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Purpose: The Comprehensive assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CompACT) is a 23-item questionnaire measuring psychological flexibility, a quality of life protective factor. An 18-item version was recently produced. We assessed validity and reliability of CompACT, and equivalence of paper and electronic (eCompACT) versions in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) in Italy, Germany and Spain. Methods: We used confirmatory factor analysis and assessed CompACT-23 and CompACT-18 measurement invariance between the three language versions. We assessed construct validity (Spearman's correlations) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha). Test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) and equivalence of paper and eCompACT (ICC and linear regression model for repeated measures) were assessed in subsamples of PwMS. Results: A total of 725 PwMS completed the study. The three-factor structure of the CompACT-23 showed poor fit (RMSEA 0.07; CFI 0.82; SRMR 0.08), while the fit of the CompACT-18 was good (RMSEA 0.05; CFI 0.93; SRMR 0.05). Configural and partial metric invariance were confirmed, as well as partial scalar invariance (reached when five items were allowed to vary freely). The CompACT-18 showed good internal consistency (all alpha ≥ 0.78); and test–retest reliability (all ICCs ≥ 0.86). Equivalence between paper and eCompACT was excellent (all ICCs ≥ 0.86), with no mode, order, or interaction effects. Conclusion: Results support using the refined CompACT-18 as a three-factor measure of psychological flexibility in PwMS. Paper and eCompACT-18 versions are equivalent. CompACT-18 can be used cross-culturally, but sub-optimal scalar invariance suggests that direct comparison between the three language versions should be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a meta-analysis of 29 studies run using the Mind Genomics approach to quantify how respondents react to messaging and how their reaction impacts decision-making in social psychology experimental research areas. The Mind Genomics studies used were performed during the 2020-2022 period in the USA, Italy, Spain, Albania, and other countries of the Mediterranean basin. The paper focuses on identifying gender differences in response time and evaluations of messages on different topics calculated by the Mind Genomics-Artificial Intelligence system. Further, the meta-analysis results are based on Kahneman's (2011) study results. The study's general result demonstrates that male and female participants' thinking is intuitive, automatic, and emotionally oriented. The study also confirms that the gender's response time does not affect the results of the experiment. In addition, is argued that genderbased perceptions differ according to the topic and are considered relevant in decision-making on some topics. These study results can be used to predict the experiment's results for new participants without having them repeat the entire experimental procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation networks enable analysis of author groups, defining in-group dynamics, and mapping out inter-group relationships. While intellectual diversity and inclusiveness is one of the important principles of modern scholarship, it is intriguing to explore the extent to which these principles apply to historical communities of leaders and intellectuals. This paper introduces a novel methodological framework aimed at assessing the degree of viewpoint plurality and diversity of historical scholarship communities, through an in-depth analysis of the citations used in their literature, which has become possible due to the recently developed advanced computational analysis techniques. To achieve this goal, we have devised a set of new network-based indicators grounded in standard network metrics. These indicators can be applied at both the individual author and community levels. The developed methodology was applied to a citation network automatically constructed from a corpus of Rabbinic Halachic literature spanning the 10th to 15th centuries. This corpus includes over 5,000 citations from hundreds of books authored by approximately 140 Rabbinic scholars from six diverse geographic communities. We found that most of the authors and communities cite many more external resources from other communities than their own reflecting a willingness to engage with a diverse range of viewpoints. A more in-depth analysis based on the novel proportional diversity measures unveils more intriguing insights. Contrary to expectations, communities with the greatest number of external citations, such as Spain and Ashkenaz, surprisingly exhibit lower levels of viewpoint plurality compared to others, such as Italy and North Africa, elucidating a key finding of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the logic for using the concept of gender-related violence (GRV) as a broad category that problematises homophobia, transphobia and the policing of gender norms and the gender binary, as well as gender-based violence—understood as primarily violence against women and girls (VAWG). It then evaluates the utility of this concept and its capacity to introduce theoretical refinement to the study of gendered violence, by reviewing its reception within a large international feminist project on gendered violence in the lives of children and young people. The aim of this study was to improve knowledge and understanding of forms of violence and discrimination among practitioners who have everyday contact with general populations of children and young people. It sought to improve their ability to identify and challenge sexist, sexualising, homophobic or transphobic language or behaviour, and their knowledge of how and when to refer children and young people to appropriate support. The paper reports my view of the contribution that the concept of gender-related violence made in each of the four project sites: Ireland, Italy, Spain and the UK. The findings are mixed: in Spain and the UK the concept seemed helpful, but in Italy and Ireland it was initially expected to be helpful but, in practice, a conceptualisation closer to gender-based violence plus homophobia was employed. It is tentatively concluded that where LGBTQIA+ rights were well-established as well as the problematisation of VAWG, this framework was successful, but that it was less successful in more heteronormative sites where homophobia was less problematised. It is suggested that, as a concept, GRV can make a valuable intervention in sites like the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of uncertainty on income and wealth inequality in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. For that purpose, mixed-frequency SVAR models are used. The results show that uncertainty shocks lead to heterogeneous responses across countries. A positive uncertainty shock increases income inequality in Spain, but reduces it in Germany and France. In the case of wealth, the response is statistically significant only in Spain and Italy, where an increase in inequality is experienced. Overall, these results highlight the important role of macroeconomic stabilisation policies in situations of high uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and young people who come into conflict with the law tend to be disengaged with education and learning. This paper reports on research from an EU Erasmus+ project in Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. The research focused on the impact of Authentic Inquiry (AI) on learners in custodial or youth justice settings and the impact on educators and their pedagogy. Quantitative data (from 82 educators and 73 young people), demonstrated the young people could be re-engaged with education and learning as evidenced in the change in Learning Power profiles. Qualitative data (from 16 educators and 14 young people) showed the greatest impact to be on the emotional component of engagement. The AI had an impact xon educators as learners by improved Learning Power profiles and on their pedagogical approach. Ways to embed the approach into education in youth justice settings in the different country contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in irrigated crop areas, especially in countries such as Spain and Italy, has led to an increase in technological solutions for monitoring the irrigation. Furthermore, the centre pivot irrigation systems used in these crops have facilitated the daily work of farmers in recent years, however, the monitoring of these systems and the reporting of problems in their operation has become a key aspect during the growing season. For this reason, different monitoring solutions have been proposed from the area of Precision Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Nevertheless, it is necessary that these solutions take into account the digital divide their potential users may suffer and be low-cost solutions in order to be attractive to the end-users. This paper presents several low-cost solutions using novel user interfaces and wireless communication technologies for the monitoring of this type of irrigation systems. This paper presents the results obtained after the deployment of the proposed systems on a real environment and the main conclusions drawn after their use in irrigated maize crops. • LoRaWAN and GPS allow affordable monitoring systems for centre pivot irrigation. • Chatbots and voice assistants help to avoid the digital divide. • Edge Computing Devices and LPWANs enable new AMR solutions for water meters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to test the existence of the so-called industrial district effect on innovation (iMID effect) in Spain and Italy and to compare the intensity of this effect between both countries. There is previous evidence of this effect for Spain, although, to the best of the authors' knowledge, it has never been measured for Italy. Design/methodology/approach: Innovation intensity by local production system is measured using patents per million employees and analysed using the mean, the median, 3D maps and statistical tests. Findings: Industrial districts generate between a third and a quarter of all technological innovations in Spain and Italy. The evidence about the district effect in innovation in Spain is consistent with previous studies. The novelty is that there is also evidence of this effect for Italy and its intensity is higher than for Spain. Almost one-half of the industrial districts fit in the most innovative quartile of local production systems, and they are located in the most innovative part of each country. Research limitations/implications: Limitations of this study include minor database issues. Implications include new focus on the general relevance of industrial districts as highly innovative local production systems and top innovators. Practical implications: Reorientation of territorial and innovation policies. Social implications: Effect on development and well-being through technical progress. Originality/value: This article provides, for the first time, to the best of the authors' knowledge, a measurement of the industrial district effect on innovation in Italy. The paper compares the results between Spain and Italy and allows for generalization of previous evidence, concluding that highly innovative industrial districts are not "rare diamonds", revealing as an alternative and an extraordinarily powerful place-based innovation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early access programs (EAPs) generally refer to patient access to medicines/indications before marketing authorization, possibly extended to price and reimbursement approval. These programs include compassionate use, which is usually covered by pharmaceutical companies, and EAPs reimbursed by third-party payers. This paper aims at comparing EAPs in four European countries (France, Italy, Spain, UK) and providing empirical evidence on EAPs in Italy. The comparative analysis was conducted through a literature review (including scientific and grey literature), complemented by 30-min semi-structured interviews with local experts. The Italian empirical analysis employed data available on the National Medicines Agency website. Although EAPs are very different across countries, they exhibit some common features: (i) eligibility criteria refer to the absence of valid therapeutic alternatives and a presumed favourable risk–benefit profile; (ii) payers do not allocate a pre-determined budget to these programs; (iii) total spending on EAPs is unknown. The French EAPs seem to be the most structured, financed through social insurance, covering pre-marketing, post-marketing and pre-reimbursement phases and providing for data collection. Italy's approach to EAPs has been varied, with several programs covered by different payers, including the cohort-based 648 List (for both early access and off-label use), the nominal-based 5% Fund, and Compassionate Use. Most applications to EAPs are from the Antineoplastic and immunomodulating drug class (ATC L). Some 62% of indications in the 648 List are either not under clinical development or have never been approved (pure off-label use). For those subsequently approved, most approved indications coincide with those covered through EAPs. Only the 5% Fund provides data on economic impact (€ 81.2 million in 2021; average cost per patient € 61.5K). Diverse EAPs are a possible source of inequalities in access to medicines across Europe. A harmonization of these programs, though difficult to achieve, could be modelled on the French EAPs and provide key advantages, not least of which a common effort to collect real-world data in parallel with clinical trials and clear separation between EAPs and off-label use programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To establish pan-European consensus on tapering and discontinuing thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs) in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), we applied a three-step Delphi technique consisting of a one-to-one interview round and two online survey rounds. Three healthcare professionals (HCPs) from Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom formed the Steering Committee (SC), which advised on study design, panelist selection, and survey development. A literature review also informed the development of the consensus statements. Likert scales were used to collect quantitative data on panelists' level of agreement. Twelve hematologists representing nine European countries assessed 121 statements spanning three categories: (1) patient selection; (2) tapering and discontinuation strategies; (3) post-discontinuation management. Consensus was reached on approximately half of the statements in each category (32.2%; 44.6%; 66%). Panelists agreed on patients' main selection criteria, patients' involvement in decision-making, tapering strategies, and follow-up criteria. Areas not reaching consensus were risk factors and predictors of successful discontinuation, monitoring intervals, and rates of successful discontinuation or relapse. This lack of consensus signals knowledge and practice gaps among European countries and suggests the need for the development of clinical practice guidelines that outline a pan-European, evidence-based approach to tapering and discontinuing TPO-RAs. Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is a condition that may cause extensive bruising and excessive bleeding. Another sign is a pattern of small reddish-purple dots resembling a rash. ITP is treated with a class of medications known as thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs), which include eltrombopag, avatrombopag, and romiplostim. Sometimes the beneficial effects of the medication last even after the patient stops taking it, which means that some patients can be tapered off it. This paper presents the results of a Delphi panel—a method of research that gathers insights from experts—about tapering and discontinuing TPO-RAs. There were 12 physicians from nine European countries on the Delphi panel, all practicing hematologists with expertise in tapering and discontinuing TPO-RAs in patients with ITP. Panelists were presented with a total of 130 statements over three survey rounds. At the end of Round Three, 52 statements (40%) achieved consensus (response pattern of ≥80% "Agree"), and six statements (4.6%) achieved dissensus (response pattern of ≥80% "Disagree"). Consensus was achieved on the appropriateness of tapering the dose of the TPO-RA for two to three months prior to attempting discontinuation. The panel also reached consensus on considering tapering in a slower fashion (six to 12 months) for patients showing suboptimal response to TPO-RAs. More than half the survey's statements did not achieve consensus or dissensus. This signals that knowledge gaps exist and highlights the importance of conducting prospective, real-world evidence studies to identify best practices and develop pan-European guidelines for tapering and discontinuing TPO-RAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We test for Granger causality in mean and quantiles between wage share and capacity utilization in developed countries. • We employ confidence intervals generated by bootstrap and the Wald test for joint significance. • Capacity utilization positively Granger causes the wage share in eight countries at the center, lower and upper tails. • The positive Granger causal effect of capacity utilization is strong, heterogeneous, and larger for extreme quantiles. • The wage share negatively Granger causes capacity utilization in all quantiles in Spain and above the median in Italy. This paper tests for Granger causality in quantiles between the wage share and capacity utilization in twelve developed countries using annual data ranging from 1960 to 2019. Instead of focusing only on the conditional mean, we test for Granger causality in the entire conditional distribution of the variables of interest. This method detects Granger causal dynamic relations in both the mean and the whole conditional distribution using bootstrap confidence intervals and the Wald test. Our results indicate that capacity utilization positively affects the wage share in eight out of the twelve sample countries. This Granger causal effect is strong and heterogeneous across quantiles, being larger for more extreme quantiles. Capacity utilization positively Granger causes the wage share in all conditional quantiles in the U.S., Sweden, and Italy. Meanwhile, the wage share negatively Granger causes capacity utilization in all conditional quantiles in Spain and in some quantiles above the median in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Advances in olive oil research have blossomed in recent years, and articles on olive oil have been widely recorded. However, a comprehensive and systematic bibliometric analysis of olive oil research has not been completed. Through a systematic literature search, we consolidated 7003 papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database. This bibliometric analysis was carried out to examine the article growth, geographical distribution, and analysis of journals/research areas/authors/keywords. The results revealed the following: (1) Exponential growth was shown in the annual number of publications (R2 = 0.9791). The geographical distribution is biased to a few countries, especially Spain, Italy, and Greece in the Mediterranean region, placing a larger focus on olive oil research. (2) Quality analysis‐related research acted as a link between keyword groups, the disease prevention and treatment‐related research of olive oil received decreasing interest, while authentication and quality analysis‐related research of olive oil showed the opposite trend, by‐products‐related research of olive oil got waving interests over the whole period. (3) Improvement is needed in the degree of olive oil with international collaboration. This is the first time that hotspots and trends in olive oil research have been shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Changes in productivity of small and large firms of automotive industry are analyzed. • The 2008-09 crisis impacted on productivity by reducing technological progress. • The consequences of the crisis were more severe for SMEs. • Suitable policies may be based on environmental regulation, incentive schemes and support to R&D investments. This paper analyzes the changes in productivity of small and large firms operating in the automotive industry in France, Italy and Spain, occurred during the pre-crisis (2001-2008) and post-crisis (2009-2014) periods. To this aim, the Malmquist index as a measure of total factor productivity (TFP) variation is computed, by using the non-parametric technique DEA, integrated by a bootstrap technique proposed by Simar and Wilson (1999). The analysis allows distinguishing among different possible sources of TFP changes, i.e. pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological change. The latter comes up to be the main channel through which the global crisis negatively impacted on productivity, presumably by hampering the primary engines of technological change, i.e. research, innovation and investment through reduced availability of financial resources for SMEs, worsened perspectives for firm growth and greater concentration in selected geographical areas of investments by parent companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper deals with the numerical solution for a general form of a system of nonlinear Volterra delay integro-differential equations (VDIDEs). The main purpose of this work is to provide a current numerical method based on the use of continuous collocation Taylor polynomials for the numerical solution of nonlinear VDIDEs systems. It is shown that this method is convergent. Numerical results will be presented to prove the validity and effectiveness of this convergent algorithm. We apply models to the COVID-19 epidemic in China, Spain, and Italy and one for the Predator–Prey model in mathematical ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European countries struggled to fight against the second and the third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Test-Trace-Isolate (TTI) strategy widely adopted over the summer and early fall 2020 failed to contain the spread of the disease effectively. This paper sheds light on the effectiveness of such a strategy in two European countries (Spain and Italy) by analysing data from June to December 2020, collected via a large-scale online citizen survey with 95,251 and 43,393 answers in Spain and Italy, respectively. Our analysis describes several weaknesses in each of the three pillars of the TTI strategy: Test, Trace, and Isolate. We find that 40% of respondents had to wait more than 48 hours to obtain coronavirus tests results, while literature has shown that a delay of more than one day might make tracing all cases inefficient. We also identify limitations in the manual contact tracing capabilities in both countries, as only 29% of respondents in close contact with a confirmed infected individual reported having been contact traced. Moreover, our analysis shows that more than 45% of respondents report being unable to self-isolate if needed. We also analyse the mitigation strategies deployed to contain the second wave of coronavirus. We find that these interventions were particularly effective in Italy, where close contacts were reduced by more than 20% in the general population. Finally, we analyse the participants' perceptions about the coronavirus risk associated with different daily activities. We observe that they are often gender- and age-dependent, and not aligned with the actual risk identified by the literature. This finding emphasises the importance of deploying public-health communication campaigns to debunk misconceptions about SARS-CoV-2. Overall, our work illustrates the value of online citizen surveys to quickly and efficiently collect large-scale population data to support and evaluate policy decisions to combat the spread of infectious diseases, such as coronavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three European countries included in the northwest littoral of the Mediterranean region – Italy, France and Spain – reported their first cases of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus early in 2020. The subsequent epidemic strongly impacted these countries, challenging the healthcare systems efficiency, and the capacity and transparency of their public statistics structures. Because public statistics were not fully adapted to such a new health situation, the available official data could not wholly describe the epidemic correctly. This paper developed an indicator derived from the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 aiming to describe the time and spatial dynamics of the epidemic. Although the analysis was not applied to France due to the lack of data available, the comparative analysis among Spain and Italy highlighted some similarities and certain divergences, partially attributable to the features of each country‘s national demographic patterns and the peculiarities of applied health protocols. Finally, mortality during the first wave of the epidemic has been analysed for the three countries, demonstrating higher mortality index in Spain, although the reported number of SARS-CoV-2 declared deaths does not explain a portion of this mortality excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at providing insights on the role of non-verbal communication (NVC) in classroom by examining the relationship between teacher NVC cues and student behavior. Student behavior is considered in terms of perceptions of the match between the teacher and the student self-concept (i.e. self-image congruence), attention, and learning. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of students coming from Spain and Italy. Findings indicate that the student self-concept has the strongest relationship with teacher personal appearance, attention with paralinguistics, and learning with kinesics. Some differences are found in the strength of the examined relationships between Spanish and Italian students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spiraling growth of the world's population and unregulated urbanization have resulted in many environmental problems, including poor quality of air, which is associated with a wide range of health issues. Machine learning approaches have been extensively employed to predict air quality, attracting the attention of the scientific community worldwide. Bibliometric studies provide a useful means by which to visualize and analyze published works, helping researchers to make novel scientific contributions by filling existing knowledge gaps in the research. To acquire an in-depth understanding of the topic, this paper presents a bibliometric analysis of all published articles on the use of machine learning networks to predict air quality found in the Web of Science (WoS) search engine from 1992 to 2021. S-curve analysis and social network analysis were used to identify the temporal distribution of articles, productivity by countries/continents, research institutions, and scientific metrics of journal productivity. This study indicated that maximum expansion of the literature witnessed during 2017–2021 (second phase) which represents an expansion or growth stage of machine learning and air quality prediction research. The number of published works increased significantly with 1432 articles accounting for 68.51% of all publications. As a result of the increased interest in machine learning-based prediction tools, the number of articles grew 2.17-fold compared to the 1992–2016 (first phase). In terms of international collaboration impact, Italy emerged as the most successful country (43.44), followed by Greece (31.22) and Spain (23.29). Author keywords analysis was employed to explore and evaluate the emerging research trends on the subject of air quality using machine learning models. Keywords that appear most frequently in this study are 'air pollution', 'air quality', 'machine learning', and 'forecasting'. Citation burst analysis, research productivity analysis, highly influential and highly cited works were also employed to examine various research themes and questions. In this study we also discussed how conventional methods were transformed into machine learning approaches. It is expected that this paper will provide technical guidelines, research priorities, and future opportunities for the precise prediction of air quality and emergency management of air pollution globally. • Interest in air quality prediction through machine learning model is expanding. • China and US were found productive countries in terms of countries collaboration. • Big data, Internet of Things, and Smart city are emerging topic for future research. • Significant difference between citations, funded and non-funded research. • Ensemble modeling is popular in air quality prediction research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spiraling growth of the world's population and unregulated urbanization have resulted in many environmental problems, including poor quality of air, which is associated with a wide range of health issues. Machine learning approaches have been extensively employed to predict air quality, attracting the attention of the scientific community worldwide. Bibliometric studies provide a useful means by which to visualize and analyze published works, helping researchers to make novel scientific contributions by filling existing knowledge gaps in the research. To acquire an in-depth understanding of the topic, this paper presents a bibliometric analysis of all published articles on the use of machine learning networks to predict air quality found in the Web of Science (WoS) search engine from 1992 to 2021. S-curve analysis and social network analysis were used to identify the temporal distribution of articles, productivity by countries/continents, research institutions, and scientific metrics of journal productivity. This study indicated that maximum expansion of the literature witnessed during 2017–2021 (second phase) which represents an expansion or growth stage of machine learning and air quality prediction research. The number of published works increased significantly with 1432 articles accounting for 68.51% of all publications. As a result of the increased interest in machine learning-based prediction tools, the number of articles grew 2.17-fold compared to the 1992–2016 (first phase). In terms of international collaboration impact, Italy emerged as the most successful country (43.44), followed by Greece (31.22) and Spain (23.29). Author keywords analysis was employed to explore and evaluate the emerging research trends on the subject of air quality using machine learning models. Keywords that appear most frequently in this study are 'air pollution', 'air quality', 'machine learning', and 'forecasting'. Citation burst analysis, research productivity analysis, highly influential and highly cited works were also employed to examine various research themes and questions. In this study we also discussed how conventional methods were transformed into machine learning approaches. It is expected that this paper will provide technical guidelines, research priorities, and future opportunities for the precise prediction of air quality and emergency management of air pollution globally. • Interest in air quality prediction through machine learning model is expanding. • China and US were found productive countries in terms of countries collaboration. • Big data, Internet of Things, and Smart city are emerging topic for future research. • Significant difference between citations, funded and non-funded research. • Ensemble modeling is popular in air quality prediction research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a well-established eco-hydrological model that has been extensively applied to watersheds across the globe. This work reviews over two decades (2002–2022) of SWAT studies conducted on Mediterranean watersheds. A total of 260 articles have been identified since the earliest documented use of the model in a Mediterranean catchment back in 2002; of which 62% were carried out in Greece, Italy, or Spain. SWAT applications increased significantly in recent years since 86% of the reviewed papers were published in the past decade. A major objective for most of the reviewed works was to check the applicability of SWAT to specific watersheds. A great number of publications included procedures of calibration and validation and reported performance results. SWAT applications in the Mediterranean region mainly cover water resources quantity and quality assessment and hydrologic and environmental impacts evaluation of land use and climate changes. Nevertheless, a tendency towards a multi-purpose use of SWAT is revealed. The numerous examples of SWAT combined with other tools and techniques outline the model's flexibility. Several studies performed constructive comparisons between Mediterranean watersheds' responses or compared SWAT to other models or methods. The effects of inputs on SWAT outputs and innovative model modifications and improvements were also the focus of some of the surveyed articles. However, a significant number of studies reported difficulties regarding data availability, as these are either scarce, have poor resolution or are not freely available. Therefore, it is highly recommended to identify and develop accurate model inputs and testing data to optimize the SWAT performance. [Display omitted] • SWAT review on Mediterranean hydro-climatic studies. • Lack of SWAT assessment on Mediterranean catchments. • A comparison of data from different Mediterranean basins. • Enhancing data availability for SWAT applications. • Developing a comprehensive knowledge of Mediterranean watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Sustainable Business Models (SBMs) has burgeoned, identifying different archetypes to capture the variety of business models applied. Little is known, however, regarding to what extent such SBMs are effectively driving sustainable performance. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how SBMs relate to sustainability performance, considering both overall sustainable performance and the balance across the three dimensions – environmental, social, and economic (integrated performance). Based on original survey data on B Corps located in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, our findings suggest that the implementation of most SBMs results in the prioritization of one sustainability dimension over the others, especially when it comes to economically-oriented SBMs. Furthermore, our study suggests that none of the SBM archetypes considered is associated with a balanced sustainable performance, that is, none of them are inherently better able to overcome tensions across the Triple Bottom Line. • We study how SBMs archetypes relate to sustainability performance (SP). • Most SBMs prioritise a triple bottom line (TBL) axes over the others. • Economically-oriented SBMs are not connected with superior SP. • No SBM archetype drives a balanced performance across TBL axes. • A means-end divide emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Migrant workers safety remains a major challenge in the construction sector. • There has been limited focus on migrant worker safety in Italy, Spain and the UK. • Role modelling and soft skills are key for migrant workers' safety behaviours. • On-site training may be crucial to safety training of migrant workers. • Supervisors modelling safety behaviors is crucial to safety training transfer. The construction industry is notoriously high risk for accidents, injuries, and deaths, particularly for non-national or migrant workers, who comprise a significant proportion of the workforce. This paper presents an international, qualitative study focused on exploring the challenges which influence the safety of migrant construction workers in Italy, Spain, and the UK. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature, we formulated two research questions about the challenges relating to safety that migrant workers face and the challenges to safety training effectively improving migrant workers' safety behaviours. We present our template analysis of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 88 participants from four occupational groups across all three countries. This identified commonalities and differences in interpretations of the primary challenges to migrant workers' safety, amongst participants from the various occupational groups (workers, site supervisors, safety trainers and safety experts) in Italy, Spain, and the UK. These were associated with: increased use of subcontractors; dilution of safety standards down the supply chain; pressure to breach safety regulations on site; differing safety-related attitudes and behaviours due to national cultural differences, language barriers and issues relating to training (provision, delivery, language, content and transfer). Finally, we summarise the contributions and limitations of our study, arguing further interventions related to safety training are needed, along with ethnographic studies to explore how both macro-level and contextual factors affect safety outcomes for migrant construction workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are widely recognised as ideal pilot sites that can spearhead the transition to clean energy and development towards a sustainable and healthy society. One of the assumptions underpinning this notion is that island communities are more ready to engage with smart grids (SGs) than people on the mainland. This is believed to be due to the high costs of energy on islands and the idea that the sense of community and collective action is stronger on islands than on the mainland. This paper presents findings from a survey conducted to assess people's perception of, and readiness to engage with, SG and demand response (DR) in the communities of three islands taking part in a H2020 project called REACT. The main objective of the survey, conducted in 2020, was to inform the recruitment of participants in the project, which is piloting different technologies required for SGs and DR with communities on the three islands. The results show that many island residents are motivated to take part in SG, to engage with energy saving, and are willing to change some energy-related behaviours in their homes. However, the results also indicate that levels of ownership of, and knowledge and familiarity with, the SG and DR related technologies are extremely low, suggesting that the expected uptake of DR in islands might not be as high as anticipated. This brings into question the readiness of island dwellers for the SG, their role in the deployment of such schemes more widely and the validity of the assumptions often made about island communities. This has significant implications for the design of SGs and DR solutions for islands, including devoting sufficient efforts to build knowledge and awareness of the SG, investing in demonstration projects for that purpose and tailoring interventions based on island communities' motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]