Are you NUTS? The factors of production and their long-run evolution in Europe from a regional perspective

"Standard economic growth models generally consider different factors of production such as land, capital, labour, technology and human capital. These are common in theoretical models and empirical applications but more evidence is still needed for their long-term regional evolution. Therefore, this paper traces the evolution of specific aspects of these factors in the European regions and cities by means of different proxies. The data have been collected and calculated from a wide range of diverse historical and spatial data bases. A particular feature is the definition of the European regions according to the NUTS classification by the European Union. Thus, the paper gives a rough outline of some of the most important long-term regional tendencies that should be taken into account in research directed to past and recent time periods." (author's abstract

The regulation of funded pensions: a conceptual framework for comparative analysis

"Some social policy analysts argue that the shift from PAYG towards more capital funding in pension policy in many European countries does not necessarily imply neo-liberal privatisation, but will probably lead towards a genuine social-liberal third way, i.e. socially regulated `welfare markets´ reconciling the tension between individual liberty and social solidarity. However, the scientific rationale of the term welfare market is uncertain because it was not exactly specified how this reconciliation should precisely be possible and what are the theoretical motivations and distinctive institutional features of welfare markets compared to unfettered markets and welfare states. While for paradigmatic critics of the shift towards capital funding this term must appear as a euphemistic oxymoron, neo-liberalism dismisses social regulation of pension markets as futile or even harmful. Refuting both objections and filling the theoretical gap, this article establishes a rationale for the term welfare market by showing why and how funded pension provision can be socially regulated, i.e. in a manner which takes concerns about social justice seriously while preserving basic market features. Finally, it is exemplarily examined whether funded pension regulation in European countries is actually heading towards welfare markets." [author's abstract

Low Temperature Techniques as a Tool in Plant Pathology

In plant pathology, low temperature preparation techniques now appear to be feasible methods to stabilize the dynamic ultrastructure of the host-(plant)-pathogen (fungi) interaction for an analysis by transmission electron microscopy. A well defined ultrastructure of small organisms (fungi) and large biological samples such as plant material and as well as the plant-pathogen (fungus) infection sites are presented. The mesophyll tissue of Arabidopsis thaliana is characterized by homogeneously structured cytoplasm closely attached to the cell wall. Infection sites of stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) on primary leaves of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and powdery mildew (Erysiphe graminis f.sp. hordei) on coleoptiles of barley (Hordeum vulgare) are analyzed with regard to the fine structural preservation of the haustoria, the extrahaustorial matrix and the extrahaustorial membrane. Recent data on the immunocytochemical characterization of freeze substituted rust and powdery mildew infected plant tissue are described with special emphasis on the localization of elicitor glycoproteins involved in the cellular host-parasite interaction. There is clear evidence for the release of the elicitor glycoprotein into the extrahaustorial matrix of the haustorial complex. No elicitor molecules are seen in the plant host cytoplasm

Access to health services in Western Newfoundland, Canada: Issues, barriers and recommendations emerging from a community-engaged research project

Research indicates that people living in rural and remote areas of Canada face challenges to accessing health services. This article reports on a community-engaged research project conducted by investigators at Memorial University of Newfoundland in collaboration with the Rural Secretariat Regional Councils and Regional Partnership Planners for the Corner Brook–Rocky Harbour and Stephenville–Port aux Basques Rural Secretariat Regions of Newfoundland and Labrador. The aim of this research was to gather information on barriers to accessing health services, to identify solutions to health services’ access issues and to inform policy advice to government on enhancing access to health services. Data was collected through: (1) targeted distribution of a survey to communities throughout the region, and (2) informal ‘kitchen table’ discussions to discuss health services’ access issues. A total of 1049 surveys were collected and 10 kitchen table discussions were held. Overall, the main barriers to care listed in the survey included long wait times, services not available in the area and services not available at time required. Other barriers noted by survey respondents included transportation problems, financial concerns, no medical insurance coverage, distance to travel and weather conditions. Some respondents reported poorer access to maternal/child health and breast and cervical screening services and a lack of access to general practitioners, pharmacy services, dentists and nurse practitioners. Recommendations that emerged from this research included improving the recruitment of rural physicians, exploring the use of nurse practitioners, assisting individuals with travel costs,  developing specialist outreach services, increasing use of telehealth services and initiating additional rural and remote health research.Keywords: rural, remote, healthcare, health services, social determinants of healt

Immigrant background and expected early school leaving in Europe: evidence from PISA

This technical brief analyses the relationship between immigrant status and educational expectations in PISA. Migration flows from outside and within the EU have increased in recent years, and this has raised the attention of policy makers and the general public, with special interests on the implications that those flows can have on, among other, the education system and the labour markets. At the same time, the EU has set the Europe 2020 headline target of reducing the share of early school leavers to 10 % within the EU. Early school leavers become generally disadvantaged socially and economically in later stages in life, so that it is important to better understand the motivations for leaving school and provide adequate policy solutions. The European Commission (2016, p. 3) indicates that early school leavers are more likely to come from immigrant student groups, as their “early school leaving rates are nearly twice as high as for the native population”. Yet it also emphasises that there is still a lack of evidence pointing to the underlying reasons. In particular, it is not clear whether, among early school leavers, immigrants students are more frequent due to specific reasons related to the status of immigrants or whether they are more frequent because immigrant students are more likely to possess the set of characteristics that are normally associated to early school leaving behaviour (such as belonging to low socio economic status). This study analyses the factors that are most strongly related to the probability to leave school early, putting special attention to immigrant status (by differentiating among first and second generation immigrants and, where possible, among EU and non-EU immigrants). To this end, we use OECD’s PISA data, which are the most widely employed data on international student assessment. Since early school leavers cannot directly be considered with these data, we focus on educational expectations, including the expectation to dropout early from school. As the related literature emphasises, these expectations are very closely linked to actually realised educational career patterns. Therefore, we can use expectations to gain insights on the factors influencing early school leaving. In addition, we also employ data from Eurostat to complement the picture on early school leavers and immigrants. First, we provide a range of descriptive data on immigrants and expected early school leavers. Second, we run a number of two-level logit regression models, including a range of student- and school-level variables. In particular, we consider all (available) EU Member States together, before providing results for each MS individually. Finally, we also distinguish more specifically between EU and non-EU immigrants in our regression models. The results show that, when controlling for individual and school characteristics, immigrant students do not structurally differ in their expected early dropout probability from natives across Europe. In other words, the reasons why students expect to leave school early are the same for both immigrant students and natives. This finding implies that it is more important to focus on the common factors that are associated with expected early school leaving. In particular, our results suggest that these are, at the students’ level, the socio-economic background of students, their epistemological beliefs and grade repetition, while, at the school level, the most consistent factor is the school’s mean expected early school leavers rate. The school-environment thus appears to play a key role in shaping educational expectations. Among the student-related factors, grade repetition is the most amenable by policy, so that grade repetition practices may be reconsidered by national policy makers.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

Adolescent 4-8 MMPI Profiles: Prediction from a Taxonomic Class

Throughout the past two decades of MMPI research minimal effort has been directed toward adolescent populations. Notable exceptions to this have been the pioneering works of Hathaway and Monachesi (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960, 1963), and the later prediction studies concerning subtypes of delinquents, emotionally disturbed adolescents and most recently, drug abusers. Characteristic of all this research was a focus on the study or demonstration of the MMPI itself and its ability to differentiate personality types that the test does in fact identify. The most frequently occurring profile type uncovered by these studies appears to have been the 4-8 configuration. Some clinical observations of these individuals have been offered, but with little or no empirical backing. It was the purpose of this investigation to inquire in more depth into the personality and functioning of these adolescents, while obtaining quantifiable information. More precisely, this was a problem in actuarial prediction; the specific model being that of predicting from a taxonomic class. Subjects were selected from the adolescent psychiatry clinic at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. All persons seen in the adolescent clinic between the dates of January 1, 1969, and December 31, 1970, were included in the study. This was further broken down into two one-year samples for the purposes of cross-validation. Two types of data were analyzed for each of three groups of .subjects ( pure 4-8, mixed 4-8, and non 4-8 ). These include test (MMPI) data and non-test data (hospital charts, biographical data sheets, etc.). The latter were rated by expert judges using a specially developed checklist of clinical descriptors (criterion characteristics). A 19 x 3 x 2 x 2 factorial design with repeated measures on one factor was used to analyze the initial one-year sample of adolescents, as well as the cross-validation sample (19 levels of MMPI scales and subscales x 3 levels of Profile Types x 2 levels of Age, Sex). The analysis of the descriptor list consisted of Chi-square tests of association with multiple, rather than dichotomous, classification categories being used. The results of the Chi-square tests for both the Year I and Year II data indicated that a majority of the criterion characteristics did not attain any measure of cross-validation. The analysis of variance, however, indicated replicated differences (p=.01) between the non 4-8 group and both the pure 4-8 and mixed 4-8 groups on 12 of the MMPI scales and subscales. No other statistically significant differences were obtained. It appears clear that a consistent, valid pattern of MMPI scale and subscale scores emerged from this study for the mixed 4-8 and pure 4-8 groups when considered together. However, the general failure to predict the criterion characteristics from these test- defined classes casts a great deal of doubt on the non-validated rating methods used by other researchers. This pertains particularly to the research done by Gilberstadt and Duker (1965) and to a lesser degree to that of Marks and Seeman (1963). Although there appears to be substantial agreement between these authors\u27 results, both in terms of the attributes and means found among similar code groups it must be re-emphasized that until cross-validation is provided for these studies their use should be viewed critically