A Decade of Editing the European Economic Review

This story describes the circumstances that led to all five of us starting as editors at the same time, the unexpected things we have found, the unanticipated reactions we have encountered, how we worked as an editorial team, the central role of the editorial office manager, how we managed to work with five different publishers in ten years, the various initiatives we have developed to involve associate editors and referees, the early electronic editing system, and the creation of the essential database of potential referees. We will also describe the difficulties we have encountered in reaching one of our early goals to reduce the median time of first response to less than four months. Along the way, we will share a few anecdotes to illustrate the work of an academic journal editor.journal, editing, economics

A Decade of Editing the European Economic Review

This story describes the circumstances that led to all five of us starting as editors at the same time, the unexpected things we have found, the unanticipated reactions we have encountered, how we worked as an editorial team, the central role of the editorial office manager, how we managed to work with five different publishers in ten years, the various initiatives we have developed to involve associate editors and referees, the early electronic editing system, and the creation of the essential database of potential referees. We will also describe the difficulties we have encountered in reaching one of our early goals to reduce the median time of first response to less than four months. Along the way, we will share a few anecdotes to illustrate the work of an academic journal editor.

Factors Affecting European Farmers’Participation in Biodiversity Policies

This article reports the major findings from an interdisciplinary research project that synthesises key insights into farmers’ willingness and ability to co-operate with biodiversity policies. The results of the study are based on an assessment of about 160 publications and research reports from six EU member states and from international comparative research.We developed a conceptual framework to systematically review the existent literature relevant for our purposes. This framework provides a common structure for analysing farmers’ perspectives regarding the introduction into farming practices of measures relevant to biodiversity. The analysis is coupled and contrasted with a survey of experts. The results presented above suggest that it is important to view support for practices oriented towards biodiversity protection not in a static sense – as a situation determined by one or several influencing factors – but rather as a process marked by interaction. Financial compensation and incentives function as a necessary, though clearly not sufficient condition in this process

PrImary decompressive Craniectomy in AneurySmal Subarachnoid hemOrrhage (PICASSO) trial: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Poor-grade aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is associated with poor neurological outcome and high mortality. A major factor influencing morbidity and mortality is brain swelling in the acute phase. Decompressive craniectomy (DC) is currently used as an option in order to reduce intractably elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). However, execution and optimal timing of DC remain unclear. METHODS: PICASSO resembles a multicentric, prospective, 1:1 randomized standard treatment-controlled trial which analyzes whether primary DC (pDC) performed within 24 h combined with the best medical treatment in patients with poor-grade SAH reduces mortality and severe disability in comparison to best medical treatment alone and secondary craniectomy as ultima ratio therapy for elevated ICP. Consecutive patients presenting with poor-grade SAH, defined as grade 4–5 according to the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), will be screened for eligibility. Two hundred sixteen patients will be randomized to receive either pDC additional to best medical treatment or best medical treatment alone. The primary outcome is the clinical outcome according to the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 12 months, which is dichotomized to favorable (mRS 0–4) and unfavorable (mRS 5–6). Secondary outcomes include morbidity and mortality, time to death, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay and hospital stay, quality of life, rate of secondary DC due to intractably elevated ICP, effect of size of DC on outcome, use of duraplasty, and complications of DC. DISCUSSION: This multicenter trial aims to generate the first confirmatory data in a controlled randomized fashion that pDC improves the outcome in a clinically relevant endpoint in poor-grade SAH patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: DRKS DRKS00017650. Registered on 09 June 2019. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13063-022-06969-4

A Nonparametric Examination of Capital-Skill Complementarity

This paper uses nonparametric kernel methods to construct observation-specific elasticities of substitution for a balanced panel of 73 developed and developing countries to examine the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis. The exercise shows some support for capital-skill complementarity, but the strength of the evidence depends upon the definition of skilled labor and the elasticity of substitution measure being used. The added flexibility of the nonparametric procedure is also able to uncover that the elasticities of substitution vary across countries, groups of countries and time periods.capital-skill complementarity, elasticity of substitution, nonparametric kernel, stochastic dominance

Security Mechanisms of wireless Building Automation Systems

This paper describes the security mechanisms of several wireless building automation technologies, namely ZigBee, EnOcean, ZWave, KNX, FS20, and Home-Matic. It is shown that none of the technologies provides the necessary measure ofsecurity that should be expected in building automation systems. One of the conclusions drawn is that software embedded in systems that are build for a lifetime of twenty years or more needs to be updatable

DEVELOPMENT OF THE UTILIZATION OF PASTORAL LAND IN THE EU 25 AFTER 2003

Farming systems based on products of roughage feeders are a vital part of the EU agricultural production. Up to the CAP reform in 2003 the EU promoted these systems via a wide variety of measures. This paper highlights the different impacts European, national and regional support measures have on the utilization of pastoral resources across the EU-25. Based on an expert survey and a literature review the paper summarizes the expected developments of pastoral farming systems across the EU.Pastoral Systems, EU, 2003 CAP Reform, Enlargement, Land Economics/Use,

What is Specific about Art/Cultural Projects?

The present issue focuses on the contribution made by art/cultural initiatives to the development of multiple identity in some of the European cities having in mind the subjectivity of the artists and plurality of the surrounding cultures. The art/cultural projects (AES- Russia, Europe Art Train – Holland, Life Station – Austria and some others) with intercultural dimension have a special character to offer because: they are dealing with meaning, and enable dialogue between people in different social groups. The examples will be taken from different European countries, which aim to reinterpret the reality of life, to show, answer, and question its contradictions. The attention will be focused on their political, educational and aesthetic contribution to the community construction having in mind their desire for new intercultural policy and practices. Every artist crosses borders daily but those who choose to cross cultural borders (language, expression, music, tradition) enter into a fertile, but dangerous field. Artists do not aim specifically to produce multicultural work but since they are living in specific time, and since art is rooted in real life, the realities of everyday life are transposed into their work. This paper is fundamentally interested in the role that art projects can play in a modern society and promotes the initiative that links an artistic dimension to a form of interactive social urban situation. All projects are representing ‘laboratories’ that use public spaces. It is more than obvious that the social and the economic fields are not separated from the cultural one beside the tendency that is putting them in opposition as artists and the world rather than artists in the world. In the last two decades, the world of the arts has economised rapidly. Increasingly, artists have turned the economy into a subject of their own work. Art/cultural projects engage people’s creativity, and so lead to problem-solving. They encourage questioning, and the imagination of possible future actions. They offer self-expression, which is an essential characteristic of the active citizen. Some experiences from the art/cultural field are shifting attention towards the people themselves: their imagination, motivation, demands, fantasies and only then the city is becoming a cultural product, a community construction.Intercultural actions, Policy agenda, Art/cultural projects, Networking aspects

ULTRALIGHT RADAR FOR SMALL AND MICRO-UAV NAVIGATION

This paper presents a radar approach to navigation of small and micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in environments challenging for common sensors. A technique based on radar odometry is briefly explained and schemes for complete integration with other sensors are proposed. The focus of the paper is set on ultralight radars and interpretation of outputs of such sensor when dealing with autonomous navigation in complex scenario. The experimental setup used to analyse the proposed approach comprises one multi-rotor UAV and one ultralight commercial radar. Results from flight tests in which both forward-only motion and mixed motion are presented and analysed, providing a reference for understanding outputs of radar in complex scenarios. The radar odometry solution is compared with ground truth provided by GPS sensor