A challenge for S&T indicators: measuring the ERA as a European Integration of Research and Innovation Systems

This contribution provides brief descriptions the current status of the basic Monte Carlo event generators for top-quark production and decays.Comment: Talk given at "TOP 2006", Coimbra, Portugal, January 12-15, 20

Measuring the integration and coordination dynamics of the European Research Area

This paper is concerned with the reconfiguration of national research and innovation (R&I) systems towards a European Research Area (ERA). We conceptualise R&I activities as either: integrated at European level, coordinated with other European partners or nationally juxtaposed. Such a conceptualisation can be usefully applied to the measurement of progress towards the ERA along the lines of: providing orientation for R&I, programming and funding of R&I, and performing R&I. Based on a newly constructed set of indicators, and using purpose-collected budgetary data from major pan-European R&D initiatives and other R&D statistics, we apply this framework empirically to the process of Europeanisation of publicly funded R&I. Our estimates show that Europeanisation of R&I has increased substantially over the past ten years. Europe has entered a new phase of Europeanisation of R&I, a phase that opens up the opportunity to achieve a further intensification of Europeanised R&I.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

High Risk of Anal and Rectal Cancer in Patients With Anal and/or Perianal Crohn’s Disease

International audienceBackground & AimsLittle is known about the magnitude of the risk of anal and rectal cancer in patients with anal and/or perineal Crohn’s disease. We aimed to assess the risk of anal and rectal cancer in patients with Crohn’s perianal disease followed up in the Cancers Et Surrisque Associé aux Maladies Inflammatoires Intestinales En France (CESAME) cohort.MethodsWe collected data from 19,486 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) enrolled in the observational CESAME study in France, from May 2004 through June 2005; 14.9% of participants had past or current anal and/or perianal Crohn’s disease. Subjects were followed up for a median time of 35 months (interquartile range, 29–40 mo). To identify risk factors for anal cancer in the total CESAME population, we performed a case-control study in which participants were matched for age and sex.ResultsAmong the total IBD population, 8 patients developed anal cancer and 14 patients developed rectal cancer. In the subgroup of 2911 patients with past or current anal and/or perianal Crohn’s lesions at cohort entry, 2 developed anal squamous-cell carcinoma, 3 developed perianal fistula–related adenocarcinoma, and 6 developed rectal cancer. The corresponding incidence rates were 0.26 per 1000 patient-years for anal squamous-cell carcinoma, 0.38 per 1000 patient-years for perianal fistula–related adenocarcinoma, and 0.77 per 1000 patient-years for rectal cancer. Among the 16,575 patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease without anal or perianal lesions, the incidence rate of anal cancer was 0.08 per 1000 patient-years and of rectal cancer was 0.21 per 1000 patient-years. Among factors tested by univariate conditional regression (IBD subtype, disease duration, exposure to immune-suppressive therapy, presence of past or current anal and/or perianal lesions), the presence of past or current anal and/or perianal lesions at cohort entry was the only factor significantly associated with development of anal cancer (odds ratio, 11.2; 95% CI, 1.18-551.51; P = .03).ConclusionsIn an analysis of data from the CESAME cohort in France, patients with anal and/or perianal Crohn’s disease have a high risk of anal cancer, including perianal fistula–related cancer, and a high risk of rectal cancer