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The last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed a new but rapidly spreading perspective on the link between education and nature: middle-class philanthropists joining together to provide summer vacations in the countryside for poor, sickly, urban children. Drawing on numerous examples of such work in Europe and the United States, this essay highlights the common traits and local variations of these programmes designed to improve the physical health and often the moral tone of such endangered children. It highlights in particular the fundamental disagreements over whether it was better to house such children in the homes of rural families or to keep them together in groups under the supervision of teachers or other adults. In conclusion, it examines the important role of a single patron, the Prussian/German Crown Princess Victoria.

Fairy tales are not new to foreign language instructors, but on occasion they have been considered wither exoteric or unworthy of class time. Yet today there is a resurgence of interest in fairy tales and a rebirth of their use in the arts, which may serve foreign language instructors. This article presents historical background to inform instructors of the origin and development of European fairy tales, while also providing them with necessary information to answer students' questions on fairy tales. It further describes how the author weaves fairy tales into classes on several levels and illustrates how well the tales lend themselves to the learning of other languages and cultures. Course details offer instructors some essentials that may prove beneficial in designing their own courses. Information is relevant to all languages. (This article contains 7 endnotes.)

Examines the demand for German in the East, the ways in which Germany is trying to meet it and the resulting controversy. Also examines the work of major language and cultural organizations in furthering the study of German in Eastern Europe and notes ramifications for German study in the United States. (37 references) (Author/CK)

The assessment of pesticide risks to insect pollinators have typically focused on short-term, lethal impacts. The environmental ramifications of many of the world's most commonly employed pesticides, such as those exhibiting systemic properties that can result in long-lasting exposure to insects, may thus be severely underestimated. Here, seven laboratories from Europe and North America performed a standardised experiment (a ring-test) to study the long-term lethal and sublethal impacts of the relatively recently approved 'bee safe' butenolide pesticide flupyradifurone (FPF, active ingredient in Sivanto®) on honey bees. The emerging contaminant, FPF, impaired bee survival and behaviour at field-realistic doses (down to 11 ng/bee/day, corresponding to 400 µg/kg) that were up to 101-fold lower than those reported by risk assessments (1110 ng/bee/day), despite an absence of time-reinforced toxicity. Our findings raise concerns about the chronic impact of pesticides on pollinators at a global scale and support a novel methodology for a refined risk assessment. Tosi and colleagues perform a large, multinational experiment on honey bees, encompassing multiple subspecies, to assess the short- and long-term effects of a next-generation pesticide, flupyradifurone, on this key pollinator species. Their findings indicate that this "bee safe" pesticide impairs survival and behaviour at real-world exposure levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity has been shown to predict calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS) outcomes. Our objective was to test the association between plasma Lp-PLA2 activity and genetically elevated Lp-PLA2 mass/activity with CAVS in humans.Methods and Results: Lp-PLA2 activity was measured in 890 patients undergoing cardiac surgery, including 476 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement for CAVS and 414 control patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. After multivariable adjustment, Lp-PLA2 activity was positively associated with the presence of CAVS (OR=1.21 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.41) per SD increment). We selected four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the PLA2G7 locus associated with either Lp-PLA2 mass or activity (rs7756935, rs1421368, rs1805017 and rs4498351). Genetic association studies were performed in eight cohorts: Quebec-CAVS (1009 cases/1017 controls), UK Biobank (1350 cases/349 043 controls), European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk (504 cases/20 307 controls), Genetic Epidemiology Research on Aging (3469 cases/51 723 controls), Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (682 cases/5963 controls) and three French cohorts (3123 cases/6532 controls), totalling 10 137 CAVS cases and 434 585 controls. A fixed-effect meta-analysis using the inverse-variance weighted method revealed that none of the four SNPs was associated with CAVS (OR=0.99 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.02, p=0.55) for rs7756935, 0.97 (95% CI 0.93 to 1.01, p=0.11) for rs1421368, 1.00 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.01, p=0.29) for rs1805017, and 1.00 (95% CI 0.97 to 1.04, p=0.87) for rs4498351).Conclusions: Higher Lp-PLA2 activity is significantly associated with the presence of CAVS and might represent a biomarker of CAVS in patients with heart disease. Results of our genetic association study suggest that Lp-PLA2 is however unlikely to represent a causal risk factor or therapeutic target for CAVS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the potency monitoring program at the University of Mississippi supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a total of 18108 samples of cannabis preparations have been analyzed over the last decade, using a validated GC/FID method. The samples are classified as sinsemilla, marijuana, ditchweed, hashish, and hash oil (now referred to as cannabis concentrate). The number of samples received over the last 5 years has decreased dramatically due to the legalization of marijuana either for medical or for recreational purposes in many US states. The results showed that the mean Δ9-THC concentration has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, from 8.9% in 2008 to 17.1% in 2017. The mean Δ9-THC:CBD ratio also rose substantially from 23 in 2008 to 104 in 2017. There was also marked increase in the proportion of hash oil samples (concentrates) seized (0.5-4.7%) and their mean Δ9-THC concentration (6.7-55.7%) from 2008 to 2017. Other potency monitoring programs are also present in several European countries such as The Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, and Italy. These programs have also documented increases in Δ9-THC concentrations and Δ9-THC:CBD ratios in cannabis. These trends in the last decade suggest that cannabis is becoming an increasingly harmful product in the USA and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses upon the perceived need satisfactions of United States business executives working in Europe and United States business executives working in the continental U.S. Comparisons of need satisfaction data were made on the basis of the managerial level of the respondents. A sample of 75 managers in Europe and 404 managers in the United States provide the empirical data base for the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A serious gap exists in research into the religious dimensions of the "new Silk Road," which stretches from the east coast of China to the heart of Europe. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived. Yet it is more than a commerce and communications corridor. Religious peoples, beliefs, ideas, and practices transverse the BRI, challenging China and the United States as they advance competing visions of religious freedom. This article offers an historical and policy perspective on the religious challenges facing the BRI rather than an advocacy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parametric mapping techniques provide a non-invasive tool for quantifying tissue alterations in myocardial disease in those eligible for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Parametric mapping with CMR now permits the routine spatial visualization and quantification of changes in myocardial composition based on changes in T1, T2, and T2*(star) relaxation times and extracellular volume (ECV). These changes include specific disease pathways related to mainly intracellular disturbances of the cardiomyocyte (e.g., iron overload, or glycosphingolipid accumulation in Anderson-Fabry disease); extracellular disturbances in the myocardial interstitium (e.g., myocardial fibrosis or cardiac amyloidosis from accumulation of collagen or amyloid proteins, respectively); or both (myocardial edema with increased intracellular and/or extracellular water). Parametric mapping promises improvements in patient care through advances in quantitative diagnostics, inter- and intra-patient comparability, and relatedly improvements in treatment. There is a multitude of technical approaches and potential applications. This document provides a summary of the existing evidence for the clinical value of parametric mapping in the heart as of mid 2017, and gives recommendations for practical use in different clinical scenarios for scientists, clinicians, and CMR manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We seek answers to three questions about adolescent risk of starting to drink alcoholic beverages: (1) in new United States (US) data, can we reproduce a recently discovered female excess risk? (2) has a female excess risk emerged in European countries? and (3) might the size of country-level female-male differences (FMD) be influenced by macro-level gender equality and development processes?Methods: Estimates are from US and European surveys of adolescents, 2010-2014. For US estimates, newly incident drinking refers to consuming the first full drink during the 12-month interval just prior to assessment. For all countries, lifetime cumulative incidence of drinking refers to any drinking before assessment of the sampled 15-16 years.Results: Cumulative meta-analysis summary estimates from the US show a highly reproducible female excess in newly incident drinking among 12-17 years (final estimated female-male difference in risk, FMD = 2.1%; 95% confidence interval = 1.5%, 2.7%). Several European countries show female excess risk, estimated as lifetime cumulative incidence of drinking onsets before age 17 years. At the country level, the observed magnitude of FMD in risk is positively associated with the Gender Development Index (especially facets related to education and life expectancy of females relative to males), and with residence in a higher income European country.Conclusions: New FMD estimates support reproducibility of a female excess risk in the US. In Europe, evidence of a female excess is modest. Educational attainment, life expectancies, and income merit attention in future FMD research on suspected macro-level processes that influence drinking onsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the long-memory properties of US and European stock indices, as well as their linkages, using fractional integration and fractional cointegration techniques. These methods are more general and have higher power than the standard ones usually employed in the literature. The empirical evidence based on them suggests the presence of unit roots in both the Standard and Poor's 500 Index and the Euro Stoxx 50 Index. Also, fractional cointegration appears to hold at least for the subsample from December 1996 to March 2009 ending when the global financial crisis was still severe; subsequently, the US and European stock markets diverged and followed different recovery paths, possibly as a result of various factors such as diverging growth and monetary policy. Establishing whether the degree of cointegration has changed over time is important because past literature has shown that diversification benefits arise when markets are not cointegrated. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Medical Research Council (MRC) Framework for complex interventions highlights the need to explore interactions between components of complex interventions, but this has not yet been fully explored within complex, non-pharmacological interventions. This paper draws on the process evaluation data of a suicide prevention programme implemented in four European countries to illustrate the synergistic interactions between intervention levels in a complex programme, and to present our method for exploring these.Methods: A realist evaluation approach informed the process evaluation, which drew on mixed methods, longitudinal case studies. Data collection consisted of 47 semi-structured interviews, 12 focus groups, one workshop, fieldnoted observations of six programme meetings and 20 questionnaires (delivered at six month intervals to each of the four intervention sites). Analysis drew on the framework approach, facilitated by the use of QSR NVivo (v10). Our qualitative approach to exploring synergistic interactions (QuaSIC) also developed a matrix of hypothesised synergies that were explored within one workshop and two waves of data collection.Results: All four implementation countries provided examples of synergistic interactions that added value beyond the sum of individual intervention levels or components in isolation. For instance, the launch ceremony of the public health campaign (a level 3 intervention) in Ireland had an impact on the community-based professional training, increasing uptake and visibility of training for journalists in particular. In turn, this led to increased media reporting of OSPI activities (monitored as part of the public health campaign) and also led to wider dissemination of editorial guidelines for responsible reporting of suicidal acts. Analysis of the total process evaluation dataset also revealed the new phenomenon of the OSPI programme acting as a catalyst for externally generated (and funded) activity that shared the goals of suicide prevention.Conclusions: The QuaSIC approach enabled us to develop and refine our definition of synergistic interactions and add the innovative concept of catalytic effects. This represents a novel approach to the evaluation of complex interventions. By exploring synergies and catalytic interactions related to a complex intervention or programme, we reveal the added value to planned activities and how they might be maximised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a survey on the approaches to HIV self-testing (HIVST) among populations in Europe. Topics discussed include its benefits to increase the range of voluntary early diagnosis, collaboration between governments and other diagnostic organizations for efficient assessment, and need of support from the government to provide consumer-friendly testing.

Rugby league is a collision sport which traditionally adopts a large emphasis on lean muscle mass. Currently there is limited research on the anthropometry of European Super League players. The aim of this study was to assess body composition using Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scans to identify the typical profile of elite rugby league players. One hundred and twelve players from five different clubs competing in the European Super League were recruited for the study. DXA scans were performed and the total mass, lean mass, fat mass and percentage body fat were reported for each positional group. For the Fullback and Wingers, Centres, Half Backs, Hookers, Props and Back Row Forwards the mean (SD) body fat percentage was 13 (2.1), 13 (2.4), 12 (3.4), 15 (3.9), 16 (4.3) and 15 (2.1)%, respectively, and total mass was 86 (8.2), 91 (6.6), 81 (8), 84 (9.5) 102 (8.5) and 93 (5.5) kg, respectively. Despite small to very large inter positional differences in all anthropometric variables (effect sizes = −0.08 to 2.56), particularly between the Prop and the other playing positions, there was large intra-position variation in body fat, lean mass and total mass making a standardised position specific profile difficult to establish. When used with other key performance indicators, these data provide the first multi-team anthropometric profile of elite Super League players that can be used to guide individualised training and nutrition practices for current and aspiring athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: There is an urgent need for health authorities across Europe to fully realize potential savings from increased use of generics to sustain their healthcare systems. A variety of strategies were used across Europe following the availability of generic losartan, the first angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) to be approved and marketed, to enhance its prescribing vs. single-sourced drugs in the class. Demand-side strategies ranged from 100% co-payment for single-sourced ARBs in Denmark to no specific measures. We hypothesized this heterogeneity of approaches would provide opportunities to explore prescribing in a class following patent expiry. Objective: Contrast the impact of the different approaches among European countries and regions to the availability of generic losartan to provide future guidance. Methodology: Retrospective segmented regression analyses applying linear random coefficient models with country specific intercepts and slopes were used to assess the impact of the various initiatives across Europe following the availability of generic losartan. Utilization measured in defined daily doses (DDDs). Price reductions for generic losartan were also measured. Results: Utilization of losartan was over 90% of all ARBs in Denmark by the study end. Multiple measures in Sweden and one English primary care group also appreciably enhanced losartan utilization. Losartan utilization actually fell in some countries with no specific demand-side measures. Considerable differences were seen in the prices of generic losartan. Conclusion: Delisting single-sourced ARBs produced the greatest increase in losartan utilization. Overall, multiple demand-side measures are needed to change physician prescribing habits to fully realize savings from generics. There is no apparent "spill over" effect from one class to another to influence future prescribing patterns even if these are closely related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in men of the United States and Europe, and although current treatments have efficacy in treating primary prostate cancer, they are associated with a decreased quality of life and are ineffective in treating the metastatic disease. The identification of oncogenes associated with the formation, proliferation, and metastasis of prostate cancer has presented promising targets for RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene therapy. However, the potential of RNAi as a successful therapeutic depends on effective delivery. In this review, we discuss the potential of targeting oncogenes implicated in prostate cancer with RNAi-based therapeutics using non-viral bioresponsive ‘smart’ delivery systems that work in harmony with the physiological and biochemical environments of prostate tumours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptic diversity within bumblebees (Bombus) has the potential to undermine crucial conservation efforts designed to reverse the observed decline in many bumblebee species worldwide. Central to such efforts is the ability to correctly recognise and diagnose species. The B. lucorum complex (Bombus lucorum, B. cryptarum and B. magnus) comprises one of the most abundant and important group of wild plant and crop pollinators in northern Europe. Although the workers of these species are notoriously difficult to diagnose morphologically, it has been claimed that queens are readily diagnosable from morphological characters. Here we assess the value of colour-pattern characters in species identification of DNA-barcoded queens from the B. lucorum complex. Three distinct molecular operational taxonomic units were identified each representing one species. However, no uniquely diagnostic colour-pattern character state was found for any of these three molecular units and most colour-pattern characters showed continuous variation among the units. All characters previously deemed to be unique and diagnostic for one species were displayed by specimens molecularly identified as a different species. These results presented here raise questions on the reliability of species determinations in previous studies and highlights the benefits of implementing DNA barcoding prior to ecological, taxonomic and conservation studies of these important key pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disciplinary structures of education across Europe are rather different mainly due to the fact that education as an anthropological phenomenon is deeply rooted in specific cultural and national contexts. For this reason the role philosophy of education plays within the given national educational sciences is somewhat divergent and not easy to compare. In face of these difficulties the article argues for a cross-national attempt using theorems deriving from modern systems theory. From such a perspective philosophy of education can be regarded as a special ‘knowledge system’ and its function consists in re-including what has been excluded in the process of rationalisation of education; it serves, so to speak, as a special type of reflection knowledge which is as timeless as it is necessary and therefore of meta-national relevance and indispensable for the process of Europeanisation of education.It is reasonably easy to accept Kraft's claim that education is indeed a local social practice, which has emerged out of complex historical and social forces. But to do so is not to accept that there is some kind of incommensurability between the conceptual languages that emerge out of such local conditions. Indeed underlying the particular understandings/problem/challenges that emerge in particular political and cultural contexts are deep commonalities and it is part of the task of philosophy of education to make sense of these. In distinction to Kraft's proposal that we disaggregate the theoretical and the practical, so as to free up the philosophical to do its proper work, the argument presented here is that such dissociation will fail to enable philosophy to do the work of moving education forward. It will fail because it leaves the teacher bereft of the necessary intellectual resources to engage professionally in the task of education. Education is ineluctably a normative engagement and as such requires the teacher to reflect philosophically on its nature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the final argument that supports the state practice sufficient to the ground of a broad duty of non-refoulement in customary international law in Europe. It explains that the essence of argument surrounds in the broad meaning of state practice, which justified under the word practice in relevance to the practice norms and the protection of the refugees. In addition, the human rights law encompasses the rights of refugees under the United Nations Torture Convention.

Background: Suicide and non-fatal suicidal behaviour are significant public health issues in Europe requiring effective preventive interventions. However, the evidence for effective preventive strategies is scarce. The protocol of a European research project to develop an optimized evidence based program for suicide prevention is presented. Method: The groundwork for this research has been established by a regional community based intervention for suicide prevention that focuses on improving awareness and care for depression performed within the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD). The EAAD intervention consists of (1) training sessions and practice support for primary care physicians,(2) public relations activities and mass media campaigns, (3) training sessions for community facilitators who serve as gatekeepers for depressed and suicidal persons in the community and treatment and (4) outreach and support for high risk and self-help groups (e.g. helplines). The intervention has been shown to be effective in reducing suicidal behaviour in an earlier study, the Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression. In the context of the current research project described in this paper (OSPI-Europe) the EAAD model is enhanced by other evidence based interventions and implemented simultaneously and in standardised way in four regions in Ireland, Portugal, Hungary and Germany. The enhanced intervention will be evaluated using a prospective controlled design with the primary outcomes being composite suicidal acts (fatal and non-fatal), and with intermediate outcomes being the effect of training programs, changes in public attitudes, guideline-consistent media reporting. In addition an analysis of the economic costs and consequences will be undertaken, while a process evaluation will monitor implementation of the interventions within the different regions with varying organisational and healthcare contexts. Discussion: This multi-centre research seeks to overcome major challenges of field research in suicide prevention. It pools data from four European regions, considerably increasing the study sample, which will be close to one million. In addition, the study will gather important information concerning the potential to transfer this multilevel program to other health care systems. The results of this research will provide a basis for developing an evidence-based, efficient concept for suicide prevention for EU-member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on the initiative of the European Commission (EC) to work with countries of the western Balkans, in preparation for the European Union (EU) membership. Although skepticism about further enlargement of the EU still continue to emerge, the EC continues to judge the aspirants for membership. Leaders in Europe will then decide on whether to live up to their own rhetoric in favor of the expansion or conform to the expectations of their publics by its decision to oppose it.

Explores the struggles by European women to gain access to the legal profession, primarily as private attorneys. Arguments of women and supporters; Resistance encountered; Examination of the processes by which women in European countries entered the legal profession.

In this analysis of little traditions and popular religion in Europe and Southeast Asia, the author's point has been to demonstrate that, among the peasantry in most complex agrarian societies one can find a pattern of profanations symbolic reversals of the existing social order. Much as the official religious doctrine is selected, reworked, and profaned in little tradition cults, so is the existing political order symbolically negated in popular millennial traditions. For the most part, as the author has stressed, these symbolic reversals are an undertone a counterpoint, to dominant religious and political ideas. When outside forces or natural disasters appear to overwhelm the peasantry and play havoc with the normal categories of experience, however, this alternative World may chart a new course of action and open up new possibilities. This alternative symbolic world is constructed, one must not forget, largely in reaction to what might be described as the historic process of modernization-the creation of a bureaucratic state.

The article analyzes the erosion of refugee protection in the European region in light of the economic integration efforts. It discusses the implications of the European economic integration for the international system of refugee protection in terms of substance and process. Moreover, it cites that European community governments have seized on the opportunity to renounce their participation in the inter-regional system of asylum under the guise of regional economic harmonization. Further, it discusses the development and evolution of a deterrent regime that restricts inter-regional migration within the European region through the establishment of migration-hampering policies.

Focuses on the health care issues in Europe. Use of technetium-99m autologous phagocyte scanning for inflammatory bowel disease; Effect of subcutaneous estradiol implants and cyclical oral norethisterone on the treatment of the premenstrual syndrome; Length of survival of patients with AIDS.

Focuses on the decline of the mortality rate of the population in Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. Role of insects in the transmission of diseases during the pre-decline era; Importance of studying diseases and their modes of transmission; Impact of the discovery of the role of insects in disease transmission on the mortality rate.

This article examines whether three of the neutral nations of Europe (i.e., Sweden, Switzerland, and Finland) have adhered to their choice of armed neutrality by being self-reliant on their own defenses. Using a joint product model, we specify a reduced-form equation for a nation's demand for military expenditures. Our empirical estimates of these demands suggest that Sweden free rode on NATO after institution of the doctrine of flexible response; however, the other two neutral nations have been self-reliant throughout the period 1957-82. In the case of Sweden, the traditional assumption of no interalliance spillovers does not hold. With pooled data, cross-equation restrictions highlight the essential differences between NATO and nonaligned Scandinavian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstrates the consistency of the voluntary reductions in sulfur emissions in Europe during the early 1980s with the cutbacks subsequently mandated by the Helsinki Protocol. Noncooperative model of sulfur emission reductions that accounts for the transboundary transport of emissions; Estimation of the demand equation for the European cutbacks.

Focuses on porphyria, a group of inherited and acquired disorders involving the heme biosynthesis pathway in Europe. Origin of porphyria; European royalty who were sufferers of porphyria; Impact of poryphyria on world history.

In the original publication, table 2 contained data that should not have been included in table 2 and also was not discussed in the body of the manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]