New Forms of Employment

Societal and economic developments, such as the need for increased flexibility by both employers and workers, have resulted in the emergence of new forms of employment across Europe. These have transformed the traditional one-to-one relationship between employer and employee. They are also characterised by unconventional work patterns and places of work, or by the irregular provision of work. However, little is known about these ‘new forms of employment’, their distinctive features and the implications they have for working conditions and the labour market. To fill this knowledge gap, Eurofound conducted a Europe-wide mapping exercise to identify the emerging trends. This resulted in the categorisation of nine broad types of new employment forms. On the basis of this, the available literature and data were analysed; 66 case studies were also conducted and analysed to illustrate how these new employment forms operate in Member States and their effects on working conditions and the labour market

Interbasin Water Transfers and Water Scarcity in a Changing World: A Solution or a Pipedream?

The world is increasingly forced to face the challenge of how to ensure access to adequate water resources for expanding populations and economies, whilst maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems and the vital services they provide. Now the growing impacts of climate change are exacerbating the problem of water scarcity in key regions of the world. One popular way for governments to distribute water more evenly across the landscape is to transfer it from areas with perceived surpluses, to those with shortages.While there is a long history of water transfers from ancient times, as many societies reach the limits of locally renewable water supplies increasingly large quantities of water are being moved over long distances, from one river basin to another. Since the beginning of dam building that marked the last half of the 1900s more that 364 large-scale interbasin water transfer schemes (IBTs) have been established that transfer around 400 km³ of water per year (Shiklomanov 1999). IBTs are now widely touted as the quick fix solution to meeting escalating water demands. One estimate suggests that the total number of largescale water transfer schemes may rise to between 760 and 1 240 by 2020 to transfer up to 800 km³ of water per year (Shiklomanov 1999).The wide range of IBT projects in place, or proposed, has provoked the preparation of this review, including seven case studies from around the globe. It builds on previous assessments and examines the costs and benefits of large scale IBTs. This report assesses related, emerging issues in sustaining water resources and ecosystems, namely the virtual water trade, expanding use of desalination, and climate change adaptation. It is based on WWF's 2007 publication "Pipedreams? Interbasin water transfers and water shortages".The report concludes that while IBTs can potentially solve water supply issues in regions of water shortage - they come with significant costs. Large scale IBTs are typically very high cost, and thus economically risky, and they usually also come with significant social and environmental costs; usually for both the river basin providing and the river basin receiving the water

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

WHAT ARE ROMANIA’S CHANCES OF BECOMING A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY?

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the Lisbon Strategy, theproposal which set the action framework intended to transform the EU into the mostdynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainableeconomic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for theenvironment by 2010 . We will also discuss the activities of the European Research Area(ERA), focusing in particular on the way in which our country may become a competitive partof this process.knowledge-based economy, Lisbon Strategy, Romania.

Researching and enhancing athlete welfare: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) 2013

Copyright @ 2014 Brunel University. All rights reserved by the authors who assert their rights under the Berne Convention. Copyright rests with Brunel University London. All research designs, concepts, models and theories herein are the intellectual property of the contributing authors. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Dr Daniel Rhind via Brunel University London.The chapters within this book are based on presentations delivered at the 2nd BIRNAW Symposium which was held at Brunel University London in November 2013.Sport is a cultural phenomenon that touches the lives and captures the imagination of many people. Most people assume that sport is “a good thing” and that participation in sport will bring physical, psychological and social benefits to participants and societies. However, as this body of work shows, this is not necessarily or always the case. Abuse and exploitation can and does occur in sport – a fact that sports enthusiasts and sports organisations have been slow to acknowledge. The Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) is a remarkable initiative that brings together researchers and policy makers from a variety of disciplines, organisations and countries. The activities and publications of this group have successfully provided an evidence base that has drawn attention to the issues in a powerful and convincing way. Its impact on the world of sport has been significant and is an excellent example of research informing sport policy and improving the practice of sport. Through the work of those involved in BIRNAW, inspired by the vision of Celia Brackenridge and her colleagues at Brunel University London, awareness has been raised, and safeguarding measures are being put in place to ensure the welfare of athletes. There is still much to be done, but the world of sport, and those athletes whose welfare is now safeguarded, already have much to thank them for