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Hemophilia A is a rare congenital bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency of functionally active coagulation factor VIII (FVIII). Most patients with the severe form of the disease require FVIII replacement therapies, which are often associated with the development of neutralizing antibodies against FVIII. Why some patients develop neutralizing antibodies while others do not is not fully understood. Previously, we could demonstrate that the analysis of FVIII-induced gene expression signatures in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from patients exposed to FVIII replacement therapies provides novel insights into underlying immune mechanisms regulating the development of different populations of FVIII-specific antibodies. The aim of the study described in this manuscript was the development of training and qualification test procedures to enable local operators in different European and US clinical Hemophilia Treatment Centers (HTC) to produce reliable and valid data for antigen-induced gene expression signatures in PBMC obtained from small blood volumes. For this purpose, we used the model antigen Cytomegalovirus (CMV) phosphoprotein (pp) 65. We trained and qualified 39 local HTC operators from 15 clinical sites in Europe and the US, of whom 31 operators passed the qualification at first attempt, and eight operators passed at the second attempt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. Knowledge on the link of individual social deprivation with dementia is incomplete. We thus aimed to see whether an association with dementia risk can be observed using a recently developed Social Deprivation Index (SoDep Index). Further, as deprivation is related to depression, we investigated the role of depression in the association. Methods. We analysed data of 11 623 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) respondents. Social deprivation status was determined by SoDep Index score. Dementia was determined by self-reported diagnosis. Dementia risk by social deprivation status was estimated using Cox proportional hazard models, including relevant covariates (gender, marriage status, chronic conditions). Depressive symptom status was added in a second step. Further, we completed subgroup analyses by social deprivation status and analysed the relevance of depressive symptoms in dementia risk in each deprivation group. In an additional sensitivity analyses we corrected for mortality and used impaired cognitive testing performance as an alternative outcome. Results. High (v. low) social deprivation status was associated with an increased dementia risk (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.79 [95% CI 1.31-2.45]) in the Cox analysis adjusted for covariates only. Further adjustment for depressive symptom status indicated a largely direct association between social deprivation status and dementia risk. Moreover, compared to not having experienced depressive symptoms in the past or at baseline, those with past (HR = 1.67 [95% CI 1.23-2.25]), baseline (HR = 1.48 [95% CI 1.04-2.10]) or stable depressive symptoms (HR = 2.96 [95% CI 2.12-4.14]) had an increased dementia risk. The association between stable depressive symptom status and dementia risk was in the high social deprivation subgroup particularly pronounced. Sensitivity analyses replicated results. Conclusions. Results add to a growing body of evidence indicating that a public health approach to dementia prevention must address socioeconomic inequity. Results suggest a largely direct association between social deprivation and dementia risk. Adults who experience high social deprivation appear particularly affected by detrimental effects of depressive symptomatology on dementia risk and need intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this post hoc analysis, we assessed romosozumab efficacy and safety in European patients enrolled in FRAME. Romosozumab treatment through 12 months, followed by denosumab for a further 24 months, resulted in early and sustained risk reduction for major fracture categories, associated with large gains in bone mineral density. Introduction: In the multinational FRAME phase 3 trial of romosozumab in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, marked differences between clinical and non-vertebral fracture outcomes were observed among patients from Central and Southern America versus rest of world. This post hoc analysis assessed romosozumab efficacy and safety in European patients enrolled in the FRAME trial and extension study. Methods: In FRAME (NCT01575834), patients were randomised 1:1 to romosozumab 210 mg or placebo monthly (QM) for 12 months, followed by open-label denosumab 60 mg Q6M to month 36, including a 12-month extension study. We report incidence of major fracture outcomes, bone mineral density (BMD) change from baseline and safety for European patients enrolled in FRAME. Results: In FRAME, 3013/7180 (41.96%) patients were European; 1494 received romosozumab and 1519 received placebo. Through 12 months, romosozumab reduced fracture risk versus placebo for non-vertebral fracture (1.4% versus 3.0%; p = 0.004), clinical fracture (1.4% versus 3.6%; p < 0.001), new vertebral fracture (0.4% versus 2.1%; p < 0.001) and major osteoporotic fracture (0.9% versus 2.8%; p < 0.001), with results sustained through 36 months following transition to denosumab. Hip fractures were numerically reduced with romosozumab at month 12 (0.2% versus 0.6%; p = 0.092). Romosozumab increased BMD versus placebo at month 12; all patients in the romosozumab and placebo groups experienced further increases by month 36 after transition to denosumab. Adverse events were balanced between groups. Conclusions: Among European patients in FRAME, romosozumab resulted in early and sustained risk reduction for all major fracture categories, associated with large BMD gains that continued after transition to denosumab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restructuring of state bureaucracies into service organizations and the new welfare state paradigm of activation have changed the work requirements of front‐line workers in public employment agencies across Europe. Public employment agents are less engaged in bureaucratic labour, but have to perform service work. They use affective means to motivate and to monitor and sanction jobseekers. This article provides evidence that these transformations in Austria, Germany and Switzerland did not suspend the gendering of public service work. We discovered four typical modes of affectively enacting the state: both male and female employment agents follow feminized service work patterns or masculinized entrepreneurial norms. To prevent a possible loss of their professional status, some employment agents reinterpret affective labour as professional service work that demands high expertise. Others resist the activation paradigm by performing traditionally feminized care work or by still adhering to affect‐neutral male bureaucratic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of Europeanisation is closely linked to the process of an emerging European Educational Research Area and an education research identity. The European Conferences on Educational Research (ECER), European Educational Research Association (EERA) and its networks are involved in new directions and strands of educational research in particular European nations as well as in processes to construct a common European Educational Research Area. ECER to a large extent contributes to such developments both as observer and actor. Against the background of diverse functions and contexts of ECER for communication on and development of educational research in Europe, the authors describe some small-scale research studies about ECER that have been carried out during the past ten years dealing with attendance motives and assessments of ECER, and provide content analyses of proposal abstracts of ECER. In doing so, they would like to present a mirror to EERA at its 20th anniversary that could contribute to further systematic self-observation and self-governance of EERA and ECERs as vivid, inspiring, powerful, discursive, democratic and scholarly high-standing conferences in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 'European social model' is a phrase often heard in European discourse. This article describes the remarkable shift in meaning that the term has experienced in the last two decades. While it was first invented to symbolise Delors's vision of a social-democratic Europe, it was then increasingly used to legitimise a predominately neoliberal integration process, before becoming a justification for the cutting back of existing welfare systems. The popularity of the European social model, however, still stems from the fact that it articulates an alternative to US-style free-market capitalism. The concept is therefore also used by left forces in order to formulate their vision of an alternative Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that the present economic deficiencies of eastern Europe's capacity to catch up with the West result from specific historical developments and the region's peripheral position within the inter- national division of labor. Analyzing differences in geography, settlement, religion, agrarian systems, and power structures back to the Roman Empire, they discuss the reasons for the dividing lines separating Europe into a Western and an Eastern development. The course of the dividing line shifts between the socioreligious border separating Roman Catholicism from Christian Orthodoxy on one side, and the type of lordship overland and subjects distinguishing the zone of estate agriculture with swong restrictions in geographical mobility in the East (Gutcherrschaft) from Western type seignorial systems with independent peasants and tenants (Grundherrschaft) on the other, After 1945, the East's separation from the West was not a freely chosen strategy. It resulted from the U.S. embargo-policy vis-à-vis eastern Europe imposed on all recipients of Marshall Plan aid thereby cutting the traditional lines of cooperation in central Europe on the one side and the strategy of the former Soviet Union to sovietize all the countries within its influence and integrate them in an emerging Eastern block (Comecon) on the other. M soon as the West selectively integrated eastern Europe in the 1970's by lending out money and dislocating labor-intensive production to eastern Europe, the gap between East and West which had diminished between 1950 and 1975 widened again. All further attempts to catch up resulted in the reperipheralization of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information regarding the 10th annual meeting of the Skin Care in Organ Transplant Recipients in Europe (SCOPE) held at Rijkshospitalet in Oslo, Norway on June 10-12, 2010 is presented. Topics include skin lesions' tenderness, skin cancer awareness, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin and human papilloma viruses (HPVs). Moreover, the event was attended by 60 participants from the U.S. and Europe including Irma Wisgerhof, Ingo Nindl, and Nikol Mladkova.

Steam gasification enables the thermochemical conversion of solid fuels into a medium calorific gas that can be utilized for the synthesis of advanced biofuels, chemicals or for heat and power production. Dual fluidized bed (DFB) gasification is at present the technology applied to realize gasification of biomass in steam environment at large scale. Few large-scale DFB gasifiers exist, and this work presents a compilation and analysis of the data and operational strategies from the six DFB gasifiers in Europe. It is shown that the technology is robust, as similar gas quality can be achieved despite the differences in reactor design and operation strategies. Reference concentrations of both gas components and tar components are provided, and correlations in the data are investigated. In all plants, adjusting the availability and accessibility to the active ash components (K and Ca) was the key to control the gas quality. The gas quality, and in particular the tar content of the gas, can conveniently be assessed by monitored the concentration of CH 4 in the produced gas. The data and experience acquired from these plants provide important knowledge for the future development of the steam gasification of biomass. • Reference concentrations of gas and tar components for industrial steam gasifiers. • Similar gas qualities are obtained despite differences in design and operation strategies. • Availability of active compounds (K and Ca) have the strongest impact on gas quality. • Additions of Ca and K, fuel feeding position, and operating conditions are discussed. • Plant- and fuel-specific CH 4 -tar correlations are convenient to monitor activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]