Suchergebnisse

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs), and alcohol dependence (AD) in particular, are prevalent and associated with a large burden of disability and mortality. The aim of this study was to estimate prevalence of AD in the European Union (EU), Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland for the year 2010, and to investigate potential influencing factors. The 1-year prevalence of AD in the EU was estimated at 3.4% among people 18–64 years of age in Europe (women 1.7%, men 5.2%), resulting in close to 11 million affected people. Taking into account all people of all ages, AD, abuse and harmful use resulted in an estimate of 23 million affected people. Prevalence of AD varied widely between European countries, and was significantly impacted by drinking cultures and social norms. Correlations with level of drinking and other drinking variables and with major known outcomes of heavy drinking, such as liver cirrhosis or injury, were moderate. These results suggest a need to rethink the definition of AUDs.

Review of: Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times, by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2013, 431pp. ISBN 978-1-60980-484-7From its provocative title to its inclusion of contributions from observers like John Pilger, Censored 2014 provides no space for a counter narrative to its criticism of what it calls the corporate or establishment media. Heroes abound but they aren't The New York Times or CNN. Instead we're told it's Bradley Manning, Glen Greenwald or Iceland who deserve praise rather than censure. The project feels there are three main stories which are routinely and deliberately ignored by existing media outlets: climate change, economic inequality and conflicts launched in the name of Empire. This last conclusion is one that goes uncontested even when chapters are devoted to how independent journalists are disparaged as conspiracy theorists by their mainstream rivals if they call attention to false flag terrorism, or demand full investigations into 9/11.

AbstractBy analyzing how credit in Iceland expanded to culminate in the country's 2008 financial collapse, this article advances theories about financial crises, regulatory change, and the role of credit. It also complicates popular accounts of Iceland's collapse that focus on the actions of unrestrained bankers by examining the larger context that facilitated these banking practices. After financial liberalization, Icelandic businesses and households had strong demand for credit as a result of: (i) the institutional meaning of credit, (ii) an emergent growth strategy of aggressive international expansion, and (iii) increasing consumption. Incorporating business demand for credit extends demand‐side theory of crises and shows how dominant strategy and shared government and business orientation toward opportunity shaped credit expansion. Credit‐based consumption also stabilized social relations despite increasing inequality. Notwithstanding warnings of risk, regulation did not restrain risky leverage. International market reactions reinforced beliefs about Icelandic success to limit regulatory reach, as Iceland's international financial legitimacy produced market‐based measures that leaders interpreted as signals of economic success.

This paper looks at the different stages of European municipal defragmentation and at the diverse models that post-war countries have adopted for their municipal structures. It notes that defragmentation has been undertaken with little previous knowledge regarding the possible impacts of these approaches. Through applying the QCA method of analysis it looks at common and distinct features of these approaches and draws a sharp dichotomy between defragmentation trends in post-communist countries and countries of the Western bloc. By showing that there are trends intrinsic to post-communist political systems, this paper presents the idea that these systems can learn from errors made by countries that approached municipal defragmentation before them. Drawing on the example of the late-defragmenting Iceland, this paper shows how currently or prospectively defragmenting countries can learn from its experience. In the last part of the paper, suggestions are made with regard to how the Czech Republic can learn from this experience, particularly from democratic referendums, legislative and economic incentives, and municipal cooperation.

AbstractThis article deals with the rural community of Fjallabyggð in North Iceland and second home inhabitants of the constituent villages of Siglufjörður and Ólafsfjörður. Up to a quarter of the housing in these villages is owned by people with their registered residence elsewhere. The article asks whether and how the owners of these houses contribute to the maintenance of the villages' social fabric, building on the notion of social capital, in any formal or informal sense. The article finds that there are two types of second home owners. One the homesick local maintaining ties with family and friends and the other of those pursuing a lifestyle of creative leisure. The latter are actively involved in community projects, whilst the former are passive audience to these. Thus the article concludes by finding that community expats maintain a village's social fabric for mostly selfish reasons and to a limited extent, whilst those seeking a place away from home will be more active in maintaining it.

This paper analyses synchronization in business cycles across the European Union (EU) since 1989. We include both old and new European Union members and countries which are currently negotiating accession, as well as potential European Union members. Our methodological approach is based on the correlation matrix and the networks within, which allows us to summarize the individual interaction and co-movement, while also capturing the existing heterogeneity of connectivity within the European economic system. The results indicate that the synchronization of the old EU countries remained stable until the current financial crisis. Additionally, the synchronization of the new and potential members has approached to the old EU members although we observe the existence of different synchronization levels and dynamics in output growth in single countries as well as in groups of countries. Some countries have achieved an important degree of co-movement (such as the Baltic Republics, Hungary, Slovenia and Iceland), while others have experienced reduced synchronization, or even desynchronization (such as Romania, Bulgaria and even Greece and Ireland).

The concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman was fundamentally challenged by the introduction of registered partnership in Denmark in 1989. "http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789052603810">Odd Couples. A History of Gay Marriage in Scandinavia is the first comprehensive history of registered partnership and gay marriage in Scandinavia. It presents an outstanding study of the interaction between gay activism and traditional party politics. Based on interviews, parliamentary print and party documents, it gives a first-hand account of how the political stakeholders acted in a short and decisive period of Scandinavian history. The author traces the origins of laws which initially were extremely controversial - inside and outside the gay community - but have now gained broad popular and political support. The different experiences in all Scandinavian countries (Denmark -including Greenland and the Faroe Islands-, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland) are investigated in order to present a nuanced understanding of a fascinating political process that began in the 1960s and continues to change the ways we understand family, sexuality and nation.

Abstract. The VLF/LF radio signals method for studying preseimic activity is applied to the Abruzzo earthquake (M=6.3, 6 April 2009). The data collected by three receivers located in Moscow (Russia), Graz (Austria) and Bari (Italy) at about 3000 km, 1000 km and 500 km from the epicenter were used. The signals received from the Sardinia (20.27 kHz) and the Sicily (45.9 kHz) transmitters, both located in Italy, were compared with those received from the Iceland (37.5 kHz), the Great Britain (19.58 kHz) and the Germany (23.4 kHz) transmitters. The propagation paths of the two Italian transmitters cross the epicentral area (seismic paths) unlike the paths of the other three signals (control paths). Using two different analyses, that are the study of the night-time signal and the research of shifts in the evening terminator times, clear anomalies were revealed 2–8 days before the occurrence of the Abruzzo earthquake in the seismic paths, while no anomalies have been found in the control paths.

Modern politics is mediated politics, and the media constitute the most important source of information and channel of communication between the governors and the governed. Media and politics are thus inextricable linked together, with the media playing an important role in contemporary democracies and for political processes. While this is true for virtually all advanced democracies, there are still important differences between countries depending on, for example, their media systems and political systems. The purpose of Communicating Politics: Political Communication in the Nordic Countries is consequently to de-scribe and analyze both the political communication systems and cases of political communication processes in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Taken together, the chapters explore differences as well as similarities between the Nordic countries, and provide a broad view of political communication systems, practices and research perspectives in the Nordic countries. There is a few copies of the printed edition available. It can also be downloaded as a PDF, free of cost.

This project has been developed within the frame of the Nordic Action Plan 2000-2004 (Nord 1999:29) to review the status and threats of the natural and cultural heritage in Arctic waters. Two of the most commonly used demersal fishing gears in the Arctic are the otter trawl and the scallop dredge. Detrimental effects of bottom gear towed over the seabed include incidental catch and direct mortality of a wide range of organisms and habitat alteration. Any three-dimensional fragile structures rising above the seabed, such as cold-water corals, sponges, geological formations and archaeological remains are easily destroyed. This report reviews the scallop and shrimp fisheries, the distribution and conservation of vulnerable habitats (coral reefs, sponge communities), the status of archaeological remains on the seabed and relevant legislation and the conservation measures and role of protected areas. In addition there are two case studies based on fisheries and survey data from Iceland and recommendations to improve the current situation.

This article analyzes the evolution of research in regional science in the Nordic countries in the period 1991-2000, situating it in an international context. With this aim in mind, we first elaborate on the rankings of countries, authors and institutions in terms of the publications in a sample of nine top international regional journals. Second, we compare the publication patterns of Nordic authors with the ones observed at the international level. The results show that the Nordic countries' share in regional research has been relatively low (especially when compared to other disciplines). Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway appear in the rankings while Iceland is not present. The analysis of their publication patterns has also thrown some light on the peculiarities of regional research in these countries. Nordic author's contributions are on a par with international standards, with two exceptions: a greater interest in social and political issues, and more use of quantitative techniques. ; The paper is published by the European Journal of Spatial Development (EJSD). The previous version of the journal was host by Nordregio.

This case report describes recent efforts in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to establish an appropriate benefit-sharing model for human genetic research conducted there. The relatively homogeneous population of this island province has proven to be attractive to the drug development industry. However, unlike large-scale national projects that include broad benefit-sharing arrangements from the outset such as those proposed for places like Iceland and Estonia, there are no plans in Newfoundland and Labrador to establish a large gene bank. Hence a benefit-sharing protocol that will assess individual genetic studies on a case by case basis has been proposed. The province is moving toward legislation to establish a Provincial Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB) that will ensure that all human health research conducted in the province receives local ethics review. The proposed benefit-sharing protocol calls for the establishment of a Standing Committee on Human Genetic Research (SCHGR) that will operate in concert with the PHREB and will ensure that research sponsors enter into appropriate benefit-sharing arrangements with the province.

Secession, defined as 'formal withdrawal from a central authority by a member unit', has been particularly rare in democracies. In fact, there has never been a single case of secession in democracies if we consider only the well-established ones, that is, those with at least ten consecutive years of universal suffrage. The cases most often mentioned happened only a few years after the introduction or significant expansion of universal suffrage: Norway and Sweden in 1905, Iceland and Denmark in 1918, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1922. What is more, one would hesitate before calling the first two cases real secessions, since the ties between the political entities involved were very loose at the outset. Secessionists never managed to split a well-established democracy through a referendum or an electoral victory. We must conclude that it is very hard for them to achieve and maintain the magic number of 50 per cent support. My aim is to explain why this is the case.

During the period 1880-1930 Iceland was transformed from a society dominated by rural farming to an urbanized society heavily dependent on fishing and fish processing. This article examines the effects of this development on demographic behavior and household structure in three geographically distinct coastal districts with economies based on different types of fishing. Urbanization and the growth of the fishing industry increased marriage prospects and reduced the mean age at marriage. For most of the period fertility in the three districts exceeded the national average. However, the same also applied to infant mortality and mortality in general. Kinship and friendship networks appear to have played an important role in the growing fishing towns. Household structure in the districts varied considerably before 1880 and was largely influenced by the labor requirement of different types of fishing. In contrast, household structure was fairly similar in the three towns in 1930 and did not exhibit any distinctive features which could be identified as directly influenced by the labor requirements of fishing.

The frequency with which symptoms of depression are found among subjects with either a lifetime diagnosis of depression or dysthymia and among subjects with no psychiatric disorders, are analysed. The data is derived from a large study (n=862) on the lifetime prevalence of mental disorders which was conducted in Iceland. The survey instrument was the NIMH-Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). Results from 379 subjects are reported in this study, these subjects have either experienced a Major Depressive Episode (n=46), dysthymia (n=32) or have no psychiatric disorder (n=301). The frequency of symptoms are grouped together in hierarchical tables and displayed and analysed. In the hierarchical groupings of symptoms, males were found to report more grave symptoms of suicide than were females, both in the depression and dysthymic groups. In a comorbidity correlation between these and other disorders, sex differences emerged in the diagnosis of Tobacco Dependence, with women exhibiting higher frequencies of dependence when found in the depressed group.