Lower levels of clientelism in Portuguese politics explain why Portugal handled austerity better than Greece during the crisis

Greece and Portugal were two of the worst hit countries by the Eurozone crisis, yet the domestic political reaction within each state was notably different. While in Greece there were difficulties agreeing to austerity policies and the party system underwent substantial change; Portuguese parties negotiated a broad political consensus over reforms and the mainstream parties largely retained their support base. Alexandre Afonso, Sotirios Zartaloudis and Yannis Papadopoulos argue that the key reason for this difference relates to the varying levels of clientelism in each country, where political ‘patrons’ provide goods or services to their backers in return for political support. They write that the fact Portugal had lower levels of clientelism before the crisis ensured that Portuguese parties were more capable of backing austerity policies without alienating their supporters

Energy transfer from tunneling electrons to excitons

Excitons in optoelectronic devices have been generated through optical excitation, external carrier injection, or employing pre-existing charges. Here, we reveal a new way to electrically generate excitons in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). The TMD is placed on top of a gold-hBN-graphene tunnel junction, outside of the tunneling pathway. This electrically driven device features a photoemission spectrum with a distinct peak at the exciton energy of the TMD. We interpret this observation as exciton generation by energy transfer from tunneling electrons, which is further supported by a theoretical model based on inelastic electron tunneling. Our findings introduce a new paradigm for exciton creation in van der Waals heterostructures and provide inspiration for a new class of optoelectronic devices in which the optically active material is separated from the electrical pathway

Highlighting a Key Question for the Common Agricultural Policy: Adoption of Agriculture System Types

One of the key questions that concerns policy makers, related to the long term planning of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), is the form of agriculture that farmers intend to follow in the future. In order to highlight that question, a sample of producers from the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Greece were surveyed and analyzed in order to identify and assess the factors that influence farmers’ adoption of organic, conventional or integrated agriculture systems. The paper methodologically applies double-valued logistic regressions, one for each form of agriculture, to the selected sample. Results indicate that producers' training and high awareness of CAPpolicies are positively correlated with the future adoption of organic farming systems, while the adoption of integrated agriculture depends on producers’ age as well as their positive or negative opinions regarding the conventional agricultural system

Deep Reinforcement Learning with semi-expert distillation for autonomous UAV cinematography

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones) have revolutionized modern media production. Being rapidly deployable “flying cameras”, they can easily capture aesthetically pleasing aerial footage of static or moving filming targets/subjects. Current approaches rely either on manual UAV/gimbal control by human experts or on a combination of complex computer vision algorithms and hardware configurations for automating the flight+flying process. This paper explores an efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) alternative, which implicitly merges the target detection and path planning steps into a single algorithm. To achieve this, a baseline DRL approach is augmented with a novel policy distillation component, which transfers knowledge from a suitable, semi-expert Model Predictive Control (MPC) controller into the DRL agent. Thus, the latter is able to autonomously execute a specific UAV cinematography task with purely visual input. Unlike the MPC controller, the proposed DRL agent does not need to know the 3D world position of the filming target during inference. Experiments conducted in a photorealistic simulator showcase superior performance and training speed compared to the baseline agent while surpassing the MPC controller in terms of visual occlusion avoidance

Self-care management, knowledge, self-efficacy for medication and Quality of Life in chronic heart failure patients

Background: The management of Heart Failure (HF) is the cornerstone for the appropriate therapy and the knowledge obtained concerning the disease is known to affect self-care behaviours. Aim: The aim was to test the association between self-care management, knowledge, self-efficacy for medication and quality of life in chronic HF patients.Material and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted and four questionnaires were used: Atlanta Heart Failure Knowledge Test (AHFK), Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (HMLHFQ), Self-Efficacy for Appropriate Medication Use Scale (SEAMS), European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale (EHFScBS-9). Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify independently associated variables with study subscales.Results: The sample consisted of 122 Heart Failure patients (102 men-20 women) with mean age 67.1 years (SD=12.3). Scores on Fluid and sodium management, Physical activity and recognition of deteriorating symptoms were  significantly greater  as compared with scores on Adhering to recommendations (p<0.001), indicating that the needs concerning Adhering to recommendations were greater.  Linear regression analyses showed that score on knowledge-test and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class were predictive of medication adherence factors. Better knowledge was associated with better medication adherence, while worse scores were found in subjects with NYHA class III or IV as compared to those with NYHA class I or II. Additionally, Knowledge and years of Education were associated with Self-care behaviour factors (β=0.44, SE=0.08, p<0.001). Conclusions: Patients at a higher level of HF knowledge show better adherence to the Medication. Self-care behavior and life quality are improved

Dual-function coatings to protect absorbent surfaces from fouling

Fouling of surfaces caused by pollution, contamination, humidity and microorganisms is one of the major sources of the degradation of mineral and composite materials. The inhibition of foulant growth is essential for the prevention of different kinds of damage, ranging from aesthetic, mechanical and chemical, to risks concerning human and environmental health. This study proposes a new approach for the development of a transparent preservative material with water-repellent and biocide attributes through the use of a sol-gel method. It was found that Si–O–Si dense networks can effectively grow into the micro-pores of mineral and cellulose-based materials, promoting self-cleaning properties as well as sufficient protection against bio-fouling

Artefact Appropriation in Facilitated Modelling: An Adaptive Structuration Theory Approach

Scholars have long acknowledged the importance of unveiling the black box of Operational Research (OR) practice. However, despite the emerging empirical studies in the area known as ‘Behavioural OR’, there is still a dearth of research into how artefacts are used at the micro-level of OR practice. This paper addresses this gap by using Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) to study the appropriation (use) of artefacts during a Facilitated Modelling (FM) workshop. We argue that the appropriation of artefacts from the workshop participants enables them to engage in negotiation of meaning with action implications effectively, but appropriation occurs at varying intensities (high, medium, low) depending on the issue of concern. Moreover, we identify that artefacts are reproduced if their reproduction is an aim or part of an aim of strategic discourse. Finally, we outline the limitations of our study and future research avenues

Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece

West Nile Virus (WNV) is the causative agent of a vector-borne, zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution. Recent expansion and introduction of WNV into new areas, including southern Europe, has been associated with severe disease in humans and equids, and has increased concerns regarding the need to prevent and control future WNV outbreaks. Since 2010, 524 confirmed human cases of the disease have been reported in Greece with greater than 10% mortality. Infected mosquitoes, wild birds, equids, and chickens have been detected and associated with human disease. The aim of our study was to establish a monitoring system with wild birds and reported human cases data using Geographical Information System (GIS). Potential distribution of WNV was modelled by combining wild bird serological surveillance data with environmental factors (e.g. elevation, slope, land use, vegetation density, temperature, precipitation indices, and population density). Local factors including areas of low altitude and proximity to water were important predictors of appearance of both human and wild bird cases (Odds Ratio = 1,001 95%CI = 0,723–1,386). Using GIS analysis, the identified risk factors were applied across Greece identifying the northern part of Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) western Greece and a number of Greek islands as being at highest risk of future outbreaks. The results of the analysis were evaluated and confirmed using the 161 reported human cases of the 2012 outbreak predicting correctly (Odds = 130/31 = 4,194 95%CI = 2,841–6,189) and more areas were identified for potential dispersion in the following years. Our approach verified that WNV risk can be modelled in a fast cost-effective way indicating high risk areas where prevention measures should be implemented in order to reduce the disease incidence

How to develop a national heart failure clinics network: a consensus document of the Hellenic Heart Failure Association

Heart failure (HF) is rapidly growing, conferring considerable mortality, morbidity, and costs. Dedicated HF clinics improve patient outcomes, and the development of a national HF clinics network aims at addressing this need at national level. Such a network should respect the existing health care infrastructures, and according to the capacities of hosting facilities, it can be organized into three levels. Establishing the continuous communication and interaction among the components of the network is crucial, while supportive actions that can enhance its efficiency include involvement of multidisciplinary health care professionals, use of structured HF-specific documents, such as discharge notes, patient information leaflets, and patient booklets, and implementation of an HF-specific electronic health care record and database platform