichophyton raubitschekii (syn. T. rubrum) in Europe. The patients, one immigrant from Ghana and three from Cameroon, had typical lesions of tinea corporis. Four strains were isolated and characterized by conventional and molecular methods. On morphological and physiological grounds the isolates were identified as T. raubitschekii by the following phenotypical features: (1) velvety colony texture; (2) brown pigment; (3) abundant macroconidia and (4) positive urease activity. Molecular diagnostics were performed by single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and sequence analysis of the ATPase9 intron of the mitochondrial (mt) DNA and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rDNA, respectively. The ITS sequences and SSCP patterns of the ATPase9 intron were found to be identical among the four strains and also when compared to reference strains of T. rubrum. As shown in the present paper, T. raubitschekii is genetically identical to T. rubrum but differs in some phenotypical characteristics. Since misidentification with other dark-coloured dermatophyte variants is possible, medical mycologists should bear in mind the special morphological characteristics of T. raubitschekii (syn. T. rubrum) for future identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. This paper is an introduction to a special issue of Freshwater Biology containing papers dealing with various aspects of the ecology of glacier-fed rivers. 2. Using similar field protocols, a wide range of glacier-fed systems were studied across Europe from the French Pyrenees to Svalbard within the framework of the European Commission project, Arctic and Alpine Stream Ecosystem Research (AASER). Recent investigations from other parts of Europe together with New Zealand and Greenland are also reported. This work has advanced our knowledge of the functioning of these types of rivers and has led to the modification and quantification of the conceptual model of Milner & Petts (1994). 3. Glacier-fed rivers, by virtue of the dominance of physical variables in shaping macroinvertebrate communities, are not only good indicators of climate change, but also may be suitable testing grounds for examining ecological concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness remains a neglected component of rural studies in Britain and Europe. Research has tended to skirt around the subject, focusing either on groups in need located within rural housing markets or on those people experiencing rural poverty living within conventional properties. In this paper we want to connect homelessness with rurality by drawing on key findings from recently completed research on rural homelessness in England. We want to make connections between homelessness and rurality in two main ways. Firstly, given the limited knowledge base on rural homelessness, we set out the overall extent and profile of homelessness in rural England based on an analysis of unpublished official statistics. We also highlight how homelessness in rural England is bound up with a great deal of spatial unevenness and suggest that it is through localized investigation that important connections between homelessness and rurality can be best understood. In the second part of the paper, we draw on findings from local research conducted in two rural districts in Gloucestershire to provide a range of evidence that points to the significance of the local spaces of rural homelessness. In particular, this work demonstrates the ways in which local structures of housing provision and socio-cultural and political processes in these districts impact on the nature and experiences of rural homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this era of globalisation community psychologists have to examine how globalisation patterns interact with local cultural norms, to find tools to promote a sense of community that fits a particular context. We cannot therefore acritically adopt for many European contexts, community psychology concepts and intervention strategies geared to USA values. The paper argues for the need to develop a European perspective in Community Psychology, built more on the European tradition of political concern for promoting social capital, besides an individual's freedom and autonomy. The paper attempts to identity some of the main differences that have emerged in the last decades between USA and European approaches to community psychology. It also describes two empowering tools, which integrate traditional and post modern views of science: community profiling and multidimensional organisational analysis, that have been used by European community psychologists to rebuild social capital in organisations and local communities. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the decline in the labor force participation rates of elderly workers at the end of their working lives? Why have governments been unable to revert towards early exit from the labor market? This paper provides ah actor-centered analysis of the development of early retirement, highlighting the political negotiation among unions, employers, and governments over the distribution of the costs of these measures and the division of control over the initiation of these policies. By analyzing developments in France and Germany, the paper points to the failure of these negotiations to arrive at policy outcomes that close off the labor shedding of large firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various articles published in the May 2001 issue of the "Journal of Community Psychology." Papers in this special issue represent psychological research that has taken place on four continents: North America, South America, Europe, and the Middle East, across inner city, urban, rural, and refugee camp populations, and within stable, less stable, and newly forming nations. In all cases, however, investigators have focused on effects of violence on children. These papers range in focus from abuse and conflict within the home and family, to neighborhood and community levels of violence, and national levels of upheaval and conflict in Chile and the Palestinian territories. In addition, the commentary by author James Garbarino also provides a national and international perspective.

In the past decade, political elites in Central and Eastern Europe have often sought to imitate Western organizational and institutional models, while organizations like the EU and NATO have often acted as "institutional tutors" in the region. Using evidence from Hungary and the Czech Republic, this paper demonstrates why imitating Western structures has been both administratively expedient and useful in building political coalitions. It also stresses that the short-term benefits of doing so are followed by longer-term costs. The paper answers four questions: How have certain models been held up to CEE elites? Why might some such models be targets for elites to imitate? How does such imitation occur? And what results from imitation? Contrary to expectations that institutional modeling would be merely technocratic and used only yearly in the transformation, the paper's threefold heuristic of templates, thresholds, and adjustments shows that the process is both politically contentious and sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This supplement includes a collection of papers that aim at estimating the relationship between per capita alcohol consumption and various forms of mortality, including mortality from liver cirrhosis, accidents, suicide, homicide, ischaemic heart disease, and total mortality. The papers apply a uniform methodological protocol, and they are all based on time series data covering the post-war period in the present EU countries and Norway. In this paper we discuss various methodological and analytical issues that are common to these papers. We argue that analysis of time series data is the most feasible approach for assessing the aggregate health consequences of changes in population drinking. We further discuss how aggregate data may also be useful for judging the plausibility of individual-level relationships, particularly those prone to be confounded by selection effects. The aggregation of linear and curvilinear risk curves is treated as well as various methods for dealing with the time-lag problem. With regard to estimation techniques we find country specific analyses preferable to pooled cross-sectional/time series models since the latter incorporate the dubious element of geographical co-variation, and conceal potentially interesting variations in alcohol effects. The approach taken in the papers at hand is instead to pool the country specific results into three groups of countries that represent different drinking cultures; traditional wine countries of southern Europe, beer countries of central Europe and the British Isles and spirits countries of northern Europe. The findings of the papers reinforce the central tenet of the public health perspective that overall consumption is an important determinant of alcohol-related harm rates. However, there is a variation across country groups in alcohol effects, particularly those on violent deaths, that indicates the potential importance of drinking patterns. There is no support for the notion that increases in per capita consumption have any cardioprotective effects at the population level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German discourse on the future role of the state is currently at the turn of the millennium is I dominated by the joint paper by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, ‘Europe: The Third Way/ Die Neue Mitte’ (Blair & Schröder 1999). Using the crisis of the post-war Fordist mode of regulation as a background, various concepts of the restructuring of the State and society are discussed. This paper intends to show that the prevailing dominant social democratic restructuring discourse is rooted in a number of important elements in preceding conservative and neo-liberal discourses about the future of society and the State. The notion of desolidarisation is identified as the common denominator of conservative and neo-liberal approaches as well as the ‘Third Way’ (Neue Mitte). To cope with growing social inequality it is argued j that only a new European political project that re-animates solidarity and sustainability is viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the introduction to a TESG ‘dossier’ on regulation and discourse in Europe. Regulation is explained as a set of social adjustments motivated by the economy, or its crises, but not always clearly related to its performance. By way of supplement to the other papers in this issue, special attention is paid to the Netherlands. Regulation hi the Netherlands is a product of self-regulation and balancing induced by the comparative weakness' of the different social and political actors (interest groups). Finally some conclusions are drawn about the reactions to the neo-liberal challenge in the countries dealt with in this special issue: the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands. The author argues that the differences in regulatory discourse reflect differences in political tradition and culture in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a clinical exchange programme that formed part of a pre-registration European nursing degree run by three collaborating institutions in England, Holland and Spain. The course included: common and shared learning including two summer schools; and the development of a second language before the students went on a three-month clinical placement in one of the other base institutions' clinical environments. The aim of the course was to enable students to become culturally sensitive carers. This was achieved by developing a programme based on transcultural nursing principles in theory and practice. Data were gathered by interview, focus groups, and questionnaires from 79 exchange students, fostering the strategies of illuminative evaluation. The paper examines: how the aims of the course were met; the factors that inhibited the attainment of certain goals; and how the acquisition of a second language influenced the students' learning about nursing. A model is presented to illustrate the process of transformative learning from the exchange experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration to Europe increasingly emerges as a core security concern. In response to these growing anxieties the external border of Schengen space of free movement of people was established to limit uncontrolled immigration to the European Union. Yet, looking closely at how this border works in Lampedusa and its surrounding seawaters, one realizes the functioning of the European external border works to undermine the legitimacy of institutions on the island, de facto challenging law enforcement both on the island as well as at sea. Based on the data collected during the six-months-long fieldwork that I conducted on the island, this paper disentangles the complex machinery of the border as it structures in Lampedusa, and presents how such complex governing technology works through authorities' strategic use of local land and seawaters and their simultaneous neglect for the concerns of the population inhabiting them - representing a major source of insecurity for islanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper claims the existence of one of the most large‐scale travelling waves ever recorded for any animal population. Here we address why conceptual and methodological pitfalls may have served to exaggerate or even impose the spatial patterns reported. Photo credit: Jane U. Jepsen [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the spatial distribution of seat capacity in the EU from 1990 to 2009 and sheds light on the contrasting results in the literature. It contributes to the debate on the deregulation and whether the rise of hub-and-spoke networks and the success of low-cost carriers lead to concentration or deconcentration. We use the Gini index and its decomposition to evaluate the contribution of airport subgroups and airline networks to the overall concentration of seat capacity. We conclude that, overall, seat capacity follows a spatial deconcentration pattern. While intra- EU seat capacity became more spatially deconcentrated, extra- EU seat capacity concentrated. However, our results do not support the general view that network carriers tend to increase concentration levels and low-cost carriers to decrease them, leading us to a reinterpretation of the impacts of air transport deregulation. The results show the increasing importance of foreign carriers and new strategies such as hub-bypassing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between the public funding systems of higher education in Italy and the Netherlands and their universities' performances. Empirically, an efficiency analysis on 13 Dutch and 58 Italian public universities is conducted. The findings show that the relative efficiency of Italian and Dutch universities is strongly influenced by the policy perspective adopted. If the goal is to realise the European goals and minimise resources employed for obtaining a high number of graduates, Dutch universities turn out to be more efficient. However, Italian universities are much more efficient if the priority is to minimise the costs for a given level of activity, such as number of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The therapeutic landscape for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been rapidly evolving, and by 2016 there will be six approved, all-oral regimens for use in patients in the USA and most of Western Europe. However, as many as patient populations will have limited access to new direct acting antiviral regimens, patients and physicians are often faced with the challenge of selecting the best regimen available, as opposed to the optimal treatment. In this paper, the challenges and opportunities in developing a high cure regimen for different patient populations will be discussed and highlighted through case-based scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim A central task for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is to produce an annual report of the latest data available on drug demand and drug supply in Europe. This paper is intended to facilitate a better understanding of, and easier access to, the main quantitative European level data sets available in 2015. Methods The European reporting system formally covers all 28 European Union (EU) Member States, Norway and Turkey and incorporates multiple indicators alongside an early warning system (EWS) on uncontrolled new psychoactive substances (NPS). While epidemiological information is based largely on registries, surveys and other routine data reported annually, the EWS collects case-based data on an ongoing basis. The 2015 reporting exercise is centred primarily on a set of standardized reporting tools. Results The most recent data provided by European countries are presented, including data on drug use, drug-related morbidity and mortality, treatment demand, drug markets and new psychoactive substances, with data tables provided and methodological information. A number of key results are highlighted for illustrative purposes. Drug prevalence estimates from national surveys since 2012 (last year prevalence of use among the 15-34 age band) range from 0.4% in Turkey to 22.1% in France for cannabis, from 0.2% in Greece and Romania to 4.2% in the United Kingdom for cocaine, from 0.1% in Italy and Turkey to 3% in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom for ecstasy, and from 0.1% or less in Romania, Italy and Portugal to 2.5% in Estonia for amphetamine. Declining trends in new HIV detections among people who inject drugs are illustrated, in addition to presentation of a breakdown of NPS reported to the EU early warning system, which have risen exponentially from fewer than 20 a year between 2005 and 2008, to 101 reported in 2014. Conclusions Structured information is now available on patterns and trends in drug consumption in Europe, which permits triangulation of data from different sources and consideration of methodological limitations. Opioid drugs continue to place a burden on the drug treatment system, although both new heroin entrants and injecting show declines. More than 450 new psychoactive substances are now monitored by the European early warning system with 31 new synthetic cathinones and 30 new synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists notified in 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Psycho-oncology Society (IPOS) has just celebrated its 30th anniversary. The growth of psychosocial oncology has been exponential, and this relatively new field is becoming a core service that focuses on prevention, reducing the burden of cancer, and enhancing the quality of life from time of diagnosis, through treatment, survivorship, and palliative care. Looking back over the past 30 years, we see that cancer care globally has evolved to a new and higher standard. Today, 'cancer care for the whole patient' is being accomplished with an evidence-based model that addresses psychosocial needs and integrates psycho-oncology into the treatment and care of patients. The President's Plenary Session in Lisbon, Portugal, highlighted the IPOS Mission of promoting global excellence in psychosocial care of people affected by cancer through our research, public policy, advocacy, and education. The internationally endorsed IPOS Standard of Quality Cancer Care, for example, clearly states the necessity of integrating the psychosocial domain into routine care, and that distress should be measured as the sixth vital sign after temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, and pain. The plenary paper also discussed the global progress being made in Europe, North America, and Australia in providing quality cancer care for the whole patient. Collaborative partnerships between IPOS and organizations such as the European Partnership Action Against Cancer and the World Health Organization are essential in building capacity for the delivery of high-quality psycho-oncology services in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a fundamental antagonism between democracy and nondemocracy organises lay thinking on global issues. We review key findings of a long-standing experimental research programme that examined the ' Democracy-as-value' hypothesis across a variety of political and social contexts. This hypothesis contends that democracy is an ideological belief system that provides value to democratic individuals, groups, and institutions and thereby grants legitimacy to their actions. Based on procedural justice theories and social representations theory, we contend that western lay perceivers associate democracy with procedural equality and individual autonomy, whereas nondemocracy is associated with ingroup hierarchy and conformity. We discuss how idealised representations of democracy justify global power arrangements and emphasise the paradoxical justification function of democratic values through which nondemocratic forms of social regulation based on physical force are legitimised with the very democratic norms that call for peaceful resolution of conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To update a previous systematic review and meta-analyses about the effect of breastfeeding promotion interventions on child growth.Methods: Studies evaluating the effect of any type of breastfeeding promotion intervention on child weight, length (or height) and weight/height (or BMI) were screened. Papers published between 2006 and 2014 were checked using the following databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Lilacs and SciELO.Results: Sixteen studies were added to 19 other studies identified in the previous review, resulting in 35 studies. Meta-analyses of studies reporting on mean weight, length, weight/length or BMI showed that the interventions had no impact on weight or length/height z scores [pooled effect: 0.03 (95% confidence interval: -0.06;0.12) and 0.03 (95% confidence interval: -0.02;0.08), respectively] and had a modest, but significant, reduction in body mass index/weight-for-height z scores [z score mean difference: -0.06 (95% confidence interval: -0.12;0.00)], which was limited to studies from low- and high-incomes settings. For all three outcomes, there was important heterogeneity among studies, which should be taken into account when interpreting the results.Conclusion: Breastfeeding promotion interventions were not associated with significant changes in weight or length, but led to a modest, albeit significant, reduction in body mass index/weight-for-height z scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the relation between urban form and the socio-economic patterns of the resident population in three southern European cities ( Athens, Lisbon and Rome) featured by different processes of urban diffusion. The paper goes beyond the literature on sprawl focused on (residential, income and ethnic) segregation and the different features of the inhabitants of the suburbs and those of the inner cities residents. By integrating multivariate statistics and spatial analysis, a methodology is proposed, based on morphological and socio-economic indicators available at a fine geographical scale. Results show how urban diffusion processes vary widely according to the context, as does the socio-economic profile of the actors, stressing the need to think about different 'southern European alternatives' of sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest insect pests represent a serious threat to European forests and their negative effects could be exacerbated by climate change. This paper illustrates how species distribution modelling integrated with host tree species distribution data can be used to assess forest vulnerability to this threat. Two case studies are used: large pine weevil ( Hylobius abietis L) and horse-chestnut leaf miner ( Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dimič) both at pan- European level. The proposed approach integrates information from different sources. Occurrence data of insect pests were collected from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility ( GBIF), climatic variables for present climate and future scenarios were sourced, respectively, from World Clim and from the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security ( CCAFS), and distributional data of host tree species were obtained from the European Forest Data Centre ( EFDAC), within the Forest Information System for Europe ( FISE). The potential habitat of the target pests was calculated using the machine learning algorithm of Maxent model. On the one hand, the results highlight the potential of species distribution modelling as a valuable tool for decision makers. On the other hand, they stress how this approach can be limited by poor pest data availability, emphasizing the need to establish a harmonised open European database of geo-referenced insect pest distribution data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the decades following the Second World War super markets and retail outlets in North America, Western Europe, and Australasia became the most important sites for the sale of food products. This dominance in food saIes was generally confined to the retail sector as super-markets tended to act as a nexus or distribution point between agri-food producers and consumers. In the 1970s this relationship began to break down as supermarkets moved up the chain of production. Supermarkets began to directly source materials from producers to use in "own" brand and generic products, which soon came to compete with the branded products of agri-food manufacturers. This paper traces the beginnings of these shifts and investigates the consequences of globally-sourced super-market goods in the context of the Australian agri-food system, with pineapples and wine as case studies The paper concludes that the increasing size and scope of supermarket buying power and the presence and growth of "own" brands suggests that capital organized through retail channels is coming to rival manufacturing capital as a significant fraction of the Australian agri-food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1997 ISSA European conference produced a series of papers about providing social security to the self-employed, published in May 1998 in a separate volume. In this article, David Williams reviews these and examines points that warrant further attention. He finds that the papers confirm the difficulties of generalizing about social security and the self-employed in Europe. They identify problems in identification, funding and delivery, but also general trends towards self-employment that accentuate these difficulties. The papers offer conflicting solutions. Williams challenges the premise behind some by asking whether self-employment should be regarded as the rule rather than the exception in handling these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents macrofossil data and additional pollen analyses from the Quaternary sites previously described in Oldfield (1967). Pollen evidence presented in that paper from Bidart Plage Series B (Bidartian) and Senix Series 1 (Moulignan and Senixian) is amplified and extended by more detailed and comprehensive diagrams. The additional pollen-analytical evidence from the Bidart section confirms the importance of a Castanea-dominated pollen assemblage zone within the Bidartian Interglacial. The new diagram from Senix shows that the Moulignan major biostratigraphic subdivision is likewise interglacial in character. The late-temperate and post-temperate stages of this interglacial are well represented by the Senix and Mouligna Cliff pollen sequences now published. The macrofossil evidence from Bidart Series B(Bidartian), Mouligna Cliff MC3 (Ilbarritzian) and Marbella (Marbellan) is represented on a quantitative basis using large and volumetrically equivalent samples from each level. The main additions to the flora from these macrofossil diagrams are a wide variety aquatic and semi-aquatic species including, for the Bidartian, Ludwigia palustris and for the Marbellan, Aldrovandra vesiculosa and Proserpinaca cf. palustris a North American species not previously recorded in Post-Tiglian deposits from Europe. From Bidart, there are also interesting macrofossil records of woody warm temperate taxa, for example Chamaecyparis thyoides, Cotoneaster acuticarpa and Ostrya cf. carpinifolia. The non-aquatic macroflora from Marbella is dominated by Erica species the seeds of which have been identified largely on the basis of the fine detail of their seed coats revealed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (Huckerby, Marchant and Oldfield, 1972). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It would not have been possible to have a set of papers on the subject of Distance Education without a contribution from the UK Open University. Peter Zorkoczy has worked there for many years and has a great depth of knowledge not only about the development of that institution but also about the subject of Distance Education as it has progressed in the wider European world. He has led teams of people working, first, to define the European Commission's DELTA programme and then to take part in aspects of its development. He has also played a major pan in setting up the technical and educational infrastructures of EuroPACE, the first European satellite education delivery system. Much of his paper describes real experiences in this latter organisation and acts as an excellent corollary to the paper of Jacques Bieber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As other papers have made clear, government interest in Distance Education is high and rising. There is therefore an inevitability that it will play a much larger part in future decision-making. In writing about this subject, Séamus Ó Buachalla has the advantage of much experience and greater insight. He has been a teacher, an inspector in the Irish Government Education Service, and is now a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education of Trinity College, Dublin. In addition he has worked for the Ministry as a planner and, outside Ireland, has done consultancy work for Unesco, the Council of Europe and the European Cultural Foundation. With that sort of varied experience, who better to write an informed and well-researched .paper on this important topic. As other papers have made clear, government interest in Distance Education is high and rising. There is therefore an inevitability that it will play a much larger part in future decision-making. In writing about this subject, Séamus Ó Buachalla has the advantage of much experience and greater insight. He has been a teacher, an inspector in the Irish Government Education Service, and is now a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education of Trinity College, Dublin. In addition he has worked for the Ministry as a planner and, outside Ireland, has done consultancy work for Unesco, the Council of Europe and the European Cultural Foundation. With that sort of varied experience, who better to write an informed and well-researched .paper on this important topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rodney Stark and William S Bainbridge have advanced a theory of religion which draws upon a wide range of supporting data. One body of data advances the claim that new religions will appear disproportionately often in settings where traditional religion is weak, and that -- contrary to prevailing opinion -- Europe is markedly more receptive to new religions than the United States This paper subjects that claim to critical scrutiny and finds it entirely wanting. Through a reanalysis of the Stark and Bainbridge data, and with the addition of new data of a more persuasive kind, this paper demonstrates that the pattern which emerges is more complex than Stark and Bainbridge allow While cult activity may increase with declining church attendance -- a finding compatible with their theory -- cult activity is seen to remain particularly high in Anglo-Saxon, Protestant dominated, immigrant based societies, despite continuing high rates of church attendance. An alternative theory is drawn from extant work to account for this finding and the overall pattern.
In this paper, I take issue with one variety of such data, arguing that it does not show what Stark and Bainbridge claim for it, namely that schismatic forms of religion are most prevalent where traditional religion remains strong, while culturally innovatory forms of religion are most prevalent where traditional religion is weak. In particular, Stark and Bainbridge's claim that Europe is peculiarly receptive to culturally innovatory forms of religion is shown not to be true. Indeed, when their data are extended and considered in the round, they are shown to support a quite different theory of secularization and of the contemporary distribution of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]