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Research on sex-related differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been impeded by small samples. We pooled 28 datasets from 18 sites across nine European countries to examine sex differences in the ASD phenotype on the ADI-R (376 females, 1763 males) and ADOS (233 females, 1187 males). On the ADI-R, early childhood restricted and repetitive behaviours were lower in females than males, alongside comparable levels of social interaction and communication difficulties in females and males. Current ADI-R and ADOS scores showed no sex differences for ASD severity. There were lower socio-communicative symptoms in older compared to younger individuals. This large European ASD sample adds to the literature on sex and age variations of ASD symptomatology.

Collaboration between teachers constitutes an important predictor for the successful implementation of digital media in schools and teaching. The present contribution examines the supporting conditions of ICT (information and communications technology)-related teacher collaboration as a feature of school quality in six selected European educational systems on the basis of the instruments and data administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's study of ICILS 2013 (International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2013). Along the ICILS 2013 theoretical framework, predictors on the level of the school and classroom, antecedents regarding teachers' attitudes and competencies, variables concerning processes at school and in class, as well as teachers' background variables, are analysed. The regression analysis shows no consistent differences regarding the coefficients of different predictors with respect to ICT-related collaboration in the countries where teachers have expressed a high, medium or low rate of agreement with ICT-related collaboration.

There is a lack of knowledge about the effectiveness and efficiency of soil conservation policies in agriculture and there is a little understanding of how policy measures should be designed to encourage farmers to adopt soil conservation practices. This paper analyses institutional settings surrounding agricultural soil management in ten European countries based on the Institutions of Sustainability (IoS) framework. This framework considers the interdependencies between ecological and social systems, taking into account environmental conditions, farming practices impacting on soil conservation, different types of actors, policies, institutions and governance structures. The purpose of this paper is to describe the analytical framework and the methodology that all case studies are based on, present and discuss compared findings, outline implications for successful soil conservation policy and draw conclusions on the methodological approach. The case studies focused on the main soil degradation types occurring across Europe which are addressed by a broad range of mandatory and incentive policies. The findings highlight the following issues: (i) the need to design policies that target the locally most common soil threats and processes in the light of agricultural management; (ii) the need to take farming management constraints into consideration, (iii) the need for good communication and cooperation both between agricultural and environmental authorities as well as between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders; (iv) the necessary mix of mandatory and incentive instruments and (v) the need for data and monitoring systems allowing the evaluation of the effectiveness of policies and soil conservation practices. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Einleitung: Chronische Krankheiten stellen für die Gesundheitssysteme vieler Länder eine ernstzunehmende Belastung dar und zählen zu den größten Herausforderungen für die kommenden Jahre. Allein Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen sind für mehr als die Hälfte aller Todesfälle in der Europäischen Region verantwortlich und verursachen den höchsten Anteil an der Krankheitslast (23%), gefolgt von psychischen Gesundheitsproblemen (20%) und Krebs (11%). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]