Search

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

Immigrant minority (IM) languages have a significant presence in certain European regions. Nonetheless, these languages are not usually included in the school curriculum. This paper aims to analyse the studies published between 2010 and 2020 considering IM languages in multilingual European education contexts. The method included a search of academic papers published in the databases ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus, which yielded 42 studies. The studies were analysed by considering: (1) the demographic characteristics of the countries where the studies were conducted, (2) the sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic focus of the papers in relation to the European country, and (3) the characteristics of the bi-multilingual education programme including IM languages. The results indicate that: (1) the demographic characteristics of the country are not strictly related to the number of studies published, (2) most studies have a sociolinguistic approach even though many studies analyse both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors, and (3) only seven multilingual education programmes including IM languages were described in these papers. We conclude that there is a lack of research focusing on IM languages in educational settings and discuss how addressing these gaps could create opportunities for building equitable multilingual communities in Europe.

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components of this interplay, and a special attention is given to the use of arts to promoting creativity and meaningful learning. We then propose the Empowering Creative Education Model (ECEM), which aims to provide a practical framework for employing artistic tools in each of the model's four developmental circles: I, Us, Educational and Community. Each of the four circles includes unique aspects of personal development.

This paper describes the collaborative development of an agenda for research on e-assessment in undergraduate mathematics. We built on an established approach to develop the agenda from the contributions of 22 mathematics education researchers, university teachers and learning technologists interested in this topic. The resulting set of 55 research questions are grouped into 5 broad themes: errors and feedback, student interactions with e-assessment, design and implementation choices, affordances offered by e-assessment tools, and mathematical skills. This agenda gives a framework for a programme of research aligned with practical concerns that will contribute to both theoretical and practical development.

This paper assesses how UK universities seek to maintain their global dominant position post-Brexit through comprehensive strategic partnerships with key European institutions as part of their internationalisation strategies. Drawing on 24 semi-structured interviews conducted from November 2017 to July 2018 in 12 UK universities vertically differentiated and spread along the highly hierarchised spectrum of British universities in all four nations, we aim to examine which types of universities are most inclined to form international comprehensive university-wide strategic partnerships, and how they identify their partners. The analysis is framed within Bourdieu's theory of "economy of practices" which considers all university practices as economic practices that are ultimately tailored towards maximising either material or symbolic profit. Unlike in business and industry, where organisations traditionally compete to maximise profit, universities must both compete and collaborate with one another in order to improve (or maintain) their position in the field. UK universities will need to navigate the post-Brexit space they find themselves thrown into, and in the process will need to review international institutional links with both European Union (EU) based and non-EU universities. This paper will assess how UK universities seek to maintain their dominant position in the field through comprehensive strategic partnerships with key foreign institutions.

This paper provides an account of the topological and its description of contemporary culture and use as a research methodology, a topological lens, generally, and in education research specifically. Some commentary is proffered on the relationships between the topological and the topographical, between relations and locations. A critical account is then provided on each of the papers in the special issue on the topological in education research and the specific contributions of each. The editors of the special issue make the important point that the topological is a spatio-temporal phenomenon, not just a spatial one. The topological does not exist in time and space, but rather constructs both and they change in a conjoint manner. As such, a topological lens rejects a construction of space as static and of time (and the temporal) as simply linear and chronological. The topological has been facilitated and articulated by and through practices of commensuration, datafication and digitalisation, flows and scapes, global connectivities and new relations, mobilities of various kinds and multiple networks. The paper argues that much greater emphasis has been given to the spatial in topological research; that is, there has been some neglect of the temporal in the spatio-temporal character of topologies.

Humanitarian events are increasing globally, both in number and intensity. In response, the international community spends approximately US $30 billion annually to alleviate both the immediate consequences of these climatic, geographic, and human-induced events but also to support mitigation and recovery. Over the past two decades, the humanitarian sector has increasingly professionalised. One under-studied aspect of this professionalisation is an increase in postgraduate studies in humanitarian action over the last 20 years. Despite this increase, there is no agreement on core curriculum or pedagogy across humanitarian studies courses. How do current Masters of Humanitarian Assistance (MHA) offerings converge and differ, and how can such courses further their contribution to the humanitarian endeavour? This paper surveys 26 anglophone courses offered in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Nigeria, exploring key characteristics of course entry requirements, flexibility, research, practical components, and academic foci. It does not recommend what a core curriculum for humanitarian courses should be, but does argue that core curriculum for humanitarian courses should be identified by relevant and diverse stakeholders such as affected communities, humanitarian agencies, disaster management bodies, and governments, to ensure that courses in this field provide appropriate learning outcomes. The paper suggests how such a 'charter' may be developed.

The paper discusses the main issues which emerge for the university as an institution in the European context from the development of the lifelong learning paradigm. It focuses on both the opportunity-creating and tension-provoking presence of the lifelong learning concept in the university's institutional environment. The analysis is based on a thematic review of articles published in the "International Journal of Lifelong Education (IJLE)" during the four decades of its existence. The paper argues that: (1) the implementation of lifelong learning requires a profound change in the systemic characteristics of the university institution and cannot be limited to the establishment of departments of adult and continuing education; (2) without being uncritically perceived, lifelong learning is a strategy that can help universities successfully address some of their main problems and continue to develop as a key institution of societies in the 21st century and (3) in the European context, the institutional model that can embody the paradigm for lifelong learning and at the same time contains the possibility of preserving the specificity of university as an institution, is best symbolised by a cathedral.

I consider in this paper the question of balance in popular education between what we can call annunciation and denunciation, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. By annunciation, I mean the role of love, affirmation, encouragement and profound encounters with otherness; by denunciation, I have in mind the spirit of critique and challenge to the established order of things. In the process, I question the marginalisation of liberation theology in Paulo Freire's work among some radical educators. There has, I suggest, been a sundering of spirituality, and especially religious insight, from rational enquiry in the academic mainstream, which has influenced readings of Freire. Modernity has privileged intellectualism and critical rationality as the only valid way of knowing; matters of faith and varieties of religious experience have correspondingly been privatised.

International student mobility (ISM) has emerged as an important field of study that various nations and organizations have been attaching great importance to. This paper studies the drivers of international student mobility, using a competing destinations model for the international student flows among 35 OECD countries in the period 2004-2018, by integrating the motivations for ISM. We find that OECD students are motivated by both career orientation and personal and cultural experience when decide to move abroad for study. Nonetheless, remarkable differences emerge when considering country subgroups (origin countries, wealthier, English-speaking top destination (namely US, the UK, Canada, and Australia), and European countries, students search for personal and cultural experience, valuing the lifestyle of the destination country. Students seeking for education quality are instead polarised in the rest of the OECD countries.

Teacher wellbeing is important, not least for the role teachers play in supporting students' social, emotional, physical and academic wellbeing. Effective teachers need to remain both physically and mentally healthy. This paper examines how teacher wellbeing is conceptualised through research to identify the influential ecological influences that support and sustain teachers. Through a scoping review methodology, this examination starts with a conceptualisation of teacher wellbeing, and is then organised into three interrelated themes. This thematic approach provides a basis to examine, first, the influential individual factors shaping teachers' wellbeing; second, the relational factors that characterise teachers' work; and, third, the contemporary contextual factors associated with enhancing or eroding teacher wellbeing. These themes highlight that many approaches to enhancing teachers' wellbeing are often short-term "band-aid fixes," and the authors argue that attention must be given to longer-term "bridge-building" strategies that place teacher wellbeing at the heart of teaching.

In this paper we make a case for 'Little Data', which is real-time, self-collected, idiosyncratic datasets maintained by individuals about themselves on myriad topics. We develop and offer a methodology for combining these messy, highly personal insights, to make deductive observations about collective practices. In testing this approach, we use the case study of the 2020-21 stay-at-home orders imposed in the U.S.A., U.K., and Western Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic to operationalise and demonstrate the applicability of this method. Our main finding is to show that whilst stay-at-home orders did have a significant impact on habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes were often counterintuitive, of an insightful nature on topics that would otherwise not be investigated, and always short-lived. Our main contribution is to present Little Data, despite and because of its fragmented and disparate nature, as a viable and useful tool to understand personal habits at finite junctures.

This paper examines digital inclusion and equity in international higher education with particular focus on Global South-North Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Practice examples, bringing together students and academics in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK, are used to consider how COIL is being integrated into higher education curricula to interrupt western hegemony and open up spaces in which "otherwise" ways of knowing, being, relating and expressing can thrive. We consider COIL as a Third Space within which academics can help facilitate the different intellectual, emotional, and socio-cultural positionings of Global South-North students and reflect on how meaning-making and engagement can be transformed as a result of this dialogue. We also recognize how the digital environment as a Third Space can be experienced as inaccessible and troublesome and make suggestions on how South-North digitalization practices can be designed to address access and inclusion needs of students and academics.

This literature review aims to examine the approach given to open science policy in the different studies. The main findings are that the approach given to open science has different aspects: policy framing and its geopolitical aspects are described as an asymmetries replication and epistemic governance tool. The main geopolitical aspects of open science policies described in the literature are the relations between international, regional, and national policies. There are also different components of open science covered in the literature: open data seems much discussed in the works in the English language, while open access is the main component discussed in the Portuguese and Spanish speaking papers. Finally, the relationship between open science policies and the science policy is framed by highlighting the innovation and transparency that open science can bring into it.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether the acceptability of different types of business- and individual-level non-compliance has different impacts on the likelihood of participation in undeclared work. Design/methodology/approach: To evaluate this, data is reported on the EU27 and the UK from the special Eurobarometer survey no. 498, using a novel statistical methodology that deals with two potential sources of bias: sample selection error (avoidance to answer to the question about participation to undeclared work) and misclassification in the response variable (false statements about engagement in undeclared work). Findings: This reveals the association between tax morale and participation in undeclared work. It shows that citizens find far more unacceptable undeclared work conducted by firms than individuals, but both are significantly associated with participation in undeclared work although the greatest effect is clearly exerted by individual-level tax morale. Originality/value: This paper uses a methodology that accounts for the potential bias related to sample selection error and misclassification in the response variable of participation in undeclared work and sheds light on different components of tax morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have studied political ideology and polarization in many different contexts since their effects are usually closely related to aspects and actions of individuals and societies. Hence, being able to estimate and measure the changes in political ideology and polarization is crucial for researchers, stakeholders, and the general public. In this paper, we model the ideology and polarization of 28 countries (the 27 EU member states plus the UK) using Facebook public posts from political parties' Facebook pages. We collected a three-year dataset from 2019 to 2021 with information from 234 political parties' Facebook pages and took advantage of the EU parliament elections of May 2019 to create our models. Our methodology works across 28 countries and benefits from being a low-cost running process that measures ideology and polarization at a high-resolution time scale. The results show our models are pretty accurate when validating them against 19 individual countries' elections as ground truth. Moreover, to make our results available to the research community, stakeholders, and individuals interested in politics, the last contribution of our paper is a website including detailed information about the political parties in our dataset. It also includes the temporal evolution of our ideology and polarization estimations. Therefore, our work delivers a novel tool that uses Facebook public data to create country metrics useful for different purposes. To the best of our knowledge, there is no prior work in the literature offering a solution that measures the ideology and polarization of all EU + UK countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes recent developments in the British and European government bond markets with reference to the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The two main goals of the study are, firstly, to examine whether the Brexit referendum result has affected the risk premium and, secondly, whether there are any changes in risk pricing following the referendum. The paper finds a significant impact of the Brexit referendum on the risk premium in selected economies. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a considerable change in risk pricing after the announcement of the referendum result. Credit default risk and the risk aversion play a much important role in the post-referendum period than they did prior to the vote, particularly in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from six rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), between 2004 and 2016, to examine attitudes towards European integration across countries. Using both individual responses and country-level variables, we analyse factors influencing Euroscepticism; how these factors are changing over time; and whether they may signal a latent potential for Brexit-like outcomes in different countries. Controlling for a unique combination of demographic, political and macroeconomic factors, we find individuals with higher levels of income and education, and those with more left-leaning political views to be more supportive of European integration, while those who are older and right-leaning to be less supportive. Using predicted values from our empirical analysis, we find median voters' attitudes diverging across European countries over time, with an increasing number of countries moving closer to the threshold values observed among voters in the United Kingdom in 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines one type of negative work behaviour, work harassment, using two theoretical frameworks: Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Similarity-Attraction (SA). SET explains work harassment as a product of poor management practices, whereas using SA theory explains it as a result of the growing normalisation of high workloads. The study undertakes latent mean and path model comparison analysis using structural equation modelling of data from 189 nurses in the UK and 401 nurses in the USA. The findings indicate a good model fit showing a significant path from Leader Member Exchange (LMX) to work harassment, wellbeing and subsequent turnover intentions, with LMX fully mediating the path from LMX to wellbeing for UK nurses, but only partially mediating the same path for nurses in the USA. The findings suggest SET provides a better explanation for work harassment for UK nurses, whereas SA theory better explains the US nurse experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 affected crime opportunities and criminal justice systems, resulting in changes in crime trends. This article explores the effects of restrictions (lockdowns) on the number of femicides. The monthly data on femicides from 2017 to 2021 were collected in five Central and South-eastern European countries: Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. The total number of femicides from 2017 to 2021 decreased in all observed countries. Increases were detected in Croatia and Slovenia in 2020. However, they presented an exception to the general trend. The monthly distribution of femicides showed that there was no common point peak month(s) among observed countries. Analyzing the effects of the level of restrictions using the Stringency Index on the number of femicides confirmed the initial observation that the number of femicides was not dependent on lockdown measures. In general, the findings show that restriction measures had no effect on the number of femicides in the studied countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last several decades have seen a rise in efforts to remove weirs, but there is little research investigating how projects are carried out, potential areas for improvement, or sharing of lessons to facilitate reconnection of more rivers. The aim of the study presented here was to explore how people involved in weir remediation perceive project processes, factors that facilitate or hinder action implementation, and possible ways processes could be improved to reconnect more rivers. We carried out semi‐structured interviews with people (n = 11) who had been actively involved in weir remediation processes in the Severn River Catchment, United Kingdom, and used their responses to create a group mental model. The group mental model was created to support learning and communication about weir remediation projects between individuals and groups. We found broad agreement from those involved in creating the group mental model about weir remediation project processes and potential areas for improvement. One of the only points of divergence within the group mental model was associated with the impact of different weir remediation actions, particularly weir removal. Based on the group mental model, we set out three calls to action to reconnect more rivers in the UK. First, move beyond opportunistic projects and establish national goals and catchment‐scale plans for weir remediation. Second, reform fish passage legislation and legislate weir ownership. Doing so would support more effective remediation solutions by recognizing the diversity of fish species that reside in UK rivers and help mitigate risks from hazardous weirs through owner accountability. Third, build cross‐sector and public partnerships to encourage removal or improved fish pass designs. We direct the three calls to action to policy makers and anyone already engaged in or envisioning weir remediation projects in the UK. The calls also have potential implications and relevance to people in other countries in Europe and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the health care systems in Europe are considered the global benchmark, European nations were severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This manuscript aimed to examine the strategies implemented to combat the COVID-19 pandemic by France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia and their outcomes in terms of the number of cases, testing, and deaths. This is the first review of its kind that extensively analyzes the preparedness, mitigation, and response strategies against the COVID-19 pandemic adopted by these nations. This paper further suggests a strategic preparedness model for future pandemics. From the analysis, we found that a decentralized approach, prompt decision-making and timely execution, coordination between local health authorities, and public participation in the implementation of strategies could substantially reduce the case fatality rate. Nations with a high percentage of gross domestic product invested in the health sector, as well as more nurses, physicians, hospital beds, intensive care unit beds, and ventilators, better managed the pandemic. Instead, nations that postponed their pandemic response by delaying tracking, tracing, testing, quarantine, and lockdown were badly affected. The lessons learned from the present pandemic could be used as a guide to prepare for further pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, ovarian cancer mortality in Europe has been decreasing, but disparities in trends were observed. In this paper, we analysed ovarian cancer mortality trends in Europe over the period 1990–2020 and predicted the number of deaths and rates by 2025. We extracted population and death certification data from ovarian cancer in women for 31 European countries, between 1990 and 2020 from the World Health Organization database. We computed age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) per 100,000 women-years, based on the world standard population. We also obtained predictions for 2025 using a joinpoint regression model and calculated the number of avoided deaths over the period 1994–2025. Over the observed period, mortality from ovarian cancer showed a favourable pattern in most countries. In the EU-27, rates declined by 5.9% from 2010–2014 to 2015–2019, reaching an ASMR of 4.66/100,000. During the same period, the decline in ovarian cancer mortality was more pronounced in the EU-14 countries (−7.0%) compared to Transitional countries (−2.1%). Declines were also observed in the United Kingdom, to reach an ASMR of 5.29. Decreases in mortality from ovarian cancer are predicted until 2025, to 4.17/100,000 for the EU-27. Favourable trends in ovarian cancer mortality are expected to persist in Europe and can be mainly attributed to the increased use of oral contraceptives in subsequent generations of European women. Decreased use of menopausal Hormone Replacement Therapy and improved diagnosis and management may also have played a role. • Ovarian cancer mortality decreased over the last decade in most European countries. • Favourable trends will continue in the next 5 years. • Less favourable epidemiological situation was observed in Transitional countries. • The largest decrease of mortality in 2025 is predicted to be in Germany. • Until 2025 nearly 131,000 deaths from ovarian cancer would be avoided in EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Many observers believe that industry experience of entrepreneurs drives successful new entrepreneurial firms. However, whenever it comes to disruptive digital ventures such as Financial Technologies (Fintechs), the picture may be different due to the cross-industry nature of digital firms. The purpose of this study is to disentangle the impacts of finance, banking and information technology (IT) experiences of founders on performance of European Fintechs around venture capital (VC) investment. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a data set of 105 Fintechs from European countries, including UK, which are involved in 201 VC rounds between 2006 and 2019, the authors adopt a Bayesian quantile approach to link founders' experience with two performance measures that identify market success (return on sales) and investment outcome (return on equity). Findings: The findings indicate that finance and IT-specific experiences seem to matter more often than banking experience and that the extent of their impact depends on level and metric of performance. More specifically, Fintechs in Europe and UK are more able to achieve market success with both finance and IT experiences of their founders, but that does not necessarily transform into higher returns for investors. Originality/value: This study provides new evidence that not all aspects of industry experience matter for digital ventures, as they must fit to a certain firm, cycle and industry. For Fintech, as the name says, finance and IT experiences matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the links between the British and Scandinavian Conservative parties in Europe between the late-1940s and the late-1970s. Its findings show that these parties were closer to each other than has been assumed. The British and Scandinavian Conservative parties built up significant relationships with each other at the organisational level throughout the 1950s, which led to transfers of political knowledge and information mostly from Britain to Scandinavia. From the 1960s the circulation of knowledge started to flow in both directions, but it was strongest in the Swedish case. The British Conservative Party then bridged the gap between the Scandinavian Conservative parties and the West German CDU/ CSU and the Austrian ÖVP in Europe, helping to cement the parties into a new centre-right international known as European Democrat Union. This gave the British and Scandinavian Conservative parties more contacts abroad and reinforced the view that British Conservatism was not an ideological outlier in Europe. But the history of inter-party cooperation shows that the British and Scandinavian Conservatives were mostly at odds with the greater integrationist and federalist ambitions of Christian democrats. Therefore, the article offers us another way of explaining the persistence of Euroscepticism in the British Conservative Party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) epidemiology in Europe differs by region and population risk group, and data are often incomplete. We estimated chronic HBV prevalence as measured by surface antigen (HBsAg) among general and key population groups for each country in the European Union, European Economic Area and the United Kingdom (EU/EEA/UK), including where data are currently unavailable. Methods: We combined data from a 2018 systematic review (updated in 2021), data gathered directly by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) from EU/EEA countries and the UK and further country-level data. We included data on adults from the general population, pregnant women, first time blood donors (FTBD), men who have sex with men (MSM), prisoners, people who inject drugs (PWID), and migrants from 2001 to 2021, with three exceptions made for pre-2001 estimates. Finite Mixture Models (FMM) and Beta regression were used to predict country and population group HBsAg prevalence. A separate multiplier method was used to estimate HBsAg prevalence among the migrant populations within each country, due to biases in the data available. Results: There were 595 included studies from 31 countries (N = 41,955,969 people): 66 were among the general population (mean prevalence () 1.3% [range: 0.0-7.6%]), 52 among pregnant women ( 1.1% [0.1–5.3%]), 315 among FTBD ( 0.3% [0.0-6.2%]), 20 among MSM ( 1.7% [0.0-11.2%]), 34 among PWID ( 3.9% [0.0-16.9%]), 24 among prisoners ( 2.9% [0.0-10.7%]), and 84 among migrants ( 7.0% [0.2–37.3%]). The FMM grouped countries into 3 classes. We estimated HBsAg prevalence among the general population to be < 1% in 24/31 countries, although it was higher in 7 Eastern/Southern European countries. HBsAg prevalence among each population group was higher in most Eastern/Southern European than Western/Northern European countries, whilst prevalence among PWID and prisoners was estimated at > 1% for most countries. Portugal had the highest estimated prevalence of HBsAg among migrants (5.0%), with the other highest prevalences mostly seen in Southern Europe. Conclusions: We estimated HBV prevalence for each population group within each EU/EAA country and the UK, with general population HBV prevalence to be < 1% in most countries. Further evidence is required on the HBsAg prevalence of high-risk populations for future evidence synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains different rates of positive asylum decisions in Western democracies? Legislators and bureaucrats respond to public preferences on immigration, though studies have not accounted for salience amplifying preferences. Using autoregressive models, I find relationships between salience, preferences, and asylum recognition rates in Germany and the UK, indicating that asylum administration responds to public opinion. High salience and more open immigration preferences are associated with increased asylum recognition rates in Germany, while lower rates in the UK follow high salience and restrictive preferences. Applications rejected under these adverse conditions precede increases in successful appeals, suggesting political pressure or their own preferences lead bureaucratic actors to reduce rates in the UK. These results do not support lobbying or a culture of disbelief as influences on immigration policies. Rather, they raise questions about Western democracies' adherence to an international rules-based asylum system and highlight mechanisms by which policy responds to public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of obesity has risen in recent decades and reached epidemic proportions worldwide. The proportion of those living with obesity is also increasing in nursing homes. This could impact the nursing care required, equipment and facilities provided, and morbidity in these settings. Limited evidence exists on clinical consequences of obesity in nursing home residents and their care. Objective: Therefore, the aim was to examine the rate and associated factors of obesity (BMI ≥30; class I (BMI 30.0–34.9 kg/m2), class II (BMI 35.0–39.9 kg/m2), and class III (BMI >40.0 kg/m2)) amongst older nursing home residents in European countries. Methods: We analysed data from 21,836 people who reside in nursing homes in Austria, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. They participated in the "International Prevalence Measurement of Care Quality", a cross sectional study between 2016 and 2019, where trained nurses interviewed the residents, reviewed care records, and conducted clinical examinations. A tested and standardised questionnaire comprised questions on demographic data, measured BMI, medical diagnosis according to ICD‐10, and care dependency. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Obesity rates were highest in Austria (17.1%) and lowest in the UK (13.0%) (p =.006). Residents with obesity were younger and less likely to be care dependent or living with dementia and had more often diabetes mellitus, endocrine, metabolic, and skin diseases compared to residents without obesity (p <.05). Most obese residents had obesity class I. Therefore, two subgroups were built (class I vs. class II + III). Residents with obesity class II + III were more frequently care dependent for mobility, getting dressed and undressed, and personal hygiene compared to residents with class I (p <.05). Conclusions: This study identified several factors that are associated with obesity amongst older nursing home residents in selected European countries. Implications for practice: The division into obesity classes is important for planning targeted care according to the individual needs of nursing home residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analyses of international affairs highlight that states are increasingly exploiting the key position of some private industries in critical hubs of global economic networks to gain an advantage over their competitors. The key role of private companies in international competition has also significant implications in the cyber-domain, where private actors are the main owners of data and digital infrastructures. In contrast to those who see a transformative effect of cyber, this article draws on comparative political economy and defense policy to identify two different models of state-industry relations in the governance of cybersecurity. The theoretical framework distinguishes between public and private governance ecosystems and identifies different hypotheses on how states and industries interact in cybersecurity governance in France and in the UK. The French public governance is characterized by the presence of formal and informal relations between state and industries, a high degree of public investment in the private sector and centralized institutions. France has also used the EU mainly to advance its industrial interests. In contrast, the UK private governance is characterized by more arm's length relations between the state and industries and a less centralized system. Moreover, the UK, differently to France, has not used the EU channel to advance its industry-related preferences. These results confirm the macro-differences between public and private governance ecosystems and open new relevant avenues to investigate the interplay between political economy structures and European and international pressures in policy-areas with both economic and security implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns across the world have greatly affected an already vulnerable cultural economy and the structural precarity of many cultural workers. After documenting the impacts of the pandemic in the cultural sector and the effectiveness of governmental responses in the UK and in Europe, the article focuses on the visual arts and explores calls for reforms of the cultural economy. While the UK government's recovery plan went against the country's cultural policy tradition due to the plan's interventionist and financially generous nature, it disproportionally benefitted organisations rather than individuals working in the sector, especially in England. The study, conducted on visual arts workers in the UK, shows that many were unable to access these financial recovery schemes and fell through the cracks of the complex criteria set for these funds. This article informs the current debate on measures that are potentially more economically sustainable and wellbeing protective than those currently in place for cultural workers, such as Universal Basic Income. Its applicability is explored with reference to the historic French and recent Irish examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An evaluation of prospective shale gas reservoir intervals in the Bowland Shale is presented using a wireline log data set from the UK's first shale gas exploration well. Accurate identification of such intervals is crucial in determining ideal landing zones for drilling horizontal production wells, but the task is challenging due to the heterogeneous nature of mudrocks. This heterogeneity leads to stratigraphic variations in reservoir quality and mechanical properties, and leads to complex geophysical behaviour, including seismic anisotropy. We generate petrophysical logs such as mineralogy, porosity, and organic content and calibrate these to the results of core studies. If 'reservoir quality' is defined by combined cut-offs relating to these parameters, we find that over 100 m of reservoir quality shale is present in the well, located primarily within the upper section. To examine the link between geophysical signature and rock properties, an isotropic rock physics model is developed, using effective medium theories, to recreate the elastic properties of the shale and produce forward-looking templates for subsequent seismic inversion studies. We find that the mineralogical heterogeneity in the shale has a profound impact on modelled elastic properties, obscuring more discrete changes due to porosity, organic content and water saturation and that the best reservoir quality intervals of the shale bear a distinctive response on rock physics cross-plots. Finally, we consider the density of natural fractures in the shale by developing an anisotropic rock physics model to reflect high-angle fractures observed on micro-imagery logs. We invert crack density using shear wave splitting well log data and find a crack density of up to 4 per cent which correlates well with micro-imagery observations. Our work further supports previous authors' core-based studies in concluding that the Bowland Shale holds good reservoir characteristics, and we propose that there are multiple intervals within the shale that could be targeted with stacked horizontal wells, should those intervals' mechanical properties also be suitable and there be adequate stress barriers between to restrict vertical hydraulic fracture growth. Finally, our rock physics templates may provide useful tools in interpreting pre-stack seismic data sets in prospective areas of the Bowland Shale and picking the best locations for drilling wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue aims to write Europe into the history of British culture—popular culture, to be exact—in the twentieth century. Too often British pop culture has been viewed either through the lens of national identity, in relation to American culture or with an eye to influences from other parts of the English-speaking world, usually from the former Empire. By contrast, contacts, exchanges and transfers between Britain and continental Europe have been comparatively neglected, reinforcing the idea that they do not exist. The issue shows the opposite by drawing on selected examples from cinema, fashion, food, travel and music in the period of the 1960s and 1970s. For this, the introduction prepares the ground by discussing the existing historiography, definitions and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]