Suchergebnisse

By utilizing historical changes in Danish legislation related to mandatory vitamin D fortification of margarine, which was implemented in the mid 1930s and abruptly abandoned in June 1985, the studies in the D-tect project investigated the effects of vitamin D on health outcomes in individuals, who during gestation were exposed or unexposed to extra vitamin D from fortified margarine. This paper reviews and narratively summarizes the analytic approaches alongside the results of the societal fortification experiment studies from the D-tect project and addresses the challenges in designing societal experiment studies and evaluating their results. The latter are discussed as lessons learned that may be useful for designers of similar studies, expected to be extensively utilized while researching the health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing individuals born before and after the epidemic. In the D-tect project, 16 articles based on the societal fortification experiment were published analyzing 10 different outcomes and using different statistical approaches. Lessons learned included the detail of the analysis of the historical information on the exposure, availability and validity of the outcome data, variety of analytical approaches, and specifics concerning vitamin D effect evaluation, such as consideration of the influence of sunshine or season. In conclusion, the D-tect project clearly demonstrated the costeffectiveness and research potential of natural-or societal-experiment-based studies.

Publisher's version (útgefin grein) ; Rationale & Objective: Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation based on creatinine or cystatin C level is currently the standard method for assessing GFR in epidemiologic research and clinical trials despite several important and well-known limitations. Plasma iohexol clearance has been proposed as an inexpensive method for measuring GFR that could replace estimated GFR in many research projects. However, lack of standardization for iohexol assays and the use of different protocols such as single- and multiple-sample methods could potentially hamper comparisons across studies. We compared iohexol assays and GFR measurement protocols in 3 population-based European cohorts. Study Design: Cross-sectional investigation. Setting & Participants: Participants in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Kidney Study (AGES-Kidney; n = 805), the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS, n = 570), and the Renal Iohexol Clearance Survey Follow-up Study (RENIS-FU; n = 1,324). Tests Compared: High-performance liquid chromatography analyses of iohexol. Plasma iohexol clearance calculated using single- versus multiple-sample protocols. Outcomes: Measures of agreement between methods. Results: Frozen samples from the 3 studies were obtained and iohexol concentrations were remeasured in the laboratory at the University Hospital of North Norway. Lin's concordance correlation coefficient ρ was >0.96 and Cb (accuracy) was >0.99 for remeasured versus original serum iohexol concentrations in all 3 cohorts, and Passing-Bablok regression did not find differences between measurements, except for a slope of 1.025 (95% CI, 1.006-1.046) for the log-transformed AGES-Kidney measurements. The multiple-sample iohexol clearance measurements in AGES-Kidney and BIS were compared with single-sample GFRs derived from the same iohexol measurements. Mean bias for multiple-sample relative to single-sample GFRs in AGES-Kidney and BIS were −0.25 and −0.15 mL/min, and 99% and 97% of absolute differences were within 10% of the multiple-sample result, respectively. Limitations: Lack of comparison with an independent gold-standard method. Conclusions: Agreement between the iohexol assays and clearance protocols in the 3 investigated cohorts was substantial. Our findings indicate that plasma iohexol clearance measurements can be compared across these studies. ; AGES-Kidney was supported by a grant from National Institutes of Health, United States (R01 DK082447), a contract from the National Institute on Aging, United States (N01-AG-1-2100), Hjartavernd, Iceland (Icelandic Heart Association), and the Icelandic Parliament (Althingi). The Icelandic Heart Association provided support for data collection. BIS measurements were funded by the KfH-Foundation of Preventive Medicine, Germany and the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation, Germany. RENIS-FU was funded by the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority and supported by a grant from Boehringer-Ingelheim, Germany. The funding sources did not have any role in study design, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; and the decision to submit the report for publication. ; Peer Reviewed

This report (Deliverable D2.7) refers to URBANWASTE Work Package 2, Task 2.8. Under this Task the current waste prevention and management practices in the URBANWASTE pilot cases are investigated and best practices coming from the EU context (focussing on touristic processes) are identified. This document shall support the selection of innovative strategies to be carried out within Work Package WP 4. A comparative policy review of national waste management strategies and targets in the European Union (EU) showed that there is no separate field of policies and instruments for waste generated by tourism neither on European level nor on the national level of EU member states. The identified waste prevention and management strategies already existing in the URBANWASTE pilot cities as well as international best practice examples can be allocated to well-known policy instruments mainly based on information and awareness building as well as provision of infrastructure (e.g. bins for separate collection of food waste). But also regulatory instruments (e.g. ban of plastic bags), economic instruments and voluntary agreements (e.g. use of returnable containers) could be identified. Both, existing waste management and prevention practices in pilot cities as well as international best practices focus on nutrition of tourists. Most measures deal with food waste prevention as well as food waste management. The low-waste organisation of events and the promotion of re-use activities were also identified to be promising topics to reduce tourist waste generation. The promotion of resource consciousness in procurement amongst tourist accommodation establishments as well as food and beverage providers for tourists is another positive example identified. Most identified international best practice examples connected to tourist waste management refer to eco labelling and connected guidelines. The hotel industry can considerably reduce their waste generation by implementing and following a waste management system. One interesting ...

The construct of cultural intelligence, recently introduced to the management literature, has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross cultural interactions. However, at present, no generally accepted definition or operationalization of this nascent construct exists. In this article, we develop a conceptualization of cultural intelligence that addresses a number of important limitations of previous definitions. We present a concise definition of cultural intelligence as a system of interacting abilities, describe how these elements interact to produce culturally intelligent behavior, and then identify measurement implications.

This book focuses on the significance of family in child welfare (CW) services from multidisciplinary perspectives. The authors are concerned with how families experience encounters with CW workers, how professional CW work with families is guided by rules and principles, and how social structures and ideologies influence CW work. Taken together, the chapters contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how CW workers should understand the importance of family for children.

The book is important for everyone who works with the welfare of children and their families, and for those who educate CW workers. Although the context for many of the discussions in the book is Norwegian CW work, the topics are general, recognisable and relevant to similar discussions in other countries. The book is intended for CW workers, policymakers, researchers, and teachers and students in social work and child welfare study programmes.

PINE was supported by Parkinson's UK (grant numbers G0502, G0914, G1302), Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, BMA Doris Hillier Award, the BUPA Foundation, NHS Grampian Endowments, and RS MacDonald Trust. The Norwegian ParkWest study has been funded by the Research Council of Norway (grant number 177966), the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (grant number 911218), Stavanger University Hospital Research Funds (grant number 501611), and the Norwegian Parkinson's Disease Association. Janete Chung and Kristin Aaser Lunde are supported by the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (grant numbers 911859 and 911830). The NYPUM study has been funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council, the Swedish Parkinson's Disease Association, the Swedish Parkinson Foundation, Erling Persson Foundation, Kempe Foundation and the Västerbotten County Council. The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study: collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript: and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. ; Peer reviewed ; Postprint

This study introduces an Earth observation (EO)-based system which is capable of operationally estimating and continuously monitoring the ultraviolet index (UVI) in Europe. UVIOS (i.e., UV-Index Operating System) exploits a synergy of radiative transfer models with high-performance computing and EO data from satellites (Meteosat Second Generation and Meteorological Operational Satellite-B) and retrieval processes (Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the Global Land Service). It provides a near-real-time nowcasting and short-term forecasting service for UV radiation over Europe. The main atmospheric inputs for the UVI simulations include ozone, clouds and aerosols, while the impacts of ground elevation and surface albedo are also taken into account. The UVIOS output is the UVI at high spatial and temporal resolution (5 km and 15 min, respectively) for Europe (i.e., 1.5 million pixels) in real time. The UVI is empirically related to biologically important UV dose rates, and the reliability of this EO-based solution was verified against ground-based measurements from 17 stations across Europe. Stations are equipped with spectral, broadband or multi-filter instruments and cover a range of topographic and atmospheric conditions. A period of over 1 year of forecasted 15 min retrievals under all-sky conditions was compared with the ground-based measurements. UVIOS forecasts were within ±0.5 of the measured UVI for at least 70 % of the data compared at all stations. For clear-sky conditions the agreement was better than 0.5 UVI for 80 % of the data. A sensitivity analysis of EO inputs and UVIOS outputs was performed in order to quantify the level of uncertainty in the derived products and to identify the covariance between the accuracy of the output and the spatial and temporal resolution and the quality of the inputs. Overall, UVIOS slightly overestimated the UVI due to observational uncertainties in inputs of cloud and aerosol. This service will hopefully contribute to EO capabilities and will assist the provision of operational early warning systems that will help raise awareness among European Union citizens of the health implications of high UVI doses. ; publishedVersion

The objective of the work package 4 is the development of eco-innovative and collectively-based waste prevention and management strategies for touristic cities. The idea of this guideline for local policy makers is to provide them with some inputs related to European and national regulation so that they are aware of the legal frameworks on waste management at their local scale. In fact, even if the European regulation is a common legislative framework for all the member states to conduct their national waste management policies, every country has its own specificities that lead to specific strategies in terms of waste management. This guideline can be used as separated forms for seven different themes: avoiding waste production; reuse and prevention; avoiding litter; sorting into different fractions and recycling; biowaste and food waste; used cooking oils and environmental certifications. Those forms aim to describe all the national regulation on those themes so that local stakeholders can get legal tools to implement and support the proposed URBAN-WASTE measures on waste management at their local scale. Moreover, economical guidelines have also been developed through that deliverable. They aim to make local stakeholders aware of the costs and saving costs generated by the measures implementation at their local scale; and can be used as decision making tools locally. Indeed saving costs can be used as convincing arguments for local stakeholders regarding the interest of the measures implementation. Besides, for the measures proposed by the URBAN-WASTE project, a business model has been developed in order to identify the relevant information to implement such a measure at local scale: timeline to implement the measure; barriers; success factors; main stakeholders to involve; supportive policy actions; financial inputs; monitoring; impact on policies, etc. This work on business models has been completed with the proposition of a common financial balance template that can be used by local policy makers as a tool ...

Objective To determine whether government efforts in reducing inequalities in health in European countries have actually made a difference to mortality inequalities by socioeconomic group.

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether government efforts in reducing inequalities in health in European countries have actually made a difference to mortality inequalities by socioeconomic group. DESIGN:Register based study. DATA SOURCE:Mortality data by level of education and occupational class in the period 1990-2010, usually collected in a census linked longitudinal study design. We compared changes in mortality between the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups, and calculated their effect on absolute and relative inequalities in mortality (measured as rate differences and rate ratios, respectively). SETTING:All European countries for which data on socioeconomic inequalities in mortality were available for the approximate period between years 1990 and 2010. These included Finland, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, England and Wales (data applied to both together), France, Switzerland, Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Turin), Slovenia, and Lithuania. RESULTS:Substantial mortality declines occurred in lower socioeconomic groups in most European countries covered by this study. Relative inequalities in mortality widened almost universally, because percentage declines were usually smaller in lower socioeconomic groups. However, as absolute declines were often smaller in higher socioeconomic groups, absolute inequalities narrowed by up to 35%, particularly among men. Narrowing was partly driven by ischaemic heart disease, smoking related causes, and causes amenable to medical intervention. Progress in reducing absolute inequalities was greatest in Spain (Barcelona), Scotland, England and Wales, and Italy (Turin), and absent in Finland and Norway. More detailed studies preferably using individual level data are necessary to identify the causes of these variations. CONCLUSIONS:Over the past two decades, trends in inequalities in mortality have been more favourable in most European countries than is commonly assumed. Absolute inequalities have decreased in several countries, probably more as a side effect of population wide behavioural changes and improvements in prevention and treatment, than as an effect of policies explicitly aimed at reducing health inequalities. ; Peer reviewed

Fauna Europaea is Europe's main zoological taxonomic index, making the scientific names and distributions of all living, currently known, multicellular, European land and freshwater animals species integrally available in one authoritative database. Fauna Europaea covers about 260,000 taxon names, including 145,000 accepted (sub)species, assembled by a large network of (>400) leading specialists, using advanced electronic tools for data collations with data quality assured through sophisticated validation routines. Fauna Europaea started in 2000 as an EC funded FP5 project and provides a unique taxonomic reference for many user-groups such as scientists, governments, industries, nature conservation communities and educational programs. Fauna Europaea was formally accepted as an INSPIRE standard for Europe, as part of the European Taxonomic Backbone established in PESI. Fauna Europaea provides a public web portal at faunaeur.org with links to other key biodiversity services, is installed as a taxonomic backbone in wide range of biodiversity services and actively contributes to biodiversity informatics innovations in various initiatives and EC programs.