A wide difference in cancer survival between middle aged and elderly patients in Europe.

Abstract Nowadays the burden of cancer in elderly people has reached an alarming extent. The purpose of this study is comparing cumulative and conditional relative survival in elderly patients between 65 and 84 years and younger adults aged from 55 to 64. Fifty-three cancer registries of 22 European countries, participating in the EUROCARE-3 programme, collected information on the cases diagnosed over the period 1990-1994. We computed cumulative and conditional relative survival for 16 cancer sites. Middle aged patients experienced a better prognosis than the elderly for all cancer sites, in both sexes and the differences were more marked at 1 than 5 years since diagnosis. The very large differences noted in the first period after cancer detection declined in the subsequent years and, when 5-years conditional survival was considered, for several cancers the elderly and younger adults had the same probabilities of surviving. The death relative excess risks (RERs) in the elderly with respect younger individuals were really very high and markedly larger at 1 than 5 years, and in women than men. Genitourinary and gynaecological cancers showed the highest RERs, around 2.0 and between 1.5 and 2.5 respectively. This very high early mortality could be due not only to clinical aspects: the barriers to health care access and a consequent late diagnosis might represent for elderly patients the main determinant of this very large prognostic disadvantage. In conclusion, clinical management of cancer in the elderly remains a major issue to be faced with complex social and health care policies

Soybean Seedlings Enriched with Iron and Magnesium - Impact on Germination, Growth and Antioxidant Properties

Abstract Iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) deficiency in human diets is a widespread problem observed in various regions of the world. Insufficient Fe uptake results in the development of iron dependent anaemia and depressed physical and intellectual performance. In turn Mg deficiency is associated with alterations in neuromuscular and cardiovascular systems. An emerging alternative to traditional supplementation of these elements in the form of pills, liquids or effervescent tablets, is introduction of fortified food products. In present study we show that preincubation of soybean seeds in Fe and Mg solutions leads to elevated content of these elements in the seedlings. Importantly the pretreatment did not affect germination rate, seedlings growth or, with an exception of Fe supplementation at highest concentration, antioxidant capacity. The obtained results indicate that preincubation of seeds in Fe and Mg solutions may be a promising method of obtaining enriched soybean sprouts

City data ecosystems between theory and practice: A qualitative exploratory study in seven European cities

The exponential growth of data collection opens possibilities for analyzing data to address political and societal challenges. Still, European cities are not utilizing the potential of data generated by its citizens, industries, academia, and public authorities for their public service mission. The reasons are complex and relate to an intertwined set of organizational, technological, and legal barriers, although good practices exist that could be scaled, sustained, and further developed. The article contributes to research on data-driven innovation in the public sector comparing high-level expectations on data ecosystems with actual practices of data sharing and innovation at the local and regional level. Our approach consists in triangulating the analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives of the local administrations with documents obtained from the cities. The interviews investigated the experiences and perspectives of local administrations regarding establishing a local or regional data ecosystem. The article examines experiences and obstacles to data sharing within seven administrations investigating what currently prevents the establishment of data ecosystems. The findings are summarized along three main lines. First, the limited involvement of private sector organizations as actors in local data ecosystems through emerging forms of data sharing became evident. Second, we observed the concern over technological aspects and the lack of attention on social or organizational issues. Third, a conceptual decision to apply a centralized and not a federated digital infrastructure is noteworthy

O Comportamento Alimentar e a Insatisfação com a Imagem Corporal das Atletas do Basquete Feminino de Uma Cidade do Interior de São Paulo

The most important eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia nervosa. This study intended to appraise athletes' behavior related to food , weight control and body image. The obtained results were: 25% present light distortions of their body image and 16,66% show moderate distortions. Based on the silhouettes of Stunkard et al., 66,66% overestimate their weight, 16,66% show dissatisfaction in relation to their thinness, 16,67% are pleased with their body weight. The majority of the athletes presents proper body composition, but presents a distortion of their body image.Os principais Transtornos Alimentares – TAs são a anorexia e a bulimia nervosas. Verificou-se o comportamento de atletas com relação à alimentação, controle de peso e a avaliação da imagem corporal. Observou-se que: 25% apresentam distorção leve da imagem corporal e 16,66%, distorção moderada. Nas Silhuetas de Stunkard et al., 66,66% superestimam o peso, 16,67%, possuem insatisfação com relação à magreza. A maioria das atletas apresentam composição corporal adequada, mas revelam distorção da sua imagem corporal

DigiTranScope autumn institute 2020: governance of digitally transformed societies

DigiTranScope is a research project of the JRC (Joint Research Centre), Centre for Advanced Studies at the European Commission, focusing on the governance of digitally transformed human societies. The project aims to provide a deeper understanding of key aspects of digital transformation to help policy-makers address the challenges facing European society over the next decades. Core Topics of the Autumn Institute: Data Governance: This is a key battleground to find a European way to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Transformation. We need to find new ways of sharing data between the public sector, commercial sector, and civil society so that the value created out of data analytics and new algorithms is redistributed more equitably across all stakeholders to the benefit of European society. New Forms of Policy Design, Policy Learning: This is a topic exploring how we can develop new forms of more participative policy design, monitoring, feedback/assessment, learning loops that exploit the characteristics of digital transformation including, smart cities, gaming, digital twins, and personalisation. Digital Empowerment and Social Inequalities: How can we develop/design/foster a new path exploiting the benefits of digital transformation so that it is aimed at reducing existing social, economic, and spatial inequalities rather than exacerbating them? What is the role of local data ecosystems and co-operatives, and in general more geographically diversified policy measures, in tapping into the intrinsic characteristics of European regions and cities

Emerging approaches for data-driven innovation in Europe: Sandbox experiments on the governance of data and technology

Europe’s digital transformation of the economy and society is one of the priorities of the current Commission and is framed by the European strategy for data. This strategy aims at creating a single market for data through the establishment of a common European data space, based in turn on domain-specific data spaces in strategic sectors such as environment, agriculture, industry, health and transportation. Acknowledging the key role that emerging technologies and innovative approaches for data sharing and use can play to make European data spaces a reality, this document presents a set of experiments that explore emerging technologies and tools for data-driven innovation, and also deepen in the socio-technical factors and forces that occur in data-driven innovation. Experimental results shed some light in terms of lessons learned and practical recommendations towards the establishment of European data spaces

CAS: Centre for advanced studies

An introduction to the Centre for Advanced Studies.JRC.A.5-Scientific Developmen

DigiTranScope: the governance of digitally-transformed society

This volume presents the key outcomes and research findings of the Digitranscope research project of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. The project set out to explore during the period 2017-2020 the challenges and opportunities that the digital transformation is posing to the governance of society. We focused our attention on the governance of data as a key aspect to understand and shape the governance of society. Data is a key resource in the digital economy, and control over the way it is generated, collected, aggregated, and value is extracted and distributed in society is crucial. We have explored the increasing awareness about the strategic importance of data and emerging governance models to distribute the value generated more equitably in society. These findings have contributed to the new policy orientation in Europe on technological and data sovereignty and the sharing of data for the public interest. The digital transformation, the rise of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things offer also new opportunities for new forms of policy design, implementation, and assessment providing more personalised support to those who need it and being more participative throughout the policy cycle. The use of digital twins, gaming, simulation, and synthetic data are just at their beginning but promise to change radically the relationships among all the stakeholders in governance of our society

DigiTranScope: some key findings

Digitranscope originated from the JRC Strategy 20301. The strategy identified ten strategic topics on which the JRC should concentrate to anticipate future policy requests. One of these topics was ‘Data and Digital Transformation’, to which the JRC set up two initiatives: the first being a transversal project on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation’, the second being a CAS research project on digital transformation, which was to be more exploratory in nature. The CAS project originally proposed to address two key issues: i) how the information glut triggered by digital transformation reverses the cognitive balance between humans and machines, and ii) the impact of digital information technology on the rules and institutions that guide modern societies. This proposal therefore led to the establishment of two projects in 2017: ‘Human behaviour and machine intelligence’ (HUMAINT)2 and our project, ‘Digital transformation and the governance of human society’ (Digitranscope)