European Science Foundation Network Research Articles

The state of European nursing research: dead, alive, or chronically diseased? A systematic literature review.

Reviews of nursing research have suggested that most is descriptive; with no more than 15% providing strong evidence for practice. No studies have examined this from the perspective of nursing research conducted in Europe. The aim of this study was to review reports of European clinical nursing research in the top 20 nursing journals in 2010 to establish a baseline of nursing research activity in the year immediately prior to the launch of a European Science Foundation network to increase the proportion of intervention research in Europe. We identified eligible reports that were then data-extracted by two independent reviewers. Disagreements were resolved through pair discussion and independent arbitration. We appraised and synthesized topics, methods, and the extent to which studies were programmatic. We synthesized data as proportions of study reports meeting our a priori categorization criteria. We identified 1995 published reports and included 223 from 21 European countries, of which 193 (86.6%) reported studies of primary research only, 30 (13.5%) secondary research, and three (1.4%) a mix of primary and secondary. Methodological description was often poor, misleading, or even absent. One hundred (44.8%) articles reported observational studies, 87 (39.0%) qualitative studies. We found 26 (11.7%) articles reporting experimental studies, 10 (4.5%) of which were randomized controlled trials. We found 29 (13.0%) reports located within a larger program of research. Seventy-six (34.1%) articles reported studies of nursing interventions. European research in nursing reported in the leading nursing journals remains descriptive and poorly described. Only a third of research reports concerned nursing interventions, and a tiny proportion were part of a programmatic endeavor. Researchers in nursing must become better educated and skilled in developing, testing, evaluating, and reporting complex nursing interventions. Editors of nursing journals should insist on systematic reporting of research designs and methods in published articles.

The Reception of Greek Philosophy - (C.) D'Ancona (ed.) The Libraries of the Neoplatonists. Proceedings of the Meeting of the European Science Foundation Network ‘Late Antiquity and Arabic Thought. Patterns in the Constitution of European Culture’ held in Strasbourg, March 12–14, 2004 under the impulsion of the Scientific Committee of the meeting, composed by Matthias Baltes†, Michel Cacouros, Cristina D'Ancona,

The Reception of Greek Philosophy - (C.) D'Ancona (ed.) The Libraries of the Neoplatonists. Proceedings of the Meeting of the European Science Foundation Network ‘Late Antiquity and Arabic Thought. Patterns in the Constitution of European Culture’ held in Strasbourg, March 12–14, 2004 under the impulsion of the Scientific Committee of the meeting, composed by Matthias Baltes†, Michel Cacouros, Cristina D'Ancona, Tiziano Dorandi, Gerhard Endreß, Philippe Hoffmann, Henri Hugonnard Roche. (Philosophia Antiqua 107.) Pp. xxxvi + 531. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007. Cased, €149, US$199. ISBN: 978-90-04-15641-8. - Volume 59 Issue 2

Introduction. Cosmology meets condensed matter

At first sight, low-temperature condensed-matter physics and early Universe cosmology seem worlds apart. Yet, in the last few years a remarkable synergy has developed between the two. It has emerged that, in terms of their mathematical description, there are surprisingly close parallels between them. This interplay has been the subject of a very successful European Science Foundation (ESF) programme entitled COSLAB ('Cosmology in the Laboratory') that ran from 2001 to 2006, itself built on an earlier ESF network called TOPDEF ('Topological Defects: Non-equilibrium Field Theory in Particle Physics, Condensed Matter and Cosmology'). The articles presented in this issue of Philosophical Transactions A are based on talks given at the Royal Society Discussion Meeting 'Cosmology meets condensed matter', held on 28 and 29 January 2008. Many of the speakers had participated earlier in the COSLAB programme, but the strength of the field is illustrated by the presence also of quite a few new participants.

Sediment budgets and rates of sediment transfer across cold environments in europe: introduction and background to the european science foundation network ‘sedimentary source‐to‐sink fluxes in cold environments’(sediflux)

(2007). Sediment budgets and rates of sediment transfer across cold environments in europe: introduction and background to the european science foundation network ‘sedimentary source‐to‐sink fluxes in cold environments’(sediflux) Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography: Vol. 89, No. 1, pp. 1-3.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) Network SEDIFLUX — An introduction and overview

Climate change will cause major changes in the Earth surface systems, especially in high-latitude and high-altitude cold environments. Geomorphological processes operating at the Earth's surface, transferring sediments and changing landforms are dependent on climate and will be significantly affected by climate change. More reliable modelling of sediment transfer processes operating under present-day climatic settings is needed to determine the consequences of climate change. It is necessary to collect and to compare data and knowledge from a wide range of different high-latitude and high-altitude cold environments and to develop more standardized methods and approaches for future research on sediment fluxes and relationships between climate and sedimentary transfer processes. In Europe, the wide range of high-latitude and high-altitude cold environments provides great potential to investigate climate–process relationships and to model the effects of climate change by using space for time substitution. The European Science Foundation (ESF) Network (01.01.2004–31.12.2006) “Sedimentary Source-to-Sink-Fluxes in Cold Environments” ( SEDIFLUX) is bringing together leading scientists, young scientists and research teams from different fields. SEDIFLUX forms a framework for an integrated and multidisciplinary investigation of the addressed topic and is a major catalyst for strengthening and extending contacts, collaborative research activities and mobility of scientists in Europe. It also points to areas within Europe that would benefit from wider research collaboration (e.g. Russia, Poland). The SEDIFLUX Steering Committee consists of scientists from seven European countries: Achim A. Beylich, Co-ordinator of SEDIFLUX (Trondheim, Norway), Samuel Etienne (Clermont-Ferrand, France), Bernd Etzelmüller (Oslo, Norway), Vyacheslav V. Gordeev (Moscow, Russia), Jukka Käyhkö (Turku, Finland), Volker Rachold (Potsdam, Germany), Andrew J. Russell (Newcastle, England, UK), Karl-Heinz Schmidt (Halle/S., Germany), Þorsteinn Sæmundsson (Sauðárkrókur, Iceland), Fiona S. Tweed (Staffordshire, England, UK) and Jeff Warburton (Durham, England, UK). SEDIFLUX activities include four Science Meetings: in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland (June 18th–June 21st, 2004), Clermont-Ferrand, France (January 20th–22nd, 2005), Durham, England, UK (December 15th–20th, 2005) and Trondheim, Norway (October 29th–November 1st, 2006), Steering Committee Meetings attached to these Science Meetings, a Session co-organized by SEDIFLUX at the Second European Permafrost Conference, June 12th–17th, 2005, in Potsdam, Germany, publication of Scientific Reports and Abstract Volumes, publication of Special Issues of Journals and of a SEDIFLUX Handbook, creation of a SEDIFLUX Database, an effective diffusion and dissemination of SEDIFLUX activities and outputs by using electronic media (Websites, Newsletters, Forum), invitations of leading experts from other parts of the world, policy makers and land managers to the Science Meetings. The ESF Network SEDIFLUX is organized in four Working Groups: I: Selection of critical test catchments; II: Analysis of geographical and geological settings of test catchments; III: Analysis of present-day fluxes; IV: Integration and data management. The major outputs from the Working Groups will be published in the SEDIFLUX Handbook, including guidelines for future monitoring programmes and a section, which is particularly targeted at end-users. A strong monitoring and operational data collection and more standardized methods provide a baseline for the development of reliable models and for future research in the changing high-latitude and high-altitude cold environments. ESF SEDIFLUX will continue and will be extended as I.A.G./A.I.G. Working Group on Sediment Budgets in Cold Environments (SEDIBUD). Apart from further collaborations and collaborative research activities project and programme applications at both the national and the European level following the three-year ESF Network are discussed and initiated.

A progress report on a European Science Foundation network, EURELITE: European political elites in comparison—The long road to convergence

A progress report on a European Science Foundation network, EURELITE: European political elites in comparison—The long road to convergence

The Road to Independence: Leaving Home in Western and Eastern Societies, 16th-20th Centuries

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 2 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 The Road to Independence: Leaving Home in Western and Eastern Societies, 16th-20th Centuries van Poppel, Frans and Oris, Michel and Lee, James (2004). New York: Peter Lange; 450 pages. $69.95. ISBN 0820459496. The rich set of papers in this edited volume focus on leaving home and the changing place of that transition on the “road to independence” in a series of European countries as well as Japan and the United States. We are shown historical examples of leaving the parental home at ages that range from the early teens to the late twenties, making the transition out of the parental home either very early on the “road to independence” or very late, a matter either of youth or full adulthood. Hence, the road to independence is far from straight, and these papers provide more a set of tantalizing clues than a map. This book is a product of the European Science Foundation Network which held a workshop on “Household and Community Dynamics: A Eurasian Approach to Mobility in Past Societies,” in June, 1999, at which these papers were presented. The editors organized the papers into three sections, two that focus on patterns in nuclear family societies and stem family societies, respectively, and one that focuses more broadly on strategies, determinants, and metaphors. They also include a detailed and very useful introduction. It would have been nice, however, to have some sections on the discussions at the workshop. By not contextualizing the papers within the workshop discussions, the papers do not appear to address each other and thus do not hang together well. Particularly disconcerting is the disjuncture between the papers of Schürer and of Pooley and Turnbull, each of which addresses change in age at leaving home in Britain. Pooley and Turnbull find a decline in age at leaving home between 1750 and 1930 from the late to the early 20s for both men and 336 women, while Schürer found an increase in age at leaving home between1851 and 1921 from about 17 to 20. Schürer describes his methods in detail but the authors of the other paper do not, making these differences impossible to reconcile. Further, whether because the authors were primarily historians or primarily Europeans, there is little reference to work in other disciplines and geographic areas. In addition to my own work on changes in leaving home in the U.S. between 1920 and 1987 (e.g., Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1994), there is a parallel study of Canada (Zhao et al. 1993) that is not covered. Nevertheless, there is much to be gained from a careful study of these papers, making this book very useful for scholars and advanced students of family history. Particularly valuable is the focus on separate communities, so that kin can be linked. In most cases, analyses are based on an impressive base of cases, using sophisticated statistical techniques. This allows quite complex theoretical tests. An important focus of many of the papers is on the “nuclear hardship hypothesis” of Peter Laslett, which posits that more complex family systems (e.g., stem) were more efficient than nuclear family systems in preindustrial times in their ability to buffer the vicissitudes family members encounter as a result of poverty, death, and disability. Drib shows that in mid-nineteenth century southern Sweden, the migration of children away from the parental household was used as an integrated part of a family strategy to deal with uncertainty in the short run. This perhaps extreme solution raises an important issue, which is mirrored in current arguments that the nuclear family with only one wage earner is also a high-risk structure (Oppenheimer 2003). The question of parental death and the remarriage of the surviving parent also receives interesting attention. Both transitions are clearly linked with early leaving home. In some contexts this is treated as positive, interpreted as showing that young adults’ access to parental resources on their death allows them to marry young. Others argue the contrary, 337 attributing the departure to the fact that there are fewer resources available, whether from the remaining parent or because of the different priorities...

Intraplate alkaline magmatism: mineralogy and petrogenesis

This thematic set contains seven papers arising from the session of the same name at the 18th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), held in Edinburgh in September 2002. This session was a combination of two separate original proposals: a session on Intraplate Alkaline Magmatism that was to be a follow-up to the ‘Friends of the Gardar’ conference held in Birmingham 6 years before; and a separate session on Recycling of Volatile Elements through the Mantle, which was to be sponsored by Eurocarb, a European Science Foundation Network. The combined session was very successful, with a wide range of papers being presented, and was followed by a very popular wine reception! The set of papers below represents to some extent the range of presentations at the IMA meeting, although the ‘Friends of the Gardar’ theme comes through strongly, and the first four papers provide …

ESF network on space weather and the earth's weather, SPECIAL

The phenomena in space that may cause space weather induced effects in the Earth's environment and their possible association with meteorological observations, both on short- and long-term scales, is a controversial topic. Highly energetic cosmic ray, solar and magnetospheric charged particles may have direct or indirect effects on the layers of the atmosphere with which they come into contact. The aim of the interdisciplinary European Science Foundation (ESF) Network study on “Space Weather and the Earth's Weather: Electrodynamic and Charged Particle Effects on the Stratosphere and Troposphere” is to improve the scientific understanding of this topic within the Sun-Earth scenario. Its ultimate objective is to generate global, regional and local models to relate electrical changes in the atmosphere to the distribution of the highly energetic particles, and thereafter to examine and quantify the relationship between such changes with the properties of the global atmospheric electric circuit and also the distribution of cloud and rainfall. This paper presents the scientific background behind the Network and its objectives; the current acronym for the Network is SPECIAL - Space Processes and Electrical Changes Influencing Atmospheric Layers.

Fuel deposition and potential flight ranges of Blackcaps Sylvia atricapilla and Whitethroats Sylvia communis on spring migration in The Gambia

Spring migration of Palaearctic passerines was studied on Ginak Island in The Gambia, as part of the European Science Foundation network "Palaearctic-African Songbird Migration". In this paper data collected from Blackcaps Sylvia atricapilla and Whitethroats Sylvia communis, which in late March–early April prepare for the crossing of the Sahara desert, are analysed. On a diet of mainly Maytenus senegalensis berries these warblers put on up to 3–4% body mass per day and when ready for take-off 35–40% of their mass consists of fuel for the trip. According to conventional flight-range calculations this gives them flight ranges in still air of maximum 1,200 km, which will not take them unaided across the desert. But predictable tailwinds, usually found at altitudes above c. 2,500 m, may help them to central Morocco or beyond. In addition, recent wind-tunnel experiments have suggested a distinctly reduced drag coefficient for use in the flight-range calculations, and this may extend the still-air range to more than 2,500 km. In that case the desert crossing would be possible also without the help of tailwinds.

Comparative Analysis Using Large Scale National Data Sources of Women's Employment

This paper considers two main questions. First, how do the various theoretical frameworks for carrying out comparative research help us to gain a better understanding of the role women are playing in the labour markets of advanced industrial economies and are some better suited than others for this task? Secondly, we ask whether research practice can lead to better theorising on comparative research. The paper discusses the usefulness of various theoretical frameworks through the experience of using a number of cross-national data sets including a European Science Foundation network of Household Panel Studies and a number of two-country cross-sectional comparative studies. The paper argues that there may be things which can be learnt from engaging in the process of doing comparative research which are relevant to theorising about such research, and which are to some extent independent of the theoretical approach taken up at the outset. Cross-National Research, Cross-cultural Research, Comparability, Women's Labour Market Behaviour.

The European science foundation's network for European communication and transportation activities research—the first five years

The European science foundation's network for European communication and transportation activities research—the first five years

European Science Foundation's Network on Transport, Communications and Mobility. A five year activity programme. A Phase 2 Proposal

European Science Foundation's Network on Transport, Communications and Mobility. A five year activity programme. A Phase 2 Proposal