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Adolescent young carers (AYCs) are a sub-group of young carers who carry out significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would usually be associated with an adult. They are a potentially vulnerable group of minors because of the risk factors associated with their caring role. AYCs face a critical transition phase from adolescence to adulthood often with a lack of tailored support from service providers. The recently completed European funded 'ME-WE' project, which forms the focus of this paper, aimed to change the 'status quo' by advancing the situation of AYCs in Europe, via responsive research and knowledge translation actions. This paper outlines the participatory, co-creation approach employed in the project to optimise AYC's involvement. It describes the ethical framework adopted by the project consortium to ensure the wellbeing of AYCs within all project activities. Ethical issues that arose in the field study work in all six countries are presented, followed by a discussion of the level of success or otherwise of the consortium to address these issues. The paper concludes with lessons learned regarding ethically responsible research with and for AYCs that are likely transferable to other vulnerable research groups and pan-European projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to post‐crisis regulatory reforms, the European banking sector has undergone significant changes that have led banks to reconsider their strategies, structures and operations. Based on a sample of over 3,000 banks from 32 European countries during the period 2010–2017, we identify banks' business models based on cluster analysis and track their evolution. We then apply a logistic regression and find that banks with higher risk and lower profitability are more likely to change their business model. Employing a propensity score matching approach, we investigate the effect of migration on bank performance and find that changing the business model affects banks positively (i.e. migrating banks increase their profitability, stability and cost efficiency). The effect of migration differs depending on the target business model. When switches are a consequence of being acquired or motivated by regulatory compliance, the positive impact remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture finfish production based on floating cage technology has raised increasing concerns regarding the genetic integrity of natural populations. Accidental mass escapes can induce the loss of genetic diversity in wild populations by increasing genetic drift and inbreeding. Farm escapes probably represent an important issue in the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), which accounted for 76.4% of total escapees recorded in Europe during a 3‐year survey. Here, we investigated patterns of genetic variation in farmed and wild populations of gilthead sea bream from the Western Mediterranean, a region of long gilthead sea bream farming. We focused on the role that genetic drift may play in shaping these patterns. Results based on microsatellite markers matched those observed in previous studies. Farmed populations showed lower levels of genetic diversity than wild populations and were genetically divergent from their wild counterparts. Overall, farmed populations showed the smallest effective population size and increased levels of relatedness compared to wild populations. The small broodstock size coupled with breeding practices that may favour the variance in individual reproductive success probably boosted genetic drift. This factor appeared to be a major driver of the genetic patterns observed in the gilthead sea bream populations analysed in the present study. These results further stress the importance of recommendations aimed at maintaining broodstock sizes as large as possible and equal sex‐ratios among breeders, as well as avoiding unequal contributions among parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deregulation of financial services in the European Union (EU), together with the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union, aimed at the creation of a level playing-field in the provision of banking services across the EU. The plan was to remove entry barriers and to foster both competition and efficiency in national banking markets. However, one of the effects of the regulatory changes was to spur a trend towards consolidation, resulting in the recent wave of mergers and acquisitions. To investigate the impact of increased consolidation on the competitive conditions of the EU banking markets, we employ both structural (concentration ratios) and non-structural (Panzar-Rosse statistic) concentration measures. Using bank-level balance sheet data for the major EU banking markets, in a period following the introduction of the Single Banking Licence (1997-2003), this paper also investigates the factors that may influence the competitive conditions. Specifically, we control for differences in efficiency estimates, structural conditions and institutional characteristics. The results seem to suggest that the degree of concentration is not necessarily related to the degree of competition. We also find little evidence that more efficient banking systems are also more competitive. The relationship between competition and efficiency is not a straightforward one: increased competition has forced banks to become more efficient but increased efficiency does not seem to be fostering more competitive EU banking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent competitive pressures have progressively driven banks to strategically focus on generating returns to shareholders. Therefore, the investigation of the determinants of bank performance and their relationship with share prices has become increasingly important. This paper extends the literature on market-based accounting to examine the relationship between stock prices and efficiency. Specifically, it investigates if changes in stock performance can be explained by changes in operating efficiency, derived by parametric and non-parametric methods. Results seem to suggest that changes in efficiency are reflected in changes in stock prices and that stocks of cost efficient banks tend to outperform their inefficient counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines cost and profit efficiency of large banking firms by defining a common European frontier over the period immediately following the completion of the Single Market Programme in 1992. Despite a slight increase in cost efficiency, country-specific characteristics appear to play important roles in the explanation of cost efficiency scores and significant differences, including varying competitive conditions, seem to exist across European banking markets. In contrast, results derived from the estimation of an alternative profit function seem to suggest that the efficiency gap among countries decreased substantially over the years under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether there has been an improvement in and convergence of productive efficiency across European banking markets since the creation of the Single Internal Market. Using efficiency measures derived from DEA estimation, the determinants of European bank efficiency are evaluated using the Tobit regression model approach. The established literature on modelling the determinants of bank efficiency is then extended by recognizing the problem of the inherent dependency of DEA efficiency scores when used in regression analysis. To overcome the dependency problem, a bootstrapping technique is applied. Overall, the results suggest that since the EU's Single Market Programme there has been a small improvement in bank efficiency levels, although there is little evidence to suggest that these have converged. The results also suggest that inference on the determinants of bank efficiency drawn from non-bootstrapped regression analysis may be biased and misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population in Europe is growing older. It is estimated that by 2060, one in eight people will be aged 80 or more. With the increase in the more vulnerable older old, elder abuse will become more prevalent in society. Theoretical understandings of elder abuse inform responses to elder abuse. In the main approaches focus on interpersonal relationships. Biggs and Lowenstein posit the concept of generational intelligence as a way of understanding elder abuse. Generational intelligence is the ability to reflect and act, drawing on an understanding of one's own and others' life positions. Without this awareness, older people are seen as different, without the same rights as the rest of society. Shifting from conflict to solidarity between generations requires compromise and the equal recognition of priorities. Description of Respect to Prevent programme: Drawing on this theory, Respect to Prevent, an innovative educational and training programme, is aimed at preventing elder abuse within care settings through: raising awareness amongst older people of their human rights and empowering them to exercise their rights. increasing generational intelligence, the capacity 'to walk in the older person's shoes', challenging ageist attitudes amongst staff The programme consists of four sessions: an information session for managers of care settings, experiential workshops using socio-drama to engage older people and care staff, a reformative session which provides feedback to management on changes to organizational policies and practices to enhance the dignity of older clients. The target population: The programme is aimed at older people, health and social care professionals and care providers. The programme is being developed under the Erasmus + project, Socio-drama, Tackling Ageism, Preventing Abuse (S.T.Age) and involves organizations working in the field of elder abuse prevention and community education theatre from Finland, Ireland, Italy and Romania. Timeline: The programme is being piloted in residential/day care centres in Ireland, Romania, Finland and Italy. The evaluation will be concluded in April 2017. Impact and outcomes: Tools used to evaluate impact include Fraboni Scale of Ageism to be completed by care staff pre and post workshop, participant observations, one-to-one questionnaires for all participants. Preliminary results indicate that the programme is accessible and meaningful to participants, including people with dementia. Older participants have an opportunity to voice what they see as their human rights, and what these rights should look like in the context of their daily life. Opening up this conversation allows them to look at ways of supporting each other to be safe. Experiencing life in the older person's home, and not a place of work, gives care staff a different perspective, as one care staff observed "just putting yourself in that person's shoes, their priorities are not the same as ours". The outcome is the implementation of changes to organizational structures and practices to enhance dignity within long-term care residential settings. Sustainability: Once finalized, the programme will be delivered by the organisations in the different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the rich bio-cultural diversity found in the Neotropics relatively few herbal drugs native to South America are included in the global pharmacopoeia. In the attempt to historically explain the inclusion of herbal drugs into official pharmacopoeias we consider the disparate epidemiology and cultural evolution of the New and the Old World. We then trace the development of pharmacopoeias and review forces that worked towards and against the synchronization of pharmacopoeias and highlight the role of early chemical and pharmacological studies in Europe. Finally, we compare the share of exotic and native herbal drug species included in the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia with the share of exotic and native species included in the European Pharmacopoeia as well as those used for products registered with ANVISA. The domination of Eurasian herbal drugs in the European Pharmacopoeia seems to be conditioned by the geographical extension of Eurasia, which facilitated the interchange of materia medica and the creation of a consensus of use since ancient times. At the time of the Conquest the epidemiology of the Amerindian populations resembled that of pre-agriculturalist societies while no written consensus around efficacious medicine existed. Subsequently, introduced and well-tried plant species of the Old World gained therapeutic importance in the New World. The research focus in Europe and the US resulted in a persistence of herbal drugs with a historic importance in the European and US pharmacopoeias, which gained a status as safe and efficacious. During the last decades only few ethnopharmacological field-studies have been conducted with indigenous Amerindian groups living in the Brazilian Amazon, which might be attributable to difficulties in obtaining research permissions. Newly adopted regulations regarding access to biodiversity and traditional knowledge as well as the simplified procedure for licencing herbal medicinal products in Brazil prospects an interesting future for those aiming at developing herbal medicine based on bio-cultural diversity and respecting the protocols regulating benefit sharing. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]