Suchergebnisse

The sustainable development of transport is fostered by innovations. To implement innovations, the European Commission issues different regulations, programs and initiatives and the European Transport Policy has a significant impact on transport policy in the member states. At the same time, transport policy is dynamic and requires new solutions that will allow the planned goals to be achieved. In this context, it is important to analyze the effectiveness of the current innovation policies, and to create recommendations for future actions that bring innovations to the market. This article concerns the subject of innovation policy in the transport sector. It illustrates the possibility of applying one of the methods of the multiple criteria decision aid, i.e., the simple additive weighting (SAW) method to assess the European Union (EU) and national policy measures in surface transport in terms of their influence on the market take-up of innovations. The use of this method allows for the analyzed policy measures to be contemplated in terms of various criteria and to identify those that best meet the adopted criteria, and thus those that could contribute the most to the stimulation of innovation. The article focuses on the method itself, indicating its flexibility and ease of use, while the analyzed collection of policy measures constitutes only the background of the deliberations.

Non-typhoid salmonellosis is a common and problematic foodborne zoonotic disease in which pork and pork products can be an important potential source of infection. To prevent this disease, important efforts to monitor the situation in the main source, livestock, are conducted in most developed countries. In the European Union, European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) compile information at the member-state level, even though important differences in production systems and surveillance systems exist. Here, Salmonella surveillance systems in one of the main sources of foodborne salmonellosis, swine, and humans in Spain were reviewed to identify potential gaps and discuss potential ways of integration under a &ldquo ; One-Health&rdquo ; approach. Despite the extensive information generated through the surveillance activities, source attribution can be only routinely performed through ad-hoc outbreak investigations, and national reports on human outbreaks do not provide sufficiently detailed information to gain a better understanding of the epidemiology of the pathogen. Human and animal monitoring of Salmonella would benefit from a better exchange of information and collaboration. Analysis of spatio-temporal trends in livestock and humans could help to identify likely sources of infection and to target surveillance efforts in areas with higher prevalence or where specific strains are found.

Image-fusion strategies have been applied to improve inter-atrial septal (IAS) wall minimally-invasive interventions. Hereto, several landmarks are initially identified on richly-detailed datasets throughout the planning stage and then combined with intra-operative images, enhancing the relevant structures and easing the procedure. Nevertheless, such planning is still performed manually, which is time-consuming and not necessarily reproducible, hampering its regular application. In this article, we present a novel automatic strategy to segment the atrial region (left/right atrium and aortic tract) and the fossa ovalis (FO). ; Fundacão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), in Portugal, and the European Social Found, European Union, for funding support through the "Programa Operacional Capital Humano" (POCH) in the scope of the PhD grants SFRH/BD/95438/2013 (P. Morais) and SFRH/BD/93443/2013 (S. Queirós). This work was funded by projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000022 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-024300, supported by Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), and also been funded by FEDER funds, through Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by national funds, through the FCT, under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038 ...

The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the central EU policy instrument aimed at mitigating climate change and to comply with the target agreed in the Kyoto protocol. The EU ETS could result in an harmful impact for the competitiveness of the European firms, as it was unilaterally introduced by the EU, and so firms could be induced to relocate their carbon-intensive production activities in countries with less stringent regulations for mitigating climate change (carbon leakage effect). For this reason, European Union decided to grant most of permits for free in its first phases and to exempt leakage-exposed sectors from auctioning in its third phase. According to Coase (1960), the level of emissions for each firm in equilibrium does not depend on the assignment of property rights over the emissions but this could not be the case in a real world system, with a lot of possible frictions, as transaction costs and behavioural anomalies. The aim of the paper is to exploit the asymmetry in the allocation mechanisms introduced from the third phase of the EU ETS to evaluate whether different allocation mechanisms are neutral in terms of emission abatement decisions. Results suggest a non-neutral role of the allocation mechanisms, with establishments that received allowances for free having greater emissions than plants that were forced to buy allowances through auctions.

Thermal insulation systems are an essential part of new as well as reconstructed buildings in the aim to reduce their heat use to achieve the criteria of EU energy policy to 2020[1]. The systematic integration of the additional thermal insulation systems in the building envelopes in Slovakia began in year 1992. Nowadays architects commonly design thermal insulation with thickness about 120 mm. Predictions of EAE (European Association for External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems) for year 2021 shows, that, the requirements for thickness of thermal insulation of wall claddings will exceed 210 mm. Recent trend on requirements on building envelope may lead to additional insulating of already insulated walls. In Slovakia, around 52% of flats in dwelling houses and 33% of family houses were thermally insulated before year 2011. The most of buildings in Slovakia were insulated by all kinds of External Thermal Composite Systems (ETICS). In European Union (EU), towards the end of year 2011, there were about 358 valid European technical approvals (ETA) for ETICS producers, from which about 45 ETA were and 22 Technical certificate (TO) were registered in Slovakia. Majority of the systems here are based on EPS (expanded polystyrene) [2], which have a strong impact on the sound insulation of the wall claddings. In some cases, even decreasing of the facade sound insulation properties is very evident.

sing representative probabilistic samples of Portuguese citizens and framed by an intergroup perspective, we carried out two studies aiming to address how national identification and belief in a just world (BJW) jointly predict secondary victimization of an ingroup as a whole (specifically ingroup blame). We conducted Study 1 (N = 779) in 2014, at the height of the European austerity policies imposed on Portugal by an institutional outgroup, specifically the Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund). Study 2 (N = 1140) was conducted after the Troika intervention. An environment of ongoing ingroup suffering caused by an outgroup is more threatening for the BJW of individuals who are more identified with the ingroup. We therefore predicted and found that BJW was positively associated with ingroup blame in participants higher in national identification when the victimization provoked by an institutional outgroup was higher (Study 1). However, when the suffering caused by the outgroup decreased, the association between BJW and secondary victimization was not moderated by individuals' national identification (Study 2). Indeed, a three-way interaction was found between BJW, national identification, and social context (high vs. low victimization). These results are an important contribution for the literature about justice motivation in terms of intergroup relations, because they show that secondary victimization produced by a threat to BJW has a group-based identity function. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Producción Científica ; The article, through a number of case studies, aims at exploring difficulties and opportunities affecting Italian military real estate assets re-use and, also, at developing an analysis of 1990s and 2000s military assets management. After an introduction of the theme, it will critically analyze the connection between legislative framework (divide it into two periods, firstly, between 1989 and 2013 and, secondly, starting from 2014) and reuse procedures, delineating the relationship between the actors involved in the process, such as Ministry of Defense, State Property Agency, and local authorities. Afterwards, it will focus the attention on three case studies of military installations re-use processes in the Italian capital cities of Milan, Rome, and Turin, investigating a "new" actor task in the procedures, real estate fund "Investment facility for the enhancement of public assets - Extra Fund (F.I.V.)", belonging to Investment Management Company "Cassa Depositi e Prestiti". The paper demonstrates, on one hand, Italian public policies inertia to link military properties alienation and urban regeneration issues and, on the other hand, opportunities in a context of public financial crisis. ; Este trabajo ha sido realizado en el ámbito del proyecto de doctorado europeo European Joint Doctorate "urbanHIST". European Union. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721933

It has been recognized that the support for democracy seems to be increasing with the time spent in a democratic system. An individual's life experience living under democratic rule positively affects the support for democracy as a political system. Therefore it seemed inevitable that the newly democratic eastern European member countries of the European Union would reap the benefits of democratization and slowly foster democratic support. However, recent backlashes to democratic rule in those countries seem to be contradictory. Therefore this paper investigates whether people's rising democratic capital in these new democracies also increases the support for democracy in those countries. Furthermore we examine if the quality of other institutions and especially corruption play a role in shaping the support for democracy and whether the positive effect of democratic capital on democratic support might be undermined. We find that the recent repercussions to democratic rule in eastern European countries are no coincidence. The effect of people's rising democratic capital on the support for democracy is negative in those countries. It has therefore been falling. Moreover, we establish that the increased experiences of corruption in these states undermine the support for democracy. Specifically, that democracy and corruption are complementary institutions. Only in the absence of corruption can the experience of democracy have its full effect on prodemocratic attitudes.

Originally published in The Conversation, June 8, 2018 1.43pm BST. ; The British government has made it clear it wants a new kind of security deal with the European Union after Brexit. In a speech in London on June 6, David Davis, secretary of state for exiting the EU, set out five aims for a new security partnership. He highlighted the need for a "lasting, positive" agreement, "a stable relationship, built on trust" – a relationship that "doesn't need to be revisited or renegotiated". Davis promised that the UK would make appropriate contributions to the costs of programmes that underpin continued cooperation. And he added that the UK "would respect the remit of the European Court of Justice" when participating in EU agencies, without explaining exactly how. But Davis's comments came a week after a senior EU official suggested that the UK would not be able to make use of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) after Brexit – which allows for the speedy extradition of suspects and convicted persons across EU countries. The official said Britain's continued involvement could jeopardise "the lives and liberty of citizens". Part of the reason for this reluctance to allow Britain access to the EAW after Brexit is a question of trust – one of the key requirements for ongoing security cooperation.

Education is instrumental in preparing students to participate in increasingly diverse Irish, European and global societies, with higher education having a part to play in the process. Issues around migration and cultural diversity have gained less attention in the higher education sector in Ireland than at primary and post primary level with a few notable exceptions. Higher education is regarded as having a "critical role" to play in terms of "enriching Ireland's cultural life, nurturing our understanding of our own national identity and that of other cultures and belief systems" [1]. Influenced by developments at European Union level, the approach adopted to cultural diversity in Ireland is one of interculturalism. This paper aims in the first instance to analyse the application of interculturalism in the Irish higher education sector from a strategy and policy perspective. It briefly traces the promotion of interculturalism as a policy response to cultural diversity at a European level, before highlighting a number of the concept's salient characteristics. The second part of the paper analyses the implementation of interculturalism in the Irish context. While critically reflecting on the higher education setting as a site where interculturalism can be put into practice, the focus is placed specifically on the question of language and the need to take it into consideration.

Using representative probabilistic samples of Portuguese citizens and framed by an intergroup perspective, we carried out two studies aiming to address how national identification and belief in a just world (BJW) jointly predict secondary victimization of an ingroup as a whole (specifically ingroup blame). We conducted Study 1 (N = 779) in 2014, at the height of the European austerity policies imposed on Portugal by an institutional outgroup, specifically the Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund). Study 2 (N = 1140) was conducted after the Troika intervention. An environment of ongoing ingroup suffering caused by an outgroup is more threatening for the BJW of individuals who are more identified with the ingroup. We therefore predicted and found that BJW was positively associated with ingroup blame in participants higher in national identification when the victimization provoked by an institutional outgroup was higher (Study 1). However, when the suffering caused by the outgroup decreased, the association between BJW and secondary victimization was not moderated by individuals' national identification (Study 2). Indeed, a three-way interaction was found between BJW, national identification, and social context (high vs. low victimization). These results are an important contribution for the literature about justice motivation in terms of intergroup relations, because they show that secondary victimization produced by a threat to BJW has a group-based identity function.

In November 2013, a team of European regulators initiated the Strengthening Collaboration for Operating Pharmacovigilance in Europe (SCOPE) Joint Action. Funded by the Health Programme of the European Union, and with contributions from the involved Member States, SCOPE gathered information and expertise on how regulators in Member States run their national pharmacovigilance systems to meet the requirements of the pharmacovigilance legislation that came into effect in June 2012. The SCOPE project evaluated then-current practices and developed tools to further improve the skills and capability in the pharmacovigilance network. The project was divided into eight separate work streams, five of which concentrated on pharmacovigilance topics—collecting information on suspected adverse drug reactions, identifying and managing safety issues (signals), communicating risk and assessing risk minimisation measures, supported by effective quality management systems. The other three work streams focused on the functional aspects—coordination, communication and evaluation of the project. Through the project, SCOPE delivered guidance, training in key aspects of pharmacovigilance, and tools and templates to support best practice. The deliverables provide practical guidance that those working in the European national competent authorities can take to strengthen their national systems. The SCOPE outputs can be useful for other stakeholders involved in pharmacovigilance activities, including the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare professionals, patient and consumer organisations, and academia.

I propose a dynamic general equilibrium model in which strategic interactions between banks and depositors may lead to endogenous bank fragility and slow recovery from crises. When banks' investment decisions are not contractible, depositors form expectations about bank risk-taking and demand a return on deposits according to their risk. This creates strategic complementarities and possibly multiple equilibria: in response to an increase in funding costs, banks may optimally choose to pursue risky portfolios that undermine their solvency prospects. In a bad equilibrium, high funding costs hinder the accumulation of bank net worth, leading to a persistent drop in investment and output. I bring the model to bear on the European sovereign debt crisis, in the course of which under-capitalized banks in default-risky countries experienced an increase in funding costs and raised their holdings of domestic government debt. The model is quantified using Portuguese data and accounts for macroeconomic dynamics in Portugal in 2010- 2016. Policy interventions face a trade-o¤ between alleviating banks' funding conditions and strengthening risk-taking incentives. Liquidity provision to banks may eliminate the good equilibrium when not targeted. Targeted interventions have the capacity to eliminate adverse equilibria. ; The ADEMU Working Paper Series is being supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 European Union funding for Research & Innovation, grant agreement No 649396.

With the development of anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) monoclonal antibodies, trastuzumab-based therapy has become the standard of care among patients with early or advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. However, real-world data have shown that up to a half of patients do not receive trastuzumab or any other HER2-targeted agent, mainly due to high treatments costs. The prospect of a more enlarged access to trastuzumab treatment lies in the use of biosimilars, as the European and the US patent of the reference products has or will soon expire. Biosimilars are biologics highly similar in terms of quality characteristics, biological activity, safety and efficacy to already approved biologics. The biosimilarity of any European Union (EU)-approved biosimilar is guaranteed based on the comprehensive comparability exercise which includes comparative analytical, non-clinical and clinical studies. In the matter of biosimilars&rsquo ; interchangeability and substitution, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have adopted different positions, triggering various discussions on the potential immunogenicity and efficacy in individual patients. As more biosimilars are gaining approval, the present review aims to offer concise information for oncologists and pharmacists about the production, approval, interchangeability, and substitution policies of biosimilars used in breast cancer therapy, with a special focus on trastuzumab.

Diatoms are photosynthetic microalgae, a group with a major environmental role on the planet due to the biogeochemical cycling of silica and global fixation of carbon. However, they can evolve into harmful blooms through a resourceful communication mechanism, not yet fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that a population of diatoms under darkness show quasi-periodic electrical oscillations, or intercellular waves. The origin is paracrine signaling, which is a feedback, or survival, mechanism that counteracts changes in the physicochemical environment. The intracellular messenger is related to Ca2+ ions since spatiotemporal changes in their concentration match the characteristics of the intercellular waves. Our conclusion is supported by using a Ca2+ channel inhibitor. The transport of Ca2+ ions through the membrane to the extracellular medium is blocked and the intercellular waves disappear. The translation of microalgae cooperative signaling paves the way for early detection and prevention of harmful blooms and an extensive range of stress-induced alterations in the aquatic ecosystem. ; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BPD/91518/2012, UID/Multi/04326/2013]; SNMB - INOV: Innovation for a more competitive shellfish sector; Operational Program (OP); European Union through the European Structural Funds and Investment Funds (FEEI); European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion