Euro-Mediterranean Countries Research Articles

Un ponte con la Tunisia per la condivisione delle conoscenze nell’ambito del restauro dei beni culturali

The University of Urbino, with the School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage crossed the Italian border and landed in Tunisia. The aim is to create a new course of study in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, lasting three years, in the euro-Mediterranean countries raising, in this way, the region of North Africa. Besides the University of Urbino - which plays the role of leader - eleven institutions in the project, two Italians are involved, the UNIMED, the Union of the Mediterranean University in Rome, and the IUAV, MeLa Multimedia Laboratory in Venice, a Spanish partner, the University of Barcelona, one French, the ENSAM-ARTS, Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers Paris Tech, six Tunisian University, the ISMTP, Universite de Tunis, the UMA, Universite de la Manouba, the UC , Universite de Sousse, the UNIVGB, University of Gabes, the USS, Universite de Sfax, the UZ, Zitouna University, and, finally, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.This initiative is the first to introduce in the training system of the Tunisian University of the Mediterranean country the Schools of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage that have the same approach to European schools.

Smart rules for smart cities, managing efficient cities in euro-Mediterranean countries

Smart rules for smart cities, managing efficient cities in euro-Mediterranean countries

Predicting wildfire spread and behaviour in Mediterranean landscapes

The use of spatially explicit fire spread models to assess fire propagation and behaviour has several applications for fire management and research. We used the FARSITE simulator to predict the spread of a set of wildfires that occurred along an east–west gradient of the Euro-Mediterranean countries. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the overall accuracy of the simulator and to quantify the effects of standard vs custom fuel models on fire simulation performance. We also analysed the effects of different fuel models and slope classes on the accuracy of FARSITE predictions. To run the simulations, several input layers describing each study area were acquired, and their effect on simulation outputs was analysed. Site-specific fuel models and canopy inputs were derived either from existing vegetation information and field sampling or through remote-sensing data. The custom fuel models produced an increase in simulation accuracy, and results were nearly unequivocal for all the case studies examined. We suggest that spatially explicit fire spread simulators and custom fuel models specifically developed for the heterogeneous landscapes of Mediterranean ecosystems can help improve fire hazard mapping and optimise fuel management practices across the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The Determinants of Innovation Capacity in the Less Innovative Countries in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

This paper investigates the innovation capacity driving factors in 11 Euro-Mediterranean countries for the period 2000–2012. The countries are chosen according to its capacity for innovation index and the availability of statistics. Our robust estimation is based on the one-step system generalized method of moments (GMM). We found that the most of hypothesis elaborated in the context of developed and emerging countries do not fit with the context of the less innovative countries as they are not knowledge-based economies. The economic growth, the foreign investment (FDI), and the employment in R&D are positive factors that foster the innovation. However, the labor force with tertiary education, the wages, the private funding of R&D, the financial development, and the technological infrastructure are negative factors that deter the innovation. Moreover, this study bridges a gap in the extant literature by examining the main determinants of the innovation capacity in the developing countries located in the same region. Neither this sample of the countries nor this time period has been the subject of investigation by other researchers in the literature.

In-vineyard population structure of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ using multilocus sequence typing analysis

‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ is a phytoplasma of the stolbur group (16SrXII subgroup A) that is associated with ‘Bois noir’ and causes heavy damage to the quality and quantity of grapevine yields in several European countries, and particularly in the Mediterranean area. Analysis of ‘Ca. P. solani’ genetic diversity was carried out for strains infecting a cv. ‘Chardonnay’ vineyard, through multilocus sequence typing analysis for the vmp1, stamp and secY genes. Several types per gene were detected: seven out of 20 types for vmp1, six out of 17 for stamp, and four out of 16 for secY. High correlations were seen among the vmp1, stamp and secY typing with the tuf typing. However, no correlations were seen among the tuf and vmp1 types and the Bois noir severity in the surveyed grapevines. Grouping the ‘Ca. P. solani’ sequences on the basis of their origins (i.e., study vineyard, Italian regions, Euro-Mediterranean countries), dN/dS ratio analysis revealed overall positive selection for stamp (3.99, P=0.019) and vmp1 (2.28, P=0.001). For secY, the dN/dS ratio was 1.02 (P=0.841), showing neutral selection across this gene. Using analysis of the nucleotide sequencing by a Bayesian approach, we determined the population structure of ‘Ca. P. solani’, which appears to be structured in 3, 5 and 6 subpopulations, according to the secY, stamp and vmp1 genes, respectively. The high genetic diversity of ‘Ca. P. solani’ from a single vineyard reflects the population structure across wider geographical scales. This information is useful to trace inoculum source and movement of pathogen strains at the local level and over long distances.

Emigration flows from North Africa to Europe.

The region of North Africa (NA) represents a striking locality regarding migration with several migration patterns, namely emigration in the form of labour export to Europe and North America and, to a lesser extent, to the Arab Gulf area. The latter has increased enormously in the last decade because of the political instability in most of the NA countries. The aim of the present chapter was to explore the patterns of migration stocks and flows in NA countries, based on several websites, systematic review of journals, comparable data available by the United Nations and by the International Organization of Migration. The NA region has become an area of transit migration and labour migration. Emigrant flows from NA countries towards Europe and North America are increasing this decade more than towards the Arab Gulf countries after being replaced by Asian labour. The recent increase in the proportion of women among the migrant population is remarkable. Remittances sent by African migrants have become an important source of external finance for countries of origin. Transient and irregular migration to Egypt originates at the borders with Sudan, Palestine and Libya with destination to the Euro Mediterranean countries. In Tunisia and Morocco, irregular migrants originate from Sub-Saharan Africa to the northern borders. The NA countries serve as departure rather than destination countries, and migration flows to the Euro-Mediterranean countries through legal or illegal routes.

Special Issue on: Model and Data Engineering

We welcome you to this special issue dedicated to the best papers presented at the second International Conference on Model and Data Engineering (MEDI) that was held in Poitiers, France in October 2012. MEDI, initiated by researchers from Euro-Mediterranean countries, aims at promoting the creation of north–south scientific networks, projects and faculty/student exchanges as well as of other parts of the world. The first edition of MEDI was held in Obidos, Portugal, in September 2011. MEDI promotes the interaction and collaboration of research communities issued from modelling and system modelling on the one hand and data and data modelling on the other hand. However, the explosion of the volume of data, models, processes within organizations has brought up new requirements and research issues, in particular to copewith problems related to semantic modelling, deployment, exploitation, performance, personalization or recommendation. Each year, MEDI invites world-known researchers to give talks. In the first edition, Timos Sellis presently at RMIT University in the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, Australia gave a talk about Personalization in Web search and data management, and Mandy

Growth of citrus production among the Euro-Mediterranean countries: political implications and empirical findings

The agricultural matter has always played an important role in holding back the Euro-Mediterranean integration process due to the strong complementarity of the agricultures of the coastal countries which share excellent products including citrus fruits. The main goal of this paper is to understand the growth dynamics of the citriculture in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Through the application of the dynamic formulation of the Shift and Share Analysis it has been possible to analyse the trend of the amount of harvested citrus production, in physical and economic terms, in the last fifteen years, and above all which components, structural and competitive, have mainly influenced these performances. The results of the analysis highlight on the whole a positive trend of the citrus fruits sector in the Mediterranean coastal countries which, although characterized by an adequate productive structure, suffer in some cases from competitiveness limits. A clear dualism emerges among the coastal countries: on the one hand, the North-African and the Near-East countries –extra-EU members– show a dynamic and competitive citrus production mainly thanks to the implementation of effective government policies consistent with the aim to increase the competitiveness of the sector; on the other hand, other countries, mainly EU members, are significantly late in competitiveness, showing their inability to reorganize themselves in the direction shown by the demand trend and the agricultural policies.

Press-State Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Euro-Mediterranean and British Models

The objective of this article is to compare the State’s role in the progress and development of the press system in relation to the Euro-Mediterranean model and that of English-speaking countries. Within this framework, we will discuss historic moments that may be considered decisive in the configuration of both systems today, and that have influenced how they came about. Additionally, we will examine legislative measures that have been most noteworthy in the progress of the press market in recent years. The State’s influence on the transformation of the newspaper business is studied from the following perspectives: censorship, control systems, regulation of the figure of the journalist, aid to the press, pluralism of information and limits on concentration. These aspects were selected because they have been observed to be key points to understanding Press-State relations. In the four EuroMediterranean countries studied, a radical break took place in the information systems as a consequence of the implementation of their respective totalitarian regimes between 1926 and 1976; a situation which did not occur in Great Britain, a major figure of democratic and business continuity. Whereas the disappearance of aid to the press in the British model was understood to be a means of guaranteeing the independence of the journalism profession from those in political power, in the Euro-Mediterranean model the aim of aid for press distribution is to consolidate the cooperative distribution system, preserve the pluralism of newspapers reporting political and general news, and guarantee the development necessary for the effective exercise of liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen 1789.

EU Freedoms, Non-EU Countries and Company Taxation: An Overview and Future Prospect

Practice shows that the Member States of the European Union maintain a diversified range of economic relations with non-EU Member States. A large number of non-EU-based enterprises are carrying on business in the European Union. Conversely, numerous EU-based enterprises are also carrying on business outside the territory of the Union. Accordingly, trade and investment between Member States and non-Member States is nowadays similarly promoted by abolishing or reducing tax or other obstacles to international flows of goods, services and/or investment between the Member States and third countries. One may recall in this regard the large number of economic integration agreements which the Union has concluded over the past decades with countries all around the world, such as countries in Eastern Europe, the Euro-Mediterranean countries and the African, Caribbean and Pacific states and which, to a greater or lesser extent, provide for liberalization of trade and investment between the Union and the respective non-Member State. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union itself also provides for a substantial degree of economic openness vis-à-vis third countries, particularly by means of the Treaty provisions relating to the free movement of capital. It is this unique legal relationship between the EU Member States vis-à-vis the rest of the world that this article takes as a starting point. It examines and assesses the extent to which the impact on Member States' corporate income tax systems of the liberalization provisions included in the above instruments is similar, or should be similar, to the impact that the free movement provisions included in the Treaty have on Member States' corporate income tax systems in an intra-Union context.

Application of a geographical assessment method for the characterization of wildland–urban interfaces in the context of wildfire prevention: A case study in western Madrid

The increasing occurrence of fires in areas where wildlands and urban structures meet (wildland–urban interface areas, WUIs) is currently of great concern to policy makers in Euro-Mediterranean countries. A better understanding of these areas is crucial for efficient fire management. This paper presents a method to map and characterize WUIs from the perspective of fire risk using a case study in the Madrid Region of Spain. The internal structure of interface areas, and also the features of the landscapes in which they are located, were analyzed. Spatial analyses of pooled data, including fuel, topography, housing structure, past fires and key driving forces were based on Geographic Information Systems. This procedure enabled the identification of seven representative WUI Situations within the 14,800 ha of WUI in the area. The results revealed the variability of WUIs, suggesting that wildfire prevention needs to be adapted to the different types of WUIs. The characterization of such situations may be a useful tool to achieve this goal.

Competitiveness of Csr Actions: Learning From The Cypriot Experience

Corporate Social Responsibility has been a term used for the last decade and has been asserted that by contributing to CSR a firm becomes competitive. Whilst it has been argued that CSR contribution does increase a company’s profit there has been little work to develop a tool in assessing the CSR contributions made and the impact on competitiveness. The current paper is identifying the areas SMEs in Cyprus concentrate their CSR contribution, the barriers and enablers making CSR possible as well as the tools used to evaluate the CSR contributions. The purpose is to identify the components so as to enable the research team of seven euro-Mediterranean countries to develop a tool on CSR competitiveness. This project is funded by the European Union. Since Cypriot SMEs operate in a small country with the idiosyncrasies and needs of a small country tend to emphasise the community rather than the market needs. Given the financial crisis at the moment the barriers are not only lack of resources but also lack of knowhow. The owners of the companies tend to be the major enablers which is a strong point and the government is making every effort to assist them.

Frequency content analysis of R&D projects of the EC framework programs with the participation of Euro-Mediterranean partnership countries

On the basis of the CORDIS data on FP5-FP7 programs the activity of MEDA countries in these projects was studied in the priority areas of action. A content analysis of the participation MEDA country organizations in FP5-FP7 has been performed and 25 large-scale investigation areas have been identified. A frequency analysis was also carried out of the project with the simultaneous participation of four to six MEDA countries. For the benchmarking of FP5-FP7 projects it is proposed to organize information about them in the form of hyperlink matrices, making it possible to browse the profiles of these projects.

The Impact of Spatial Externalities on the Economic Convergence in the Euro Mediterranean Countries

Recent models of economic growth have underlined the importance of external effects on the accumulation of factors of production (ROMER 1986, 1990; LUCAS 1988). The technology knowledge rises with stock of factors of production (human capital, physical capital, R&D, etc.) to witch all the producers contribute with identical manner. The idea is that the knowledge is considered as a free good and spread in entire economy. However, this new approach brings more explanation of economic growth; but it doesn’t integrate the spatial dimension of these externalities.To make better this new theory, we add for fundamental hypotheses of this approach, the hypothesis that these external effects have a geographic dimension affecting the economic convergence.Adopting this new hypothesis, we derive an equation of convergence with external effects issue from the Mankiw, Romer & Weil (1992) model, and we propose to estimate it with the recent methods of spatial econometrics to test the presence of these externalities and to estimate their effects on the economic convergence.For the empirical validation, relying on a panel of 26 euro Mediterranean countries over the period 1995-2004, and using the matrix of distance and the matrix of contiguity to measure the interactions between these countries, we estimate the equation of convergence with spatial externalities derived from the model of Mankiw, Romer & Weil (1992).The results of estimation based on the integration of spatial dimension of externalities permit to appreciate better than the a-spatial growth theory, the effects of these externalities on the economic convergence in the case of economic integration in space. They allow to quantify a double effect of geographic spillovers and to valid the hypothesis that taking account of spatial externalities doesn’t necessarily reduce the divergence between the North and the South Mediterranean countries. The reason of the persistence of this divergence is related to the absence of efficient interactions and coordination between these countries. Key words: External effects, economic convergence, spatial econometrics, economic integration.

Economic growth in the Maghrib: Are neighbouring economies influential?

The Maghrib region encompasses countries with a common heritage but which are challenged to forge regional integration and cooperation. In light of initiatives to establish a Maghrib trading block, a fundamental question is whether economic performance in Maghrib member states has intraregional growth impacts. The rationale behind such inquiry derives from the geographers' first law that states, ‘everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things’. This study analyses whether neighbouring North African economies are more integrated regionally than with more distant Euro-Mediterranean countries. Using a growth model, the study offers statistical evidence to counter the geographers' first law. No statistically significant evidence of spatial proximity influence is found to link three neighbouring Maghrib economies: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Instead, further examination reveals statistical evidence that more distant Euro-Mediterranean economies tend significantly to influence economic growth in the Maghrib region.

NPR1 differentially interacts with members of the TGA/OBF family of transcription factors that bind an element of the PR-1 gene required for induction by salicylic acid: Zhou JM, Trifa Y, Silva H, Pontier D, Lam E, Shah J, Klessig DF: Molec Plant Microbe Interact 2000, 13:191–202

‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ is a phytoplasma of the stolbur group (16SrXII subgroup A) that is associated with ‘Bois noir’ and causes heavy damage to the quality and quantity of grapevine yields in several European countries, and particularly in the Mediterranean area. Analysis of ‘Ca. P. solani’ genetic diversity was carried out for strains infecting a cv. ‘Chardonnay’ vineyard, through multilocus sequence typing analysis for the vmp1, stamp and secY genes. Several types per gene were detected: seven out of 20 types for vmp1, six out of 17 for stamp, and four out of 16 for secY. High correlations were seen among the vmp1, stamp and secY typing with the tuf typing. However, no correlations were seen among the tuf and vmp1 types and the Bois noir severity in the surveyed grapevines. Grouping the ‘Ca. P. solani’ sequences on the basis of their origins (i.e., study vineyard, Italian regions, Euro-Mediterranean countries), dN/dS ratio analysis revealed overall positive selection for stamp (3.99, P = 0.019) and vmp1 (2.28, P = 0.001). For secY, the dN/dS ratio was 1.02 (P = 0.841), showing neutral selection across this gene. Using analysis of the nucleotide sequencing by a Bayesian approach, we determined the population structure of ‘Ca. P. solani’, which appears to be structured in 3, 5 and 6 subpopulations, according to the secY, stamp and vmp1 genes, respectively. The high genetic diversity of ‘Ca. P. solani’ from a single vineyard reflects the population structure across wider geographical scales. This information is useful to trace inoculum source and movement of pathogen strains at the local level and over long distances.

Winter cereals grown for grain and for the dual purpose of forage plus grain I. Production

In many rainfed regions of Euro-Mediterranean countries, current political and socio-economic developments demand research in alternative production systems to the common cereal grain monoculture. We studied the option of producing forage in winter by growing cereals for dual purpose (forage plus grain) in a Mediterranean environment. The effect of clipping on forage and grain production was assessed between 1987 and 1990 at Granada, southern Spain, in four cereal cultivars, and in one barley cultivar under three sowing systems. Winter forage yield of cereals, all clipped once at the stage of lemma primordia, was highly variable (25 to 311 g m −2 of herbage dry matter), with considerable differences among cultivars, sowing systems and seasons. Treatments that had higher forage production were those of either longer crop duration before clipping date (with higher leaf numbers on the main stem and tiller numbers per plant) or higher plant density. Forage production was not related to grain yield reductions due to winter clipping. Averaged over cultivars, sowing systems and seasons, clipping reduced grain yield by 1%, but yielded some 127 g m −2 of dry matter per season in a period of pasture shortage. Nevertheless, the responses to winter clipping differed among seasons. In 1987/88, clipped cereals produced more dry matter and grain than the control. In contrast, in the last two seasons, clipping reduced dry matter and grain production. Early sowing modified the response to clipping in these last two seasons. Grain yield of early sown barley was not reduced by clipping in 1988/89 and was even increased in 1989/90. The dual-purpose target for cereals could be an alternative to traditional grain monoculture in some Mediterranean environments, provided that adaptations of the traditional crop management to dual purpose, such as the optimization of sowing date and cultivar, are undertaken.