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This article presents findings from a recent study of the education policy uses and impact of international large-scale assessments, namely the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The paper focuses on two overlapping dimensions of PISA's education policy use in the context of Spain. These include political dimensions, such as the use of PISA to initiate and justify the 2012-2013 educational reforms; and technical dimensions, namely the use of PISA in the development of national-level indicators used to benchmark progress and guide education and curriculum reform. The study points to the growing dominance of PISA as a powerful policy tool. Findings from the paper add to the body of literature on the different ways in which international assessments are used to guide education policy within national spaces and the role of the OECD as an agent of transnational policy steering.

In recent years, many European education systems have embarked on a process of education policy and curriculum reform related to citizenship education. This article explores citizenship education reform in the context of Spain. It considers how and to what extent Spain's 2006 citizenship education addressed issues of national and global citizenship, as well as cultural diversity and immigration. Against a typology of four distinct approaches to national and global citizenship education, including traditional, skills-based, values-based, and reflexive approaches, the article draws on qualitative content analysis of Spain's recent Education for Citizenship and Human Rights curriculum and associated textbooks. Findings focus on themes of human rights, national and global citizenship, and cultural diversity and co-existence.

There is increasing attention worldwide to advancing quality education. Beyond a rhetorical aim, many international organizations and national education systems have articulated a commitment to promoting measures of quality education through the development of educational indicators. This article broadly explores the global influences on national definitions and measures of quality education through examining select educational issues in Spain and Italy. Through an examination of select educational issues in these two illustrative national examples, there appears to be a connection between the ways in which educational quality indicators are used and defined at the national and international level. These examples provide insight into how the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) influences educational policy developments in quality education within the national space, particularly through its own "Education at a Glance" indicators and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The authors argue that by including key international indicators of quality at the national level, the OECD wields considerable influence in national education policy spaces, and, furthermore, narrows what it means to develop quality education.

This paper examines the Europeanization of citizenship education policy through a comparative analysis of two European states, Germany and Spain, with strong traditions of regional control of education policy. While previous studies have tended to focus on national responses to and implementation of EU initiatives, they often disregarded the complex relationship regional actors have with national state and supranational actors. Using evidence from interviews and a detailed framing analysis of citizenship education curricula, textbooks, and policy documents, this paper looks specifically at Catalonia and Bavaria to explore the conception of the "ideal citizen" within and across local education practice(s), regional policy imperatives, central state-level citizenship education policy, German and Spanish federal policy related to citizenship and immigration, and EU educational initiatives. (Contains 1 table and 6 notes.)

This paper examines educational policy production through an exploration of the shifting policies of educational decentralisation in Catalonia, Spain. It seeks to illuminate how in the era of globalisation, policy is produced through multiscalar processes involving a range of intersecting factors. This analysis shows that policy concepts surrounding educational decentralisation are not only formed in relation to national-regional dynamics but are influenced more broadly by a more complex set of supranational and global considerations. This article thus maps how decentralisation policies in Catalonia are in a constant state of flux, rearticulated through contrasting pressures on state arrangements and educational governance structures.

In recent literature, there has been extensive work revolving around the process of neoliberalism, its implications for the unfolding of state spaces, and its dramatic impact on processes of policy production. Some of this literature offers a periodized trajectory of neoliberalization, by first discussing the consolidation of the Keynesian welfare state (KWS) in the 1950s and 1960s, its subsequent erosion in the 1970s and 1980s, and the restructuring and dramatic rescaling of the state in the 1990s. Utilizing examples of Spanish educational policy in the post-Franco era, this paper explores some of the complex ways in which neoliberal pressures are impacting states situated outside these KWS templates.

Training in emotional regulation skills is one of the most important resources for the adaptation of athletes to contexts of sports pressure, especially during competitions. This study explored the effects of a mindfulness programme (Flow Meditation) on levels of impulsivity, mood and pre-competition anxiety-state in a sample of athletes (N = 41, 22.83 ± 5.62 years). Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (N = 21; 14 males and 7 females) which received the intervention over 10 weeks (a weekly session) and a control group (wait-list; N = 20; 13 males and 7 females). The variables under study were assessed through different questionnaires at pre- and post-test (T1–T2) in both groups. The mindfulness intervention was effective in reducing impulsivity (cognitive (t = −4.48, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.40), both motor (t = −4.03, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.20) and unplanned (t = −5.32, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.66)), mood (tension (t = −4.40, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.37), depression (t = −4.56, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.42), anger (t = −7.80, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 2.47), somatic anxiety (t = −5.28, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.65), and cognitive anxiety (t = −6.62, p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 2.07) in the intervention group compared to the control group and with large to very large effect sizes. Mindfulness is a factor that enhances athletes' ability to cope with high sport pressure and the healthy management of competition (e.g., fear of failure), or with their daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The impact of the new "borderline" hemodynamic class for pulmonary hypertension (PH) (mean pulmonary artery pressure [mPAP], 21–24 mm Hg and pulmonary vascular resistance, [PVR], ≥3 wood units, [WU]) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) is unclear. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of borderline PH (BLPH) on survival in COPD and ILD patients. Method: Survival was analyzed from retrospective data from 317 patients in 12 centers (Italy, Spain, UK) comparing four hemodynamic groups: the absence of PH (NoPH; mPAP <21 mm Hg or 21–24 mm Hg and PVR <3 WU), BLPH (mPAP 21–24 mm Hg and PVR ≥3 WU), mild-moderate PH (MPH; mPAP 25–35 mm Hg and cardiac index [CI] ≥2 L/min/m2), and severe PH (SPH; mPAP ≥35 mm Hg or mPAP ≥25 mm Hg and CI <2 L/min/m2). Results: BLPH affected 14% of patients; hemodynamic severity did not predict survival when COPD and ILD patients were analyzed together. However, survival in the ILD cohort for any PH level was worse than in NoPH (3-year survival: NoPH 58%, BLPH 32%, MPH 28%, SPH 33%, p = 0.002). In the COPD cohort, only SPH had reduced survival compared to the other groups (3-year survival: NoPH 82%, BLPH 86%, MPH 87%, SPH 57%, p = 0.005). The mortality risk correlated significantly with mPAP in ILD (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.776, 95% CI: 2.057–3.748, p < 0.001) and notably less in COPD patients (HR: 1.015, 95% CI: 1.003–1.027, p = 0.0146). Conclusions: In ILD, any level of PH portends worse survival, while in COPD, only SPH presents a worse outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Making a differential diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is not straightforward. This is partly because of its heterogeneous presentation and partly because many patients with PsA are initially diagnosed with psoriasis and treated in primary care or by dermatologists, with referral to rheumatologists being delayed. Once diagnosed, optimal disease control requires frequent specialist monitoring, adjustment or switching of therapies, and management of comorbidities and concomitant diseases, as well as attention to patients' overall well-being. Given the breadth of expertise that diagnosis and management of PsA requires, we sought to define a collaborative, structured framework that supports the optimisation of multidisciplinary care for patients with PsA in Europe.Methods: An expert panel comprising four rheumatologists, three dermatologists, two specialist nurses and one psychologist-from Spain, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy-met face-to-face to take part in a modified Delphi exercise.Results: The result of this exercise is a set of recommendations that are based on combining published evidence with the panel's extensive clinical experience. Recommendations can be implemented in a number of ways, but the central call-to-action of this framework is the need for improved collaboration between dermatologists (or primary care physicians) and rheumatologists. This could occur in a variety of different formats: standard referral pathways, multidisciplinary physician meetings to discuss patient cases, or 'one stop', combined clinics.Conclusion: We anticipate that when the majority of patients with PsA receive regular multidisciplinary care, improved patient outcomes will follow, although robust research is needed to explore this assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]