European Community's Programme Research Articles

Monitoring of salt content during the dry salting of ham

AbstractExcessive consumption of salt causes many diseases, including high blood pressure and cardiovascular system disease. In most countries, salt intake is above the WHO guideline daily intake. In Hungary, the average salt intake is more than double the recommended value. Based on these, significant changes are needed in food technology and recipes. To avoid excessive salt intake Hungary has joined the European Union's community program for salt reduction.The aim of this study was to compare the salt content in different areas of Mangalitsa ham during the dry salting, and compare the average salt content with the regulations of the Codex Alimentarius Hungaricus. The ham was dry salted with 10% by weight of the meat and placed in a controlled atmosphere storage room. The curing took 21 days. The NaCl uptake was measured with Mohr method. The ham was cut at 3 points Cushion (C), Fore Cushion (FC) and Butt End (BE). The salt content of BE was generally higher than the other two areas (C, FC). The differences can be explained by the difference in the thickness of the pieces of meat and fat. The average salt content of the different areas did not exceed the threshold limit in the Codex Alimentarius Hungaricus. At the beginning of the experiment, the salt content of each meat layer was very different, the absorbed salt was concentrated in the surface layer. Over time, as the ham lost a lot of water and due to the lack of outer salt, a significant increase in salt content began in the meat centrum. By day 80, the salt content of the meat centrum exceeded the salt content of both the fat and the surface layer.

A Research for Determining Psychosocial Risk Factors among Health Employees

This descriptive study aims to determine the psychosocial risk factors among health employees. The research was conducted in a public hospital in Turkey between August 2015 and September 2015. Checklists were taken from ‘‘Occupational Health and Safety Risks in the Healthcare Sector’’, published under European Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity. Cronbach’s alpha value was found as 0.71 for checklist with 90 items. All analyses were performed with version 18 of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The data were expressed as percent, ± standard deviation and mean. Participants were mostly nurses (85.2%), 59.1% was graduate degree, and 43.5% was working for less than 5 years. The study demonstrates that risk factors associated with burnout are at ‘‘high level’’ among 66.1% of health employees and risk factors related to mobbing are at ‘‘high level’’ among 42.6% of health employees who work in hospital. Health employees have increased levels of risk in stress and violence (76.5%). In addition, the study shows that risk factors related to burnout are at ‘‘high level’’ among 75% of physician and risk factors about stress are at ‘‘high level’’ among 25% of them, and 83.3% of physicians have ‘‘increased risk’’ about mobbing and violence.

Solid Polymer-Ionic Liquid Electrolyte for Flexible Electrochromic Devices under a European Community Program

not Available.

The Medical Care Continuity (MCC) project. A pilot study of video-assisted home care within the eTEN European Community program. The Italian experience

This study aimed to use an integrated system (Medical Care Continuity (MCC) system) consisting of computer, video telephone, and a high-definition camera to monitor at home chemotherapy side effects in cancer outpatients. The system allowed 24 h/day video consultation with an intermediate medical call center with possible connection to a specialized hospital if necessary. All patients were provided with internationally validated and project-oriented questionnaires exploring patients' health status and opinions on usefulness and complexity of study devices. The content of each call was recorded on a computer database. An approximate estimate of avoided hospital admissions was calculated. Median duration of experimentation and frequency of patient/doctor contacts were 2.1 months and 4.2 contact per week, respectively. Overall, a 98% positive opinions on the experimental system was reported at the end of the study by all participants, with a 21% conversion rate with respect to the opinions gathered at study entry. Changes in patient management after a medical call were made in 32% of cases. It was calculated that approximately 2.2 per month unnecessary hospital admissions were avoided. The MCC system was well managed by both patients and caregivers. These results show that it has the potential to improve medical assistance by virtue of a constant access to medical advice and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.

The Just Community approach to moral education: system change or individual change?

This article focuses on the development of, and new theorising about, a strong democracy education intervention, the Just Community approach. Three questions frame the discussion: (1) Does democracy education change children and adolescents or do students in these programs change their schools, or is there a dynamic interaction over time? (2) How can democracy be ‘learned’? How can the concept of democracy be most thoroughly learned and how can democratic problem‐solving skills best be acquired? (3) How can we optimise the chances that the knowledge and skills learned will motivate future active citizenship? The article begins with a brief history of the Just Community approach, a description of the original developmental model created by Lawrence Kohlberg and collaborators and some variation in more recent European Just Community programs. In a discussion of controversial and difficult issues democracy education may face, the second question takes centre stage and several structural aspects are offered that should be included in such efforts to maximise their effectiveness. In the remainder of the article new perspectives coming from Europe are introduced. Some additional pathways to the Just Community approach and their justifications, which have not played a significant role in the theory and practice of the ‘traditional’ model but can add to its strengths, are identified. Finally, the idea of ‘trusting in advance’ is introduced as critical for well‐functioning educational democracies.

Characterizing the marine Natura 2000 network for the Atlantic region

Abstract One of the goals for Natura 2000, a key European Community programme of nature conservation, is to produce a network of protected areas. An analysis of the Natura 2000 marine sites proposed in the most recently agreed list for the Atlantic region (northern Portugal to Denmark, n=298) was used to characterize the network in terms of site areas and inter‐site distances. Sites were considered as part of the network when they included any of the marine Natura 2000 Annex I habitat types found in the Atlantic region (excluding lagoons). The median size of individual sites was 7.6 km2 with a median separation among neighbouring sites of 21 km (range 2–138 km). A connectivity analysis was used to identify the potential reliance of species on areas of habitat outside the proposed network. This analysis was based on the assumptions that: (a) species with low dispersal capacity will persist in sites when local reproductive effort sustains the resident population and (b) greater dispersal scale will link sites in the network, but implies a greater loss of recruits from the local population. For intermediate dispersal scales (2–20 km), at least half of the proposed sites are likely to be both too small and too isolated to support populations in the network. The conservation of intermediate dispersers in such sites may therefore be more dependent on habitat outside the network than is the case for other dispersal capabilities. Species with both dispersal scales above 20 km and low habitat specificity may have a metapopulation structure with exchange of dispersing individuals occurring among protected sites. Species with increasing degrees of habitat specificity will need dispersal scales greater than 20 km to avoid dependence on areas outside the proposed network. Most sections of the Atlantic region coastline contain proposed Nature 2000 sites. An analysis of site area and average isolation at the 1° latitude by 1° longitude scale indicated that relatively well designated sections (in terms of area and site spacing) of the coast were interspersed with less well designated sections. Analyses of overall habitat availability and population genetic studies are required to assess the significance of varying levels of protection at this scale. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beta-lactoglobulin polymorphism in Girgentana goat breed

Beta-lactoglobulin (β-lg) is a globular protein belonging to the lipocalin family. It is the major whey protein in the milk of ruminants. It is also present in the milk of most mammals but is lacking in rodents, lagomorphs and humans. A large number of variants have been reported for cow and sheep milk. Several studies have shown association between β-lg variants and milk production and composition, even if the results are not always concordant. In goat, no β-lg variants related with amino acid change have been characterized at DNA level, but some authors described the presence of polymorphisms in the 3’UTR and in the proximal promoter region. Mutations in the promoter region could be those most likely responsible for different level of gene expression. The aim of this work was to study the genetic polymorphism at DNA level of β-lg gene in Girgentana goat breed. A total of 238 genomic DNA samples of Girgentana breed were genotyped. A fragment of 709 bp, including 588 bp of proximal promoter region and 121 bp of exon 1, was amplified using primers GOAPF3 and GoatE1R2. PCR-RFLP procedure was used for fast detection of two single nucleotide substitutions as described by Graziano et al. (2003). The base substitutions originating the polymorphic sites consist of: 1. a transition T›C at position -341 and 2. a transition C›T at position -60. A FspBI PCR-RFLP protocol was used to detect the mutation -341 (T/C) and a SmaI PCR-RFLP protocol for the mutation -60 (C/T) of the proximal promoter region. The allelic frequencies and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were estimated using the GENEPOP software. Girgentana goat breed shows no significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the allele frequencies found in both polymorphic sites considered. The genotypic frequencies for both mutations resulted in 0.65 (T/T), 0.33 (T/C) and 0.02 (C/C) for the position -341, and 0.82 (C/C), 0.17 (C/T) and 0.01 (T/T) for the position -60. These results are in agreement with the previous obtained by Graziano et al. (2003) in the same breed. Further analysis are in progress to investigate the possible effect of these variants on the expression of β-lg gene, on the milk protein composition and on milk production traits.The third author was supported by a Marie Curie Transfer ok Knowledge Grant of the Union European Community program ‘Quality of Life’, contract number MTKD/I-CT-2004-14412.

Ionic Liquid for Electrochromic DevicesUnder European Community Program

not Available.

ESTIMATION OF COINTEGRATING VECTORS WITH TIME SERIES MEASURED AT DIFFERENT PERIODICITY

We discuss the effects of temporal aggregation on the estimation of cointegrating vectors and on testing linear restrictions on this vector. We adopt a discrete time approach and demonstrate, in contrast with the findings of Chambers (2003, Econometric Theory 19, 49–77), who adopts a continuous time approach, that in some situations, when the regressand must be aggregated, systematic sampling is preferable to average sampling for estimation purposes. Like Chambers, we show that the best aggregation scheme for regressors, in terms of asymptotic estimation efficiency, is always average sampling. We also show that different types of aggregation have no influence on the relative size of tests of linear restrictions on the cointegration vector.We thank Soren Johansen, Niels Haldrup, Raquel Waters, the associate editor, and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Of course, any remaining error is the responsibility of the authors. The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community Programme “Improving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base” under contract HPMF-CT-2002-01662 and the Danish Research Council. The second author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology SEC2002-01512.

The use of instantaneous polarization attributes for seismic signal detection and image enhancement

This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport through grant SB2000-0120 and by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community programme IHP (HPMF-CT-2001-01322).

The Use of GPS Measurements for Water Vapor Determination

Abstract A workshop on the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in weather and climate with emphasis on water vapor determination, was organized by the National Environmental Research Council's (NERC) Environmental Systems Science Centre (ESSC), at the University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom, and took place there 29–31 August 2001. This paper gives a broad overview and general background of the use of GPS data for weather and climate. It outlines the objectives of the workshop and presents ongoing national, regional, and international activities both for ground-based and satellite-based systems. This includes work in the United States, China, and Japan, and different European efforts, including activities under European Community programs. Data assimilation of GPS data for weather prediction and climate is discussed as are ways in which to develop GPS-based systems to become an integrated part of the World Weather Watch. This includes ways of systematically using GPS data from the in...

Coping with population aging in the old continent--the need for european academic geriatrics.

N 1999, Europe had a total population of 728 million, of which 14% was over 65 years of age (Table 1) (1). Between 1999 and 2050, the expected increases of the 60 and 80 European populations should rise by 160% and 158%, respectively (Table 2) (2). These demographic changes affect Europe as a whole. However, European aging research has traditionally not been coordinated by a single centralized agency but by multiple local, national, or multinational organizations. New initiatives, such as the ongoing 5th European Community program, “Improving the Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources,” have attempted to address this issue by requiring concerted international efforts in research and data collection that necessitate closer collaboration between institutions and researchers across Europe. Similar projects and further development of European-funded programs should be encouraged. The new generation of academic geriatricians will need to be freely mobile across European borders. Yet, teaching and training programs in geriatrics and gerontology vary markedly from one country to another. European organizations that are currently active in geriatrics and gerontology (e.g., the International Association of Gerontology, the Geriatric Medicine Section of the European Union of Medical Specialists, the European Academy of the Yuste Foundation, and the European Academy for Medicine of Aging) will need to work together to ensure recognition of the field and unified accreditation processes across Europe. In the 1980s, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) was among the first UN bodies to recognize the importance of population aging as a social, economic, and demographic phenomenon (3). This formidable demographic change will result in increased demands for health care services from an ever-increasing elderly population. Although the European Community (EC) may serve as a catalyst to harmonize existing health care policies for the elderly population, current health care systems differ markedly among different European countries (4). Furthermore, most European countries do not yet belong to the EC. Further public health research and increased knowledge of geriatric diseases and syndromes are required to help determine the best options for the future. At the same time, physicians will need to develop improved knowledge and skills in the medicine of aging, and medical schools urgently need to strengthen the geriatrics content of undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. Most will need to hire qualified teachers in the field. Unfortunately, the number of skilled researchers and trained academicians in gerontology and geriatrics is currently insufficient to respond to this challenge.

A Systems Study for a European Community Program on Inspection and Accreditation of Blood Collection Establishments

This paper reports on an action research study for the development of a common program on inspection and accreditation of blood collection establishments in the European Union member states. Using soft systems methodology to guide the study, we have developed the systems required and arrived at the actions that are necessary to realize and maintain them.

Evaluating and developing international cooperation

Transnationality is a core criterion of the European Community programs. As such it can be regarded as an instrument by which change in policy and practice can be effected at different levels from the local level to the European. Transnational collaboration being hypothetically of synergistic nature will nevertheless have to be questioned. This has been done in the Socrates ODL (Open and Distance Learning) project Multimedia Factory. The foundations of the Virtual Multimedia Factory project were already laid in 1994 when a group of Finnish training providers identified the need to produce multimedia for adult vocational training and education jointly. As Finland joined the European Community at the beginning of 1995, the programs the Commission had launched availed an option for multinational collaboration. The project was split in two parts, a European Social Fund (ESF), objective 4 funded part and a Socrates ODL financed part. The project covers a large partnership four Finnish Vocational Adult Education Centres and Telecom Finland (which later became Sonera), CITEC Ltd. and AIKE International. The European partners are FAS Training Centre Cabra and the Electric Paper Company EPCO), Dublin, Ireland, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPCO), Madrid, Spain, University of Twente, the Netherlands and Post Denmark. International collaboration was evaluated and developed as a part of the Socrates ODL project through two surveys, round table discussions, observations in meetings and the evaluation of project communication methods such as the use of e-mail. The study indicates that successful international cooperation is a result of versatile experience, a mix of expertise via different players, open-mindedness to socio-cultural differences, joint planning and conceptualising, support of the home organisations, transparency of communications and the process, good time management and a sufficient number of face-to-face meetings.

Agent research and development in Europe

European Community programs have been supporting agent-related projects for 15 years, initially on a relatively small scale but more recently through broader collaborative initiatives. One distinguishing feature of European programs is their emphasis on coordination and the support of value-adding activities that exceed the scope of specific projects. Another is the holistic approach, which ensures that technology isn't developed in a vacuum and that research is generally anchored in practical application contexts. The various agent projects are coordinated through initiatives such as the AgentLink network of excellence for agent-based computing. Three current projects funded by the European Commission suggest the breadth of agent-related issues: NIMIS, CASABA, and Mascada. The Networked Interactive Media in Schools (NIMIS) project aims to support young pupils in developing reading skills, notions of narrativity, and the ability to take a second- or third-person perspective across a range of situations. The Competitive Agents for Secure Business Applications (CASBA) project is intended to improve existing e-commerce services and develop new services to create a flexible electronic marketplace. The Holonic Manufacturing System consortium is using the holon concept in the Mascada project to develop a technology for manufacturing industries.

The European Community Cloudless Sky Radiance Model. An Evaluation by Means of the Skyscan'834 Data Set

Having in mind the high complexity of the sky radiance distribution, the Commission of the European Communities, in the frame of the Solar Energy R&D in the European Community Programme, developed among other related fields of research a clear sky radiance model. This model, the so-called EC-Model, was intended for the estimation of the diffuse irradiance falling on an inclined surface by integration of the sky radiance field. It represents a progress development over its predecessor, the Berlin model, and takes into account all the scientific knowledge about this topic, lying heavily on the principles of the Liebelt formulation and the work of Steven and Unsworth on the observed relative radiance distribution. The European Solar Radiation Atlas was in part prepared by the adoption of the EC-Model and could not take into account Valko’s new results about sky radiance distributions, because of time coincidence and that only previous results were ready at the time it was published. In this work, we focus on the EC-Model behaviour, against experimental sky radiance data from Toronto, Canada. The SKYSCAN’834 Data Set is a well-known database, which we have used in order to investigate the EC-Model behaviour both under its original formulation (the one that has been used in the development of the Atlas) and under the modified version suggested by Valko’s results. Even though we are considering data from outside Europe, the results of this test let us establish the model limitations and the modifications that should be done to it.

Assessing the progress of the M.Sc. course in health informatics under the ERASMUS programme

Health informatics is an emerging and important multi-disciplinary field that involves, informatics but also medicine, nursing, engineering, biology and other-related subjects. A co-ordination of this field at a postgraduate level becomes important now in Europe where other European Community programs such as the ‘Telematics for Health Care’ will require at the Fourth Framework Programme (94–99) adequate human resources of higher potential and knowledge. This European M.Sc. course meets all the above objectives. The Curriculum was developed according to the results of the ERASMUS Workshop, which was held in Athens on 13–15 September 1990 under the ERASMUS Contract number ICP-90-G-0009/12. The implementation now runs under the contract ICP-95-G-1038/12. The 6-year evaluation of the course based both on staff and student evaluation proved that the M.Sc. course in health informatics has been successful.

Improving Innovation through Training

One of the most important issues for the future economic and social development of the European Community is its ability to harness the fruits of its research efforts for the development of innovative capability and quality in its industries. COMETT, the European Community's Programme on cooperation between universities and industry regarding training in the field of technology, has developed since its inception in 1986 with these and related issues as its focus. Essentially, it worked through three mechanisms: structured networking between universities and industry, student and graduate placements in industry as well as the exchange of personnel between universities and firms, and the setting-up of joint training projects. COMETT's message has been that advanced training and the acceleration of higher education–industry cooperation are core technology transfer mechanisms for the industrial valorisation of European R&D efforts.

Research Knowledge About Technology and Economic Aspects for Decision Making

Changes in the Field Technology of Management will have a positive effect in many ways inside and outside factories. Many researchers and companies have been interested in developing smart devices and communications buses. Distributors and manufacturers are involved with these projects and they develop new elements for process management. Some decision makers and end-users of industrial companies have been also involved with different kinds of projects. But what do they really think about the reliability and performance of current field technology and what are their demands for new solutions? This research project has attended to define, what are their real opinions are about technology and it’s related economic aspects. In addition the criteria of decisions have been found for choosing field elements, e.g. measurements, actuators, controllers, communication systems and their properties. Seeking information from both paper and electric documents, this Research work has inquired into the demands of communication technology, maintenance and service points, the education and experience of users, successful co-operation inside factories, the operations of upper level systems and their connections and process and system planning, too. The researcher has been pursuing his doctoral thesis in Finland in connection with a European Community Program carried out during 1994-95 at the Fraunhofer Institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. The results were collected from 20 factories and 50 experts from a group of 150 person’s which were from the Finnish chemical, pulp and paper and steel industry. The main results of process management show that the demands of measurement reliability, the compatibility operation of whole technology, and process continuing activity are the most important and disturbances in process had to be minimized, too. The Reliability of connections using cables and mechanical interfaces, successful technology planning and the activities of users will influence the choice of Field Technology. The most important economical arguments, which could improve profit, are co-operation between people and the entire reliability of technology.

Optical network research and development in European Community programs: from RACE to ACTS

The European Union programs of cooperative research and development in telecommunications aim to ensure the realization of the future information society. The RACE Program (1988 to 1995) made an important contribution to the development of advanced optical communications. The current ACTS Program has an increased focus on field trials and networking. ACTS projects in the field of optical networks are studying multiwavelength network concepts, customer access, high-speed multiplexing and transport, and components and subsystems.