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Mixed-mode surveys are popular as they can save costs and maintain (or improve) response rates relative to single-mode surveys. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how design decisions like survey mode or questionnaire length impact measurement quality. In this study, we compare measurement quality in an experiment of three distinct survey designs implemented in the German sample of the European Values Study: a single-mode face-to-face design, a mixed-mode mail/web design, and a shorter (matrix) questionnaire in the mixed-mode design. We compare measurement quality in different ways, including differences in distributions across several data quality indicators as well as equivalence testing over 140 items in 25 attitudinal scales. We find similar data quality across the survey designs, although the mixed-mode survey shows more item nonresponse compared to the single-mode survey. Using equivalence testing we find that most scales achieve metric equivalence and, to a lesser extent, scalar equivalence across the designs.

This paper describes the collaborative development of an agenda for research on e-assessment in undergraduate mathematics. We built on an established approach to develop the agenda from the contributions of 22 mathematics education researchers, university teachers and learning technologists interested in this topic. The resulting set of 55 research questions are grouped into 5 broad themes: errors and feedback, student interactions with e-assessment, design and implementation choices, affordances offered by e-assessment tools, and mathematical skills. This agenda gives a framework for a programme of research aligned with practical concerns that will contribute to both theoretical and practical development.

More than 20 years after the first round of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), it has become one of the most important large-scale international assessments, at a global level and in particular in Europe. Thus, a growing number of scholars have examined or discussed its research design. Nonetheless, a key feature of PISA seems to have been less examined by critical works: the "discourse of the research" in the PISA literature. Indeed, the PISA reports appear to be scientific literature, both in textual form and in terms of the intentions expressed. Based on the reports published by the OECD since 1999, this article examines, in line with the French tradition of discourse analysis, the characteristics of research writing in PISA and the explanations of its conceptual approach, test design or result analysis. This analysis shows the differences between the research discourse in PISA and typical scientific rhetoric, particularly in terms of constructing a contradictory theoretical dialogue or a discussion of the limits of its approach. Finally, the article questions how these differences indicate a particular construction of education research within PISA and its possible relationship with the global or European dynamics of this scientific field.

The increasing use of research metrics in the monitoring and evaluation of research has led to the expansion of research information infrastructure, as indicated by the rising number of national databases for research output and research information systems. At the same time, debates on requirements of national databases for research output are typically guided by simplistic assumptions about what an infrastructure is and how it shapes our understanding of different phenomena. We present an alternative framing of databases wherein infrastructure and context are seen as mutually constitutive. Drawing upon qualitative data on 12 national databases in Europe, we investigate the role that databases for research output play in research metrics and consequently in our understanding of research activities. Specifically, we bring to the surface database features that are typically left implicit and yet are crucial for understanding these databases in context. A key outcome of this study is an identification of two database logics--New Public Management and Enlightenment--that underpin database designs and the organization of database work. These logics do not merely guide practical database work (e.g. by determining the features of highest priority), but through the outcomes of that work they both enact and distribute a particular conception of what research is. In this article, we show how the two logics manifest and how they are related to each other. Situating these findings in the landscape of developments in research information infrastructure, we discuss implications for research evaluation and the understanding of research in general.

Higher education (HE) in the changing context requires leadership training and development as a vital element for university governance and innovation. While there are several theoretical frameworks on leadership development, most of them are outcome evaluation-oriented. Consequently, there is a lack of a leadership development model which emphasises both design process and expected outcomes. In addition to this, HE leadership development has been gradually transformed toward complexity and flexibility due to the volatile external environment of the 21st century. Thus, instead of having a development programme that simply focuses on individual skill enhancement, a comprehensive leadership development programme that equally fosters leaders' competencies (leader development) and develops collective leadership (leadership development) is increasingly utilised. Unfortunately, previous theoretical frameworks fail to take into consideration these new features. The main aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive theoretical model for academic leadership development (ALD) that promotes both leader development and leadership development. In the present study, 24 academic leaders, lecturers and researchers from five European and six Chinese HE institutions co-designed the ALD model. The constructed model consists of four main dimensions: theoretical core, types of training and providers, training format and ultimate goals. The results contribute to developing, promoting and enhancing leadership development in academic settings.

"Experience design" is a term that has risen to the forefront in a variety of professional fields and has relevance for the field of park and recreation. Park and recreation professionals are primarily focused on providing experiences and thus could naturally consider themselves experienced designers. Surprisingly, experience design is not a topic often discussed within park and recreation publications or curriculum. This absence is at least in part attributable to the fact that experience design is an emerging field that has grown independently out of multiple disciplines. Consequently, the fields of park and recreation and experience design overlap in a variety of mutually beneficial ways which deserve further consideration. The purpose of this paper is to provide leisure educators a brief introduction to the practice of experience design and present information drawn from experience designers across a variety of fields about the skills, certifications, and resources necessary to become an experienced designer.

Cultural literacy, as a set of values and dispositions developed through dialogue and constructive argumentation with people representing different cultural identities, is an essential skillset of a twenty-first-century citizen in any part of today's world. Especially within the current European landscape of continuous immigration and change, the fluidity and rhetoricity of identity construction require a notion of citizenship education that can adapt to this dynamic process. Moreover, the practical aspects of being a citizen in its authentic, global, democratic sense are not sufficiently emphasized within current curricula. In this paper, we present an innovative citizenship education curriculum based on dialogic, argumentative and cultural literacy skills, which addresses this gap through proposing discursive practices of cultural identity construction at a collaborative level (small group or whole class) inspired by wordless texts (picture books and animated films) on core civic cultural values such as tolerance, empathy and inclusion. Through applying a design-based research methodology with teachers from three education levels and four European countries, we conclude that dialogic lesson plans aiming at the development of cultural literacy dispositions can act as an innovative and adaptive citizenship education curriculum in diverse contexts.

The question of how individual features affect the development of design expertise has yet to be thoroughly researched. While some works acknowledged the importance of design abilities and creative ideation for design expertise, there is no theoretical framework that explicates their relationships and supports it empirically. The present research proposes a conceptual model and examines these relationships while integrating temporal experience as a moderating factor. Data were collected using a survey distributed among web community groups of designers and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings showed that design ability was positively related to design expertise, and design creative ideation was positively related to design ability. Moreover, the positive relationship between design creative ideation and design expertise was mediated by design ability. Additionally, design experience moderated the relationship between design ideation and design ability, indicating that the relationship between ideation and design ability was stronger for less experienced designers. This study facilitates a deeper understanding about the contribution of design ability, creative ideation, and temporal experience to design expertise.

Why do over 90% of the learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) never finish the course? There is a need for further studies focusing on the learners' experiences of participating in MOOCs and factors that influence the decision to complete or drop out of the course. To deepen our understanding of why learners complete or drop out of MOOCs, we report on a qualitative case study based on in-depth interviews with 34 learners with different degrees of course completion for two MOOCs. A qualitative analysis of the interviews led to the identification of four main factors influencing dropout: (1) the learner's perception of the course content, (2) the learner's perception of the course design, (3) the learner's social situation and characteristics, and (4) the learner's ability to find and manage time effectively. How the learners conceptualized a MOOC had a strong impact on how they engaged with the contents. We discuss the implications of our results for MOOC practice in terms of time, openness and accessibility and provide recommendations for future research.

Case studies help to reflect and to capture information about complex processes and domains and to make it reusable for future application in related contexts. In the case study reported in this article, we aim to capture and share processes and experience that we gained while designing a web-portal for supporting the specific user group of dyslexic youths and adults. The subject of research is the LITERACY-project. The LITERACY-project is an on-going European wide research project aimed at the social inclusion of dyslexic users by the means of ICT. The article discusses the specific design steps taken to create a portal that fits the needs of its targeted user-group as well as methods and strategies to include users into the design process. Furthermore the article addresses and analyzes specific measures and functionalities provided by the portal that are targeted at the social inclusion of people with dyslexia.

The OnCreate project was initiated by ten universities with expertise in collaborative work in online-based learning environments and explores the specific challenges of implementing university courses in creative disciplines in such an environment. The first research phase comprises a literature search on creativity and its contextual factors in online collaboration in an educational setting. From this research a first set of possible key challenges and contextual key factors has been selected and applied to categorize the results of interviews and surveys on current good practice in creative online collaboration among experienced online teachers from the partner universities. From the key findings we formulate hypotheses to guide future research towards a framework for creative online collaboration. At the same time, the results can serve as inspiration for the educational practice. Notable observations of the good practice research among the partner universities are that they realise innovative collaboration concepts usually on mashed-up environments of state-of-the-art web services rather than on the omnipresent learning management systems (such as "Moodle" or "Blackboard"). Also, they show a paradigm shift from teaching to coaching and promotion of an open peer-review culture among the students.

Wearable devices and ambient sensors can monitor a growing number of aspects of daily life and work. We propose to use this context data as content for learning applications in workplace settings to enable employees to reflect on experiences from their work. Learning by reflection is essential for today's dynamic work environments, as employees have to adapt their behavior according to their experiences. Building on research on computer-supported reflective learning as well as persuasive technology, and inspired by the Quantified Self community, we present an approach to the design of tools supporting reflective learning at work by turning context information collected through sensors into learning content. The proposed approach has been implemented and evaluated with care staff in a care home and voluntary crisis workers. In both domains, tailored wearable sensors were designed and evaluated. The evaluations show that participants learned by reflecting on their work experiences based on their recorded context. The results highlight the potential of sensors to support learning from context data itself and outline lessons learned for the design of sensor-based capturing methods for reflective learning.

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The production of biomass fly ash has been increasing every year in Europe, reaching 5.5 million tons in 2020. Fly ash produced by burning biomass is not yet accepted in the standards as a substitute material for cement in mortar and concrete. In a first approach, the substitution limit of biomass ash is determined by comparing the mechanical strengths (among others, compressive strength), fresh state properties and hardened properties of mortars produced with fly ash with those of mortars produced with coal fly ash (EN 450-1 and ASTM C618). Masonry and rendering mortars have been designed with different substitution rates of fly ashes from wood combustion in thermal power plants. Although there is an overall decrease in performance, mortars made with biomass ash retain properties that make them suitable for use in masonry (loss of 13% compressive strength for masonry mortars with 10% substitution rate after 90 days) or rendering (loss of 20% compressive strength for rendering mortars with 10% substitution rate after 90 days). Water absorption and porosity (24.1 and 23.7% for masonry and rendering mortars, respectively) are, however, not significantly modified, which potentially contributes to good durability properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient registries serve to overcome the research limitations inherent in the study of rare diseases, where patient numbers are typically small. Despite the value of real-world data collected through registries, adequate design and maintenance are integral to data quality. We aimed to describe an overview of the challenges in design, quality management, and maintenance of rare disease registries. A systematic search of English articles was conducted in PubMed, Ovid Medline/Embase, and Cochrane Library. Search terms included "rare diseases, patient registries, common data elements, quality, hospital information systems, and datasets". Inclusion criteria were any manuscript type focused upon rare disease patient registries describing design, quality monitoring or maintenance. Biobanks and drug surveillances were excluded. A total of 37 articles, published between 2001 and 2021, met the inclusion criteria. Patient registries covered a wide range of disease areas and covered multiple geographical locations, with a predisposition for Europe. Most articles were methodological reports and described the design and setup of a registry. Most registries recruited clinical patients (92%) with informed consent (81%) and protected the collected data (76%). Whilst the majority (57%) collected patient-reported outcome measures, only few (38%) consulted PAGs during the registry design process. Few reports described details regarding quality management (51%) and maintenance (46%). Rare disease patient registries are valuable for research and evaluation of clinical care, and an increasing number have emerged. However, registries need to be continuously evaluated for data quality and long-term sustainability to remain relevant for future use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, design for the durability of new reinforced concrete structures is currently based on a prescriptive approach. The design, execution (construction) and planned maintenance of a concrete structure have to lead to the intended level of safety and serviceability throughout its entire service life. This requires numeric models based on a sound scientific background of mechanistic understanding as the basis for design and management tools and for the further development of standards and regulations. Designers must understand the basic deterioration mechanisms and the potential types and rates of damage development. For example, different types of corrosion cause very different damage developments, some of which reduce structural safety. We propose that the next generation of service life models should either explicitly include the propagation period or implicitly include it by selecting an accepted probability of depassivation that reflects the type of corrosion and its structural implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of composite dowels (CDs) in Europe at the beginning of the last decade led to the creation of new forms of composite bridges in which a T‐profile is used instead of an I‐beam. Both the construction and design methods are new [4]. Experiences from the construction of new bridges and discussion between the authors lead to new significant conclusions, which should be included in the new European approval (CEN‐TS). The problem of design formulas for concrete dowels is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of the revision of Eurocode 3 Part 1‐1, several amendments have been proposed and accepted in order to improve the rules for the resistance to member buckling. For clarification, a flow‐chart connecting the global analysis (1st or 2nd order), the imperfections and the type of verification has been implemented for ease of use. Since the publication of the standard in 2005, many research projects have been carried out across Europe on this topic and their results have contributed to provide appropriate answers to problems identified in practice. Therefore, the revised code provides new design rules for stability. Important works of calibration have been performed in these different projects to derive appropriate values of the partial factor on the resistance side. For example, a new formulation for lateral torsional buckling has been introduced for the calculation of the reduction factor. The consequence is a reduction of the discrepancy between the results obtained by these new methods and those from experimental or numerical tests. In order to extend the scope of Eurocode 3 Part 1‐1, additional methods have been implemented in an annex to cover the stability of members with mono‐symmetric cross‐section under compression axial force, biaxial bending, with or without torsion. The format of the resistance criteria remains similar to the format of the current interaction formulae so that the designers can easily identify the evolution of the rules. This paper presents in a systematic way the new implementations in prEN 1993‐1‐1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging confusion about what constitutes Islamic features in the architecture of modern mosques among contemporary architects and planners, and a large number of people see that Islamic mosques are made up of muqarnas, high arches, minarets and domes of certain standards, and this does not express the Islamic essence, as Islam focused on the human personality. And human behavior and activity, that activity that has changed a lot from the past according to the requirements of the current era, and here comes to mind a question through which the problem of the current research is determined, and through the development of building modern mosques: does digital architecture have an impact on the design of modern Islamic mosques ? search objective Know the impact of digital architecture on the design of modern Islamic mosques. search limits The limits of the search spatially: Islamic mosques in Europe and Asia. The limits of the research chronologically: in the period from (2000- 2020) This period represents the flourishing of digital architecture among the countries of the world, which has become one of the characteristics of civilized countries. Objectively: Know the impact of digital architecture on the design of modern Islamic mosques. The second chapter dealt with the theoretical framework, which consists of : 1.The structural systems of modern Islamic mosques. 2.The formal characteristics of digital architecture. As for the third chapter, it was concerned with the research procedures, including the research community, which included a number of modern Islamic mosques in the continent of Europe and Asia, and the research sample, which numbered (5) samples that were more famous among modern mosques, and the researcher applied the research tool after completing its conditions on the research sample. As for the fourth chapter, it deals with the results, conclusions, recommendations and suggestions, and these results are : 1.The digital architecture of mosques depends on what is imaginary and abstract and the search for fluidity in all forms. 2.The digital design of mosques has high complexity and irregular geometry and depends on fluidity and deconstruction in challenging the Earth's gravity. 3.Some of the designs of modern mosque buildings are curved buildings that are freed from the old engineering constraints that are customary in the construction of the Islamic mosque, as the movement of some things in nature such as the movement of water, the movement of sand and the movement of air have a great impact on enriching and inspiring the designers . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass timber is a promising building material that has been used in Europe for a long time. Structural rigidity, renewable characteristics, and low-carbon footprint have made this material a major structural component in the European construction market. While the concept of mass timber building has been successful in Europe, the US construction practitioners are still dubious to adopt this material on a greater scale. In the US construction industry, mass timber has received very little consideration from the stakeholders. Lack of case study projects, awareness, and work experience in mass timber materials have created an industrywide knowledge gap that is hindering the progress of this innovative building material in the US construction market. This study evaluates the feasibility of mass timber products in the US construction industry by analyzing its level of awareness, existing challenges and difficulties, and recommendations to improve the existing perceptions to help solve the knowledge gap and increase the current acceptability of mass timber products among the US construction practitioners. The research method includes three different sets of semistructured questionnaire surveys, distributed among 1,200 construction companies, 300 architectural firms, and 55 mass timber manufacturers in the US. Data analysis of the surveys suggested that the US construction practitioners have significantly low involvement level and work experience in timber building design and construction. The main perceived benefits of using mass timber material are the requirement of a small workforce during construction, aesthetic appeal, and prefabricated characteristics of timber panels. Major perceived downsides are lack of work experience, insufficient timber manufacturing plants, high cost of engineered wood products, and code limitations. Several recommendations were provided on the survey including from the study such as increasing awareness among the stakeholders by undertaking more timber building projects, establishing more manufacturing facilities, developing codes and standards, and developing a skilled workforce experienced in timber construction. The outcomes of the study will be a helpful reference source for US construction practitioners to evaluate the actual feasibility of mass timber as a building material. It will further help increase the acceptability of mass timber products in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐installed and cast‐in‐place anchors are widely used to connect structural or nonstructural elements using a steel baseplate at the concrete structure. Generally, concrete anchors must be qualified if their failure would compromise the safety or result in substantial economic damage. Concrete anchor qualification results in technical approvals forming the basis for a code‐compliant design. In Europe, anchor design is governed by the new standard EN 1992‐4, and in the United States by ACI 318. Qualification and design regulations are predominately similar between Europe and the United States; however, there are still some notable differences. To this end, this paper introduces the basics of anchor design and underlying product qualification. Then, it describes some of the boundary conditions with special attention to the baseplate as well as discusses the critical design parameters. Later, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the complex design rules. This paper includes identification of the differences between EN 1992‐4 and ACI 318 and their resultant effect on anchor design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though anchor channels with channel bolts are used in practice since long time, the codification of their design rules was just recently finalized in Europe with the issuing of the new EN 1992‐4. In the United States, full consolidation of the design rules for anchor channels with channel bolts in ACI 318 is yet to be included. The design requires product‐specific design data that are provided in qualification certificates. Qualification is carried out in Europe and in the United States according to published qualification guidelines. Currently, the qualification guidelines and design rules are not fully harmonized between Europe and the United States, sometimes resulting in significantly different design outcomes. This paper describes the framework of qualification and design, provides a comprehensive compendium of all design rules required for anchor channel‐channel bolt‐systems, and points out the differences between Europe and the United States with regard to qualification and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The European DEMO fusion power reactor (EU-DEMO) is still in the pre-conceptual design phase. The design strategy for the EU-DEMO hinges on investigating multiple reactor designs and technologies in parallel, progressively down-selecting these in the mid-2020s, in preparation for the conceptual design phase. The present implementation of the strategy centres around a baseline single-null design, which is configuration controlled and iterated approximately every two years. The majority of resources are dedicated to studying the baseline design; changing it is expensive, and takes months to do. Competing technologies for different sub-systems (e.g. blankets, magnets) are forced to co-exist within the same physical confines (CAD models), and conform to the same set of performance criteria. Meanwhile, the alternative reactor designs are only loosely defined, with no agreed set of parameters, no CAD models, and no formal framework for study. We argue that the EU-DEMO design strategy is best served by a more efficient implementation methodology which would enable more comprehensive exploration of the DEMO design space. We make the case for a change in approach to the design of DEMO-class reactors in Europe, and propose a solution which bears some resemblance to the present methodology, yet automates and accelerates the sequence of design and analysis activities when generating a design configuration. We present our preliminary attempts to demonstrate the feasibility of our idea, in the form of a new fusion reactor design code: BLUEPRINT. We demonstrate that the typical activities required to generate a DEMO design point can be sped up by four orders of magnitude —from months to minutes—paving the way for a rigorous and broad exploration of the design space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe is developing two reference tritium breeder blanket concepts that will be tested in ITER under the form of Test Blanket Modules (TBMs): the helium–cooled lithium–lead (HCLL) which uses the liquid Pb–16Li as both breeder and neutron multiplier and the helium–cooled pebble-bed (HCPB) with lithiated ceramic pebbles as breeder and beryllium pebbles as neutron multiplier. Both concepts are using the EUROFER reduced activation ferritic–martensitic steel as structural material and pressurized helium technology for heat extraction. In view of the conceptual design review, design activities of the TBM sets have been focused on specific areas. The convergence of TBMs design, developed in their pre-conceptual phase by different European Fusion laboratories, has been sought in order to optimize fabrication and maintenance in ITER port #16. The structural strength of the helium back manifold of both TBMs is now based on the HCLL stiffening rod concept proposed in 2010. Through iterations between the nuclear analyses and design, the radiation shield design reaches a good compromise between its shielding performances versus manufacturing. A shield-to-TBM attachment has been implemented which complies with constraints related to thermal expansion under operating conditions and mechanical strength to handle dynamic loads such as major disruptions and seismic event. A full set of thermomechanical, hydraulic and structural analysis of the TBM sets has been carried out. They cover the loads selected as design drivers in the conceptual phase along with exploration of operational domain in terms of helium cooling conditions versus RCC-MRx code criteria compliance. The analysis results show that thermal loads are the main design driver for most of TBM sub-components. Pressure loads are also a design driver for the TBM stiffening grids under in-TBM loss of coolant accident. From the analyses carried out for the shields, the most demanding scenario has been demonstrated to be the baking mode. For these internal pressure loads, the capacity checks carried out have demonstrated the feasibility and potential of the shield design proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-production of resilience in European urban neighbourhoods is explored based on the experiences from a case study. Within the current ‘resilience imperative’, co-production processes involving multiple stakeholders can be a key factor for increasing cities’ resilience. Co-produced resilience processes are more successful when embedded in collaborative forms of governance such as those associated with urban commons and when fulfilling needed roles with a community. Through the application of the R-Urban approach in a neighbourhood of Colombes (near Paris), the co-production of a commons-based resilience strategy is described. This involved a group of designers as initiators and a number of citizen as stakeholders of a network of civic hubs. The specific strategies involving a participatory setting, collective governance aspects and circular economies are analysed in the light of co-production theories and practices. Internal and external challenges are identified within the implementation process. The nature of conflicts and negotiations in this co-production approach are discussed, and the role of the architects/designers as agents within the process is investigated. Reflections from this example are provided on the limits and promises of this approach and the lessons learned from R-Urban for collaborative civic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 11th conference of the European Academy of Design (EAD) held in Paris from April 21-24, 2015. Topics discussed include impact of design research on organizations and society. Topics discussed include analysis on same made by scientific committee researchers, justification of design tasks, and contemporary culture.

Dementia is a growing societal challenge putting pressure on care systems across Europe. Providing supporting technology for people living with dementia, referring to both people with dementia and their caregivers, is an important strategy to alleviate pressure. In this paper, we present lessons learned from the Interreg NWE Project Certification-D, in which we evaluated technological products with people living with dementia, using a Living Lab approach. Living Labs were set up in five different countries to conduct field evaluations at the homes of people living with dementia. Via an open call products from small to medium enterprises across northwestern Europe were selected to be evaluated in the Living Labs. In this paper, we describe the setup of and reflection on Living Labs as multi-stakeholder collaboration networks to evaluate technological products in the context of dementia. We reflect on the experiences and insights from the Living Lab researchers to execute and operate the Living Labs in such a sensitive setting. Our findings show that Living Labs can be used to conduct field evaluations of products, that flexibility is required to adopt a Living Lab in various care settings with different stakeholder compositions and expertise, and that Living Lab researchers serve as both a linking pin and buffer between people living with dementia and companies and thereby support the adoption of technological products. We close the paper with a proposal of best practices to encourage inclusivity in, and scalability of, Living Labs in the context of dementia.

Human research ethics has developed in both theory and practice mostly from experiences in medical research. Human participants, however, are used in a much broader range of research than ethics committees oversee, including both basic and applied research at technical universities. Although mandated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, non-medical research involving humans need not receive ethics review in much of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Our survey of the top 50 technical universities in the world shows that, where not specifically mandated by law, most technical universities do not employ ethics committees to review human studies. As the domains of basic and applied sciences expand, ethics committees are increasingly needed to guide and oversee all such research regardless of legal requirements. We offer as examples, from our experience as an ethics committee in a major European technical university, ways in which such a committee provides needed services and can help ensure more ethical studies involving humans outside the standard medical context. We provide some arguments for creating such committees, and in our supplemental article, we provide specific examples of cases and concerns that may confront technical, engineering, and design research, as well as outline the general framework we have used in creating our committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Orientation particularities for daylighting in the South East Europe were analysed. [•] The daylighting parameters and survey results were compared and classified. [•] Daylighting quality criteria and standards were re-examined for relevance. [•] Measurement and simulation results showed to be fully consistent with the survey. [•] Overexposure to daylight in the student room found not be entirely unsuitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Populations in Europe are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, and health risks differ between ethnic groups. The aim of the HELIUS (HEalthy LIfe in an Urban Setting) study is to unravel the mechanisms underlying the impact of ethnicity on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Methods/design: HELIUS is a large-scale prospective cohort study being carried out in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The sample is made up of Amsterdam residents of Surinamese (with Afro-Caribbean Surinamese and South Asian-Surinamese as the main ethnic groups), Turkish, Moroccan, Ghanaian, and ethnic Dutch origin. HELIUS focuses on three disease categories: cardiovascular disease (including diabetes), mental health (depressive disorders and substance use disorders), and infectious diseases. The explanatory mechanisms being studied include genetic profile, culture, migration history, ethnic identity, socio-economic factors and discrimination. These might affect disease risks through specific risk factors including health-related behaviour and living and working conditions. Every five years, participants complete a standardized questionnaire and undergo a medical examination. Biological samples are obtained for diagnostic tests and storage. Participants' data are linked to morbidity and mortality registries. The aim is to recruit a minimum of 5,000 respondents per ethnic group, to a total of 30,000 participants. Discussion: This paper describes the rationale, conceptual framework, and design and methods of the HELIUS study. HELIUS will contribute to an understanding of inequalities in health between ethnic groups and the mechanisms that link ethnicity to health in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the main findings of research into the history and creative characteristics of the European videogame. Faced with the long hegemony of the US and Japan in the videogame industry, it is necessary for Europe to become more aware of its role in this sector and determine its aspirations and plans for the future. To do this, it is vital to deepen our knowledge of European videogame history and its main ‘actors’ (designers, development studios, publishers) as well as the creative traits of European videogame production. This article aims to contribute to raising this awareness. The research employs two complementary approaches, first a survey of the historiographic literature on videogames and second, an analysis based on game design theory, in order to gain a wide overview of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]