European Setting Research Articles

To Trust or Not to Trust? COVID-19 Facemasks in China–Europe Relations: Lessons from France and the United Kingdom

At the crossroads of sociology and international relations, this interdisciplinary and comparative research article explores how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted China–Europe relations. Unfolding the critical moments of the COVID-19 outbreak, this article characterizes the evolution of China–Europe relations with regard to the facemask. This simple object of self-protection against the coronavirus strikingly became a source of contention between peoples and states. In the face of this situation, we argue that the facemask is the prism through which to illustrate (1) the transnational links between China and its overseas population, (2) the changing social perceptions of China and Chinese-looking people in European societies, and (3) the advent of China’s health diplomacy and its reception in Europe. Comparing two European settings—France and the United Kingdom (UK)—the common denominator appears to be the reduced trust, if not outright distrust, between individuals and communities in the French and British contexts, and in Sino–French and Sino–British relations at the transnational level. Combining critical juncture theory and (dis)trust in international relations as our analytical framework, this article examines how the facemask became a politicized object, both between states and between Mainland China and its overseas population, as the epidemic unfolded throughout Europe. Adopting a qualitative approach, our dataset comprises the analysis of official speeches and statements; press releases; traditional and social media content (especially through hashtags such as #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus, #IAmNotAVirus, #CoronaRacism, etc.); and interviews with Chinese, French, and British community members.

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL: A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal.

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n=12,159], Monachus monachus [n=1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications.

European Government-Opposition Voters (EGOV) Data Set: Data on the government-opposition status of European voters and party identifiers

The paper describes a new dataset, the European Government-Opposition Voters Data Set (EGOV), which categorizes European voters and party identifiers based on their individual party preferences, dividing them into pro-government and pro-opposition groups. The dataset includes two variables that can be used to supplement the integrated data sets of the European Social Survey project, which publishes one of the most comprehensive and most widely used social scientific database covering Europe. The present data enables the recoding of (any part of) an integrated dataset containing responses from more than 420 000 respondents in 33 European countries between 2002 and 2020, covering eight data waves and 215 country-years. The EGOV Data Set facilitates research that includes the aspect of respondents’ government-opposition status either as an independent or a control variable. Being a winner or a loser in a political sense strongly influences not only political opinions but also a wide set of perceptions from subjective well-being to economic performance. This way, these data could be especially helpful for research addressing polarization, institutional trust, economic perceptions and well-being.

Differential detection by breast density for digital breast tomosynthesis versus digital mammography population screening: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundWe examined whether digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) detects differentially in high- or low-density screens.MethodsWe searched six databases (2009–2020) for studies comparing DBT and digital mammography (DM), and reporting cancer detection rate (CDR) and/or recall rate by breast density. Meta-analysis was performed to pool incremental CDR and recall rate for DBT (versus DM) for high- and low-density (dichotomised based on BI-RADS) and within-study differences in incremental estimates between high- and low-density. Screening settings (European/US) were compared.ResultsPooled within-study difference in incremental CDR for high- versus low-density was 1.0/1000 screens (95% CI: 0.3, 1.6; p = 0.003). Estimates were not significantly different in US (0.6/1000; 95% CI: 0.0, 1.3; p = 0.05) and European (1.9/1000; 95% CI: 0.3, 3.5; p = 0.02) settings (p for subgroup difference = 0.15). For incremental recall rate, within-study differences between density subgroups differed by setting (p < 0.001). Pooled incremental recall was less in high- versus low-density screens (−0.9%; 95% CI: −1.4%, −0.4%; p < 0.001) in US screening, and greater (0.8%; 95% CI: 0.3%, 1.3%; p = 0.001) in European screening.ConclusionsDBT has differential incremental cancer detection and recall by breast density. Although incremental CDR is greater in high-density, a substantial proportion of additional cancers is likely to be detected in low-density screens. Our findings may assist screening programmes considering DBT for density-tailored screening.

Variation in cross-sectional indicator of femoral robusticity in Homo sapiens and Neandertals

Variations in the cross-sectional properties of long bones are used to reconstruct the activity of human groups and differences in their respective habitual behaviors. Knowledge of what factors influence bone structure in Homo sapiens and Neandertals is still insufficient thus, this study investigated which biological and environmental variables influence variations in the femoral robusticity indicator of these two species. The sample consisted of 13 adult Neandertals from the Middle Paleolithic and 1959 adult individuals of H. sapiens ranging chronologically from the Upper Paleolithic to recent times. The femoral biomechanical properties were derived from the European data set, the subject literature, and new CT scans. The material was tested using a Mantel test and statistical models. In the models, the polar moment of area (J) was the dependent variable; sex, age, chronological period, type of lifestyle, percentage of the cortical area (%CA), the ratio of second moment areas of inertia about the X and Y axes (Ix/Iy), and maximum slope of the terrain were independent covariates. The Mantel tests revealed spatial autocorrelation of the femoral index in H. sapiens but not in Neandertals. A generalized additive mixed model showed that sex, %CA, Ix/Iy, chronological period, and terrain significantly influenced variation in the robusticity indicator of H. sapiens femora. A linear mixed model revealed that none of the analyzed variables correlated with the femoral robusticity indicator of Neandertals. We did not confirm that the gradual decline in the femoral robusticity indicator of H. sapiens from the Middle Paleolithic to recent times is related to the type of lifestyle; however, it may be associated with lower levels of mechanical loading during adolescence. The lack of correlation between the analysed variables and the indicator of femoral robusticity in Neandertals may suggest that they needed a different level of mechanical stimulus to produce a morphological response in the long bone than H. sapiens.

A strategy to build a unified data set of moment magnitude estimates for low-to-moderate seismicity regions based on European–Mediterranean data: application to metropolitan France

SUMMARYSeismic hazard assessment (SHA) requires earthquake events characterized in terms of the moment magnitude (Mw) scale both in the earthquake catalogues and in the ground motion databases (SHA data sets). However, published Mw estimates for the same event may actually differ due to the adoption of different computation methods, input data, or seismic networks. The main objective of this paper is to develop a novel strategy to assign a unique Mw value for each earthquake and unified to an Mw reference data set that can be applied to low-to-moderate seismicity regions (Mw &amp;lt; 4.5) such as Metropolitan France, the target region of our study. The strategy consists of first collecting all Mw estimated directly by spectral or temporal inversion in a large area of the European–Mediterranean zone, including regional and specific studies in our target region. Then, the sources of Mw estimates are ranked in five different categories, from global to specific studies. A GCMT (Global Centroid Moment Tensor project) standard Mw value is recomputed and a quality flag is assigned depending on the level of the information provided by the sources. Mw estimates are then compared at the European–Mediterranean scale with those provided by the CMT services, chosen as reference. Mw estimates are subsequently corrected for their systematic deviations by progressively including lower magnitude estimates as one moves from high ranked categories to lower ones at each step of the unification procedure. In this work, the collected data set contains 6752 Mw estimates of 4454 shallow events (depth &amp;lt; 40 km) that occurred between 1963 and 2019 and computed by 34 sources (bulletins, publications,…, etc). A unified Mw value could be attributed to 185 events (2.36 ≤ Mw ≤ 5.35) in France and neighbouring regions and 3351 events (3.06 ≤ Mw ≤ 7.57) in the European–Mediterranean region. Finally, we showed that this Mw data set is consistent with European SHA data sets but leads to slightly larger Mw values compared to the French SHA data sets. We also noted that some variability still subsist in Mw data set compared to the existing SHA data sets, especially for Mw &amp;lt; 5.0. This new unified Mw data set is a first step toward the building of future catalogues. It will contribute to greatly improve the coherence of Mw definitions in the next generation of SHA data sets for both metropolitan France and Europe.

Utility of the Whole Genome Sequencing based methodologies in routine European tuberculosis reference laboratory network setting

This study aims to gather observational evidence of Whole Genome Sequencing’s (WGS) impact in the pathogen identification, antimicrobial resistance profiling and transmission tracking from its users’ observation within the diagnostic setting of the European reference laboratories for tuberculosis. Sixteen laboratories that have been utilising WGS in their tuberculosis diagnostic laboratory were invited and twelve (75%) responded to our online questionnaire. Key findings include its primary utilisation for drug resistance prediction and epidemiological services; Mtb surveillance and outbreak investigation. 92% reported significant improvements to the performance of TB drug resistance testing and the reduction of false clustering. Despite the public health benefits of the WGS technology was largely positive in non-tuberculous mycobacteria disease management, multidrug-resistant TB patient management, reputational aspects and turnaround times, further studies are required to review the financial impact as various regulations and service aspects have added to the complexity to disentangle this aspect.

Date of introduction and epidemiologic patterns of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Mogadishu, Somalia: estimates from transmission modelling of satellite-based excess mortality data in 2020.

Background: In countries with weak surveillance systems, confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths are likely to underestimate the pandemic's death toll. Many countries also have incomplete vital registration systems, hampering excess mortality estimation. Here, we fitted a dynamic transmission model to satellite imagery data of cemeteries in Mogadishu, Somalia during 2020 to estimate the date of introduction and other epidemiologic parameters of the early spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in this low-income, crisis-affected setting. Methods: We performed Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) fitting with an age-structured compartmental COVID-19 model to provide median estimates and credible intervals for the date of introduction, the basic reproduction number ( R 0 ) and the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) up to August 2020. Results: Under the assumption that excess deaths in Mogadishu March-August 2020 were attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infections, we arrived at median estimates of November-December 2019 for the date of introduction and low R 0 estimates (1.4-1.7) reflecting the slow and early rise and long plateau of excess deaths. The date of introduction, the amount of external seeding, the infection fatality rate (IFR) and the effectiveness of NPIs are correlated parameters and not separately identifiable in a narrow range from deaths data. Nevertheless, to obtain introduction dates no earlier than November 2019 a higher population-wide IFR (≥0.7%) had to be assumed than obtained by applying age-specific IFRs from high-income countries to Somalia's age structure. Conclusions: Model fitting of excess mortality data across a range of plausible values of the IFR and the amount of external seeding suggests an early SARS-CoV-2 introduction event may have occurred in Somalia in November-December 2019. Transmissibility in the first epidemic wave was estimated to be lower than in European settings. Alternatively, there was another, unidentified source of sustained excess mortality in Mogadishu from March to August 2020.

Health and economic impact of seasonal influenza mass vaccination strategies in European settings: A mathematical modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis

IntroductionDespite seasonal influenza vaccination programmes in most countries targeting individuals aged ≥ 65 (or ≥ 55) years and high risk-groups, significant disease burden remains. We explored the impact and cost-effectiveness of 27 vaccination programmes targeting the elderly and/or children in eight European settings (n = 205.8 million). MethodsWe used an age-structured dynamic-transmission model to infer age- and (sub-)type-specific seasonal influenza virus infections calibrated to England, France, Ireland, Navarra, The Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain between 2010/11 and 2017/18. The base-case vaccination scenario consisted of non-adjuvanted, non-high dose trivalent vaccines (TV) and no universal paediatric vaccination. We explored i) moving the elderly to “improved” (i.e., adjuvanted or high-dose) trivalent vaccines (iTV) or non-adjuvanted non-high-dose quadrivalent vaccines (QV); ii) adopting mass paediatric vaccination with TV or QV; and iii) combining the elderly and paediatric strategies. We estimated setting-specific costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained from the healthcare perspective, and discounted QALYs at 3.0%. ResultsIn the elderly, the estimated numbers of infection per 100,000 population are reduced by a median of 261.5 (range across settings: 154.4, 475.7) when moving the elderly to iTV and by 150.8 (77.6, 262.3) when moving them to QV. Through indirect protection, adopting mass paediatric programmes with 25% uptake achieves similar reductions in the elderly of 233.6 using TV (range: 58.9, 425.6) or 266.5 using QV (65.7, 477.9), with substantial health gains from averted infections across ages. At €35,000/QALY gained, moving the elderly to iTV plus adopting mass paediatric QV programmes provides the highest mean net benefits and probabilities of being cost-effective in all settings and paediatric coverage levels. ConclusionGiven the direct and indirect protection, and depending on the vaccine prices, model results support a combination of having moved the elderly to an improved vaccine and adopting universal paediatric vaccination programmes across the European settings.

Advancing the New European Bauhaus: Sustainable Mobility and Resilient Urban Spaces for a Better Quality of Life – the AdNEB project

The European Commission's New European Bauhaus initiative sets out to answer the question of where and how we should live in the future to achieve an ecologically sustainable, socially inclusive, as well as healthy and attractive development of urban areas. Today’s cities are confronted with the need to simultaneously adapt to climate change, design attractive urban blue-green infrastructures and implement the urban mobility transition. The in-house research project of the German Environment Agency ‘Advancing the New European Bauhaus: Sustainable Mobility and Resilient Urban Spaces for a Better Quality of Life – (AdNEB)’ aims to provide a conceptual, methodical and interdisciplinary contribution to the vision of the New European Bauhaus. AdNEB will address urgent challenges of the urban environment and propose and discuss integrated solutions.

ДОСВІД МІЖНАРОДНИХ АКРЕДИТАЦІЙ ОСВІТНІХ ПРОГРАМ В ЗАКЛАДАХ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ УКРАЇНИ

The integration of Ukraine into the European educational space sets the country in front of the need for the development of international cooperation in the field of higher education, which determines the need for educational programs recognition offered by Ukrainian universities by foreign accreditation agencies and higher education quality assurance agencies. That is why, at present, the importance of international accreditations as a tool for external independent assessment of the quality of education is growing. This article is dedicated to the analysis of the conducting international accreditations experience in higher education institutions of Ukraine. The considered results of the international accreditation of educational programs as a procedure for establishing the accordance of the implemented educational programs quality or the activities of the higher education institution with international requirements and standards determined by one or another foreign organization. The concepts of accreditation and international accreditation are analyzed. The role of the Government in forming the prestige of Ukrainian higher education at the international level is assessed. Since 2019, a new national system of accreditation of higher education institutions was created in Ukraine. At the same time, international accreditation of educational programs acquires great importance, which gives a new competitive status to higher education in Ukraine and confirm of full compliance of the content and quality of education with European educational standards. It was found out which foreign accreditation agencies for quality assurance of higher education carried out the certification of educational programs in Ukrainian higher education institutions, and the experience of each of them was described. So, it was found that these were higher education quality assurance organizations of Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Great Britain and Kazakhstan. They conducted international accreditation of more than ten Ukrainian universities of state and private ownership forms and recognized their educational programs with international quality certificates. The leader in the number of such certificates in Ukraine is the Alfred Nobel University, which has already twice successfully passed the procedure of international accreditation of all bachelor's and master's educational programs. And three institutions of higher education received international institutional accreditation certificates, which allows the university the right to self-accreditation of educational programs and increases its rating and attractiveness among Ukrainians and foreigners.

What to do when the mining company comes to town? Mapping actions of anti-extraction movements in Sweden, 2009–2019

Research on the actions of anti-extraction movements has primarily comprised single-case studies in developing countries. Despite increasing mobilization and policy objectives to increase mineral extraction in the EU, we have little systematic knowledge of forms of resistance in a European setting. This paper exhaustively and comparatively maps anti-extraction movements in Sweden and investigates how movements' actions relate to their socio-political contexts. Sixteen place-specific movements are identified and studied using frame analysis and political process theory. The results suggest that anti-extraction movements occur across Sweden and that their socio-political contexts differ in access to indigenous rights institutions, project owner engagement, and support/opposition from host municipalities and national interest groups. The frame analysis indicates that movements share several goals, sometimes interpret similar contexts differently, and that differences in actions reflect differences in interpretations of contextual opportunities. Our results show that anti-extraction movements in Sweden involve diverse actors, including environmental interest groups, new networks mobilizing against extraction projects, indigenous Sami organizations, farmers' organizations, and landowners. Broad repertoires of actions, including civil disobedience, are used to influence the public, permitting processes, political actors at various scales, and project owners. Differences in socio-political contexts often align with movements’ interpretations of opportunities and relate with differences in action choices.

The Russian language maintenance and language contacts

In our introductory article, we outline the main sociolinguistic features of Russian as a heritage language of post-Soviet immigrants in European settings and beyond. We offer a general overview of the evolution of Russian as a global language, with a particular focus on its geodemographics and economic and social value as a lingua franca . Based on this, we analyse the main principles defining the maintenance of Russian as a language of migration and as a heritage language in different countries, and emphasise the most important questions that still need to be addressed in this field of research. The main objective of this special issue is to combine the most recent research on the vitality of different languages of post-Soviet republics in new political milieu, with a particular focus on European and Asian countries, but there are other objectives as well. We propose to explore the factors that have either favoured or hindered the maintenance and transmission of languages of post-Soviet immigrants and repatriates, and how these sociolinguistic processes become evident in language vitality on both private and public levels. Our special issue primarily addresses the questions of family language policy, new language contacts and their management, and linguistic landscape in heritage speakers, diasporas and their new settings in Europe, Asia and the US.

Agronomic and environmental factors influencing the marginal increase in nitrate leaching by adding extra mineral nitrogen fertilizer

Nitrate leaching from agricultural soils is a considerable environmental concern related to nitrogen (N) application, and in some countries N fertilizer application is regulated by legislation to reach environmental goals. Information about the change in nitrate leaching with changes in mineral N fertilizer rates is important under such conditions. The increase in nitrate leaching due to extra mineral N application near the economic optimal N application for crop production, called marginal nitrate leaching, depends on a number of factors like soil type, crop types, climatic conditions and N fertilization rates. In this study, we collected published experimental data from 44 site-years from Denmark and 31 site-years from other European countries (Germany, Sweden, UK) with measured nitrate leaching at increasing mineral N fertilizer rates. We focused on obtaining marginal nitrate leaching around optimal N rates based on available information from the different field experiments. The measured nitrate leaching varied from 3 to 92 kg N ha-1 in the Danish dataset. For the European data set, it varied from 1 to 124 kg N ha-1. The median and mean of the estimated marginal nitrate leaching at the optimal N rates were 17.0% and 20.5%, respectively, in the Danish dataset and 9.0% and 14.9%, respectively, in the European dataset. At the optimal N rate, a positive relationship was found between yearly nitrate leaching and marginal nitrate leaching. Both nitrate leaching and marginal nitrate leaching at the optimal N rate were positively correlated with precipitation during the hydrological year and winter periods, but not to any other environmental factors tested. There was no significant difference in either marginal nitrate leaching or nitrate leaching between growing spring cereals versus winter cereals. No significant effect of winter vegetation cover on marginal nitrate leaching was detected. Furthermore, the marginal nitrate leaching at the optimal N rate in the first year of the experiments with increasing N rates was significantly lower than the accumulated effect of two or more years with low or high N rates. Therefore, the long-term effects of N rates should be accounted for when estimating marginal nitrate leaching. The marginal nitrate leaching is highly variable between years and only a part of this variation was explained in this study. The positive correlation between marginal nitrate leaching and nitrate leaching at optimum N rates implies that cropping system and management factors reducing nitrate leaching also reduce the marginal nitrate leaching.

Language teachers’ accounts of challenges in two European settings of integration training

This study investigates the work of second language teachers in two institutional settings responsible for integration training. By exploring teachers’ accounts in Finland and Germany, we seek to deepen the understanding of the daily practice of second language education. Bridging conceptual and practical approaches, the aim is to contribute to the current discourse on the development of adult second language education in Europe. A phenomenographic analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals challenges that influence instruction from inside and outside institutional practice. Accounts in the Finnish setting depict issues in how language education, teachers’ work, and adult education are perceived. Administration and language teachers disagree on what needs to be improved in a changing societal environment. Professional pride and appreciation are strongly demanded in a profession that is still being established, and challenges specific to adult education translate into priorities in delivering instruction. In the German setting, expressions culminate in prerequisites, and challenges lie in the way external factors influence course design and instruction. They also touch upon learning: methods, materials, and abilities. Feelings of inadequacy describe teachers’ psychological working environment. A comparison concludes a need to defend contact teaching in Finland and to improve tracking of slower learners’ progress in Germany.

Assessing countries\u2019 social-ecological resilience to shifting marine commercial species

Climate change is already impacting fisheries with species moving across fishing areas, crossing institutional borders, and thus creating conflicts over fisheries management. In this scenario, scholars agree that adaptation to climate change requires that fisheries increase their social, institutional, and ecological resilience. The resilience or capacity of a fishery to be maintained without shifting to a different state (e.g., collapse) is at stake under climate change impacts and overexploitation. Despite this urgent need, applying the resilience concept in a spatially explicit and quantitative manner to inform policy remains unexplored. We take a resilience approach and operationalize the concept in industrial fisheries for two species that have been observed to significantly shift distribution in European waters: hake (Merluccius merluccius) and cod (Gadus morhua), in the context of the European Union institutional settings. With a set of resilience factors from the literature and by means of contemporary and historic data, we select indicators that are combined into an index that measures resilience on the ecologic, socioeconomic, and institutional dimensions of the fishery. We find that the resilience index varies among species and countries, with lower resilience levels in the socioeconomic dimension of the fisheries. We also see that resilience largely depends on the overexploitation status of the fishery. The results highlight the need to address social and institutional settings to enhance fisheries adaptation to climate change and allow to inform on climate resilient adaptation pathways for the fisheries.

A comparative analysis of changes in anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attitudes in Europe: 1990\u20132017

Muslims and immigrants have both been subjected to negative attitudes over the past several decades in Europe. Using data from the European Values Study, this study analyses the changes in these attitudes in the period 1990–2017. We find that negative attitudes have been increasing on average in Europe as a whole, with anti-Muslim attitudes being more prevalent than anti-immigrant attitudes. However, when split into a Western European set and an Eastern European set, from 2008, there is a divergence between the two halves. Our findings reveal that negative attitudes towards Muslims and immigrants have decreased in Western Europe, whereas they have increased significantly in Eastern Europe. Further analyses find that there are large discrepancies between anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant attitudes in different countries. These discrepancies are discussed in detail and related to several relevant factors, such as the differences in size of the Muslim and immigrant populations, variations in the refugee influx and other possible factors and developments.

The RETREAT score provides valid predictions regarding hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation.

Prediction of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence after liver transplantation (LT) with knowledge of explant data is important for guiding post-LT surveillance and treatment. The RETREAT score was recently introduced for this purpose, but has not been validated outside the USA. In a retrospective single-center study of 169 consecutive patients undergoing LT in Gothenburg, through 2000-2017 (mean age 57 years, 80% men), there were 34 HCC recurrences during a median 4.6-year follow-up. The 5-year cumulative incidence of HCC recurrence was 0% with RETREAT scores of 0-1 (18%), 11-22% with scores of 2-4 (58%), and 65% with scores of 5-8 (24%). The C-statistic, as a measure of discrimination for prediction of HCC recurrence was 0.762, 0.664, 0.616, and 0.717, for the RETREAT score, Milan criteria, UCSF criteria, and post-MORAL criteria. The RETREAT score had no significant impact on patient survival after HCC recurrence (HR 1.00, P = 0.97). In conclusion, the RETREAT score provided valid predictions of post-LT HCC recurrence in a European setting, with the ability to discriminate between high, intermediate, and low risk for HCC recurrence in a clinically important way. Prognosis after recurrence did not differ according to the RETREAT score in our study.

Survey of the Use of the System for Separate Collection of Household Waste from Packaging in the Municipality of Stara Zagora

Separate waste collection and recycling are at the basis of today’s wastemanagement. This helps the reduction of landfilled waste, which aims to reduce soil, water, and airpollution, on the one hand, and to cut down on the depletion of resources for new production, on theother. A large portion of household waste comes from the so-called “widespread waste”, whichincludes packaging waste. Legislation at European and national levels sets specific goals toovercome this problem. Separate waste collection is carried out by municipalities via wasterecycling companies, which set up and operate systems for separate collection. Citizens are at theheart of the efficient functioning of these systems. A separate waste collection system of this kindhas been established in the municipality of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. The objective of this paper isto present the results of a questionnaire survey of the system’s users to establish their awareness andattitudes regarding the process of separate waste collection. The results can be used to improve thesystem.

Private firm accounting: the European reporting environment, data and research perspectives

This study provides a guide to accounting research on private firms with an emphasis on the European setting. We start by providing an overview of private firm financial reporting regulation in Europe and indicate how this institutional framework can be used to identify promising research settings that in part generalise beyond the European setting. Next, we discuss the availability of private firm accounting data and the underlying data generating process that involves private firms’ original reports, governmental and private data aggregators, and commercial data providers. We show how this process generates insightful data, but at the same time causes complex sample selection issues that researchers should take into account when assessing prior findings and developing new research projects. Finally, we identify potential areas of future work by reviewing the extant literature along the three main motivations for conducting private firm work: (i) to learn more about private firms per se, (ii) to learn more about what distinguishes private firms from public firms, and (iii) to obtain insights from private firms that generalise across all firms.