Personalized health systems and active and healthy ageing research in the European Union: Current state-of-the-art and medical applications

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (s) ◽  
pp. 9-9
Author(s):  
N. Maglaveras

This is the first of two volumes arising from the ground-breaking New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme. While the Programme produced many scientific papers and several project-based books this is the only place where most of the projects are represented in specially commissioned chapters that not only report the key findings of each piece of research but also place those findings in a wider context. This volume covers a wide range of state-of-the-art research on ageing, with a specific focus on active and healthy ageing, design for ageing and global issues. Each chapter contains a summary of key findings. This book follows directly from the multi-disciplinary first volume in the Policy Press NDA Series, The New Science of Ageing.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3765
Author(s):  
Jarosław Brodny ◽  
Magdalena Tutak ◽  
Peter Bindzár

The global economic development is, to a great extent, dependent on access to large amounts of cheap energy sources. The growing social awareness of ecology and the enormous damage to the Earth’s ecosystem due to the production of energy from conventional sources have forced fundamental changes in the energy sector. Renewable energy is considered to be an opportunity for such changes. The current state of the art allows such changes to be made without restricting economic development. Therefore, activities related to the energy transition are being taken all over the world. The European Union has definitely managed to achieve the most tangible effects in this regard. This article presents the findings of the research aimed at presenting the current state of renewable energy in the European Union and analyzing the changes reported in this sector in the last decade. The research was carried out using a selected set of 11 indicators characterizing renewable energy in individual countries. These indicators were selected on the basis of literature review and own studies of the state of renewable energy and its development prospects. Based on these indicators, changes in the energy structure of individual European Union countries between 2008–2018 were determined. The study is divided into two main stages. The principal components analysis (PCA) was used for the first analysis. In turn, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was adopted to assess the level of renewable energy development in the European Union countries. Both these methods and the extended statistical analysis were applied to determine the state of renewable energy development in the European Union countries in the studied period and to divide the Member States into classes with different levels of development. The results of the study showed that the EU countries are characterized by significant differences in the development of RES during the period in question. The unquestionable leaders in this respect are Sweden, Austria, Finland, and Latvia. Based on the findings, it is possible to evaluate the effects of activities related to renewable energy development and to prepare assumptions for future activities. Additionally, both the research and its findings broaden the knowledge of the directions of renewable energy development in individual European Union countries. This is particularly important in the context of changes related to the need to reduce harmful substance emissions and the implementation of the European Green Deal idea.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Webb ◽  
W Palm ◽  
E van Ginneken ◽  
S Lessof ◽  
L Siciliani ◽  
...  

Abstract Background At the request of the European Commission, the Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the HSPM network have undertaken a study to explore gaps in universal health coverage in the European Union and increase the level of granularity in terms of areas or groups where accessibility is sub-optimal. Methods To explore these gaps more systematically a survey was developed based on the so-called cube model that comprises different dimensions determining health coverage, including population coverage, service coverage and cost coverage. In addition, access can also be hampered by other factors, which relate more to the physical availability of care, a person's ability to obtain necessary care or the attitude of the provider. The survey was sent to country contacts from the Health Systems and Policy Monitor network. Results Within the diversity of country cases found in the survey, the most significant barriers for accessing health care still seem to be associated with social and income status, rather than specific medical conditions. However, groups like mentally ill, homeless, frail elderly, undocumented migrants are more likely to face multiple layers of exclusion and complex barriers to access. Conclusions Health system interventions can close access gaps for these vulnerable groups and address inequities in access to care. Through detailed coverage design countries can indeed determine the extent to which financial hardship and catastrophic out-of-pocket spending can be prevented. Furthermore, scope exists to improve current data collection practice.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Vaccari ◽  
Cynthia H. Panagiotidis ◽  
Cristina Acin ◽  
Simone Peletto ◽  
Francis Barillet ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Paweł Turczyński ◽  

The coronavirus pandemic that hit the world in early 2020 has weakened Europe very severely. In the first period (January-February), the disease was often neglected, which allowed it to spread rapidly. In March, panic struck European societies, the health systems of many countries collapsed, and governments introduced drastic restrictions on civil liberties and on the functioning of the economy. The European Union, which was helpless in the first period, took steps in the spring to restore the European economy after the end of the epidemic.


2018 ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Anna Taranenko

Foreign policy as one of the key areas for the functioning of sovereign states is designed to protect their national interests and promote maintenance of the welfare of the population. For Ukraine, such vectors of foreign policy as European, Euro-Atlantic, Eurasian, Middle Eastern, and Asian are traditionally important. One of the main vectors of Ukraine's foreign policy at the current stage is integration into the European Union. At the same time, an extremely important task for Ukrainian diplomacy is countering Russian aggression, protection of the population in the East of the state and in the Crimea and the soonest possible resolution of the conflict in the Donbas region. Consequently, this topic is of considerable interest, and it is worth examining in detail the current state of Ukraine's foreign policy, in particular, in view of the current challenges of global and regional security. Analysis of foreign and Ukrainian sources on this topic indicates the interest of researchers in matters of foreign policy of Ukraine, as well as international conflicts and their settlement. The purpose of this article is to study the current state of Ukraine's foreign policy in the context of the current challenges of global and regional security. Based on the analysis, it was determined that at the current stage there is sufficient potential for further development of Ukraine's foreign policy, in particular in view of the current challenges of global and regional security. On the basis of the analysis, one can arrive at conclusions that among the successes of Ukraine's foreign policy in recent years one can mention withstanding Russian aggression, introduction of a visa-free regime with the European Union, further deepening of cooperation within the framework of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and deepening of Euro-Atlantic integration. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the effective use of the foreign policy resource to efficiently respond to the challenges of global and regional security. There are further prospects for research related to the effective resolution of international conflicts at the current stage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Lizbeth Uriarte-Miranda ◽  
Santiago-Omar Caballero-Morales ◽  
Jose-Luis Martinez-Flores ◽  
Patricia Cano-Olivos ◽  
Anastasia-Alexandrovna Akulova

Management of tire waste is an important aspect of sustainable development due to its environmental, economical and social impacts. Key aspects of Reverse Logistics (RL) and Green Logistics (GL), such as recycling, re-manufacturing and reusable packaging, can improve the management of tire waste and support sustainability. Although these processes have been performed with a high degree of efficiency in other countries such as Japan, Spain and Germany, the application in Mexico and Russia has faced setbacks due to the absence of guidelines regarding legislation, RL processes, and social responsibility. Within this context, the present work aims to develop an integrated RL model to improve on these processes by considering the RL models from Russia and Mexico. For this, a review focused on RL in Mexico, Russia, Japan and the European Union (EU) was performed. Hence, the integrated model considers regulations and policies performed in each country to assign responsibilities regarding RL processes for the management of tire waste. As discussed, the implementation of efficient RL processes for the management of tire waste depends of different social entities such as the user (customer), private and public companies, and manufacturing and state-of-the-art approaches to transform waste into different products (diversification) to consider the RL scheme as a total economic system.


Health Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (9) ◽  
pp. 1041
Author(s):  
Luigi Siciliani ◽  
Claudia Wild ◽  
Martin McKee ◽  
Dionne Kringos ◽  
Margaret M. Barry ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Silke Balzert ◽  
Thomas Burkhart ◽  
Dirk Werth ◽  
Michal Laclavík ◽  
Martin Šeleng ◽  
...  

More than 99% of European enterprises are SMEs. While collaboration with other enterprises provides potential for improving business performance, enterprise interoperability research has yet to produce results which can be used by SMEs without the need for high start-up costs (e.g. learning, infrastructure and installation costs). Therefore the Commius project (funded by the European Union) aims towards the development of such a “zero costs of entry” interoperability solution for SMEs, allowing them to reuse existing and familiar applications for electronic communication. This chapter provides an overview of the research field “Enterprise Interoperability.” Based on a four layer interoperability framework, this chapter will examine which technical, process-based and semantic solutions for enterprise interoperability are available at the moment and which strategic motives drive or prevail SMEs to engage in E-business activities.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1838
Author(s):  
Kenny Man ◽  
Mathieu Y. Brunet ◽  
Marie-Christine Jones ◽  
Sophie C. Cox

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as promising nanoscale therapeutics due to their intrinsic role as mediators of intercellular communication, regulating tissue development and homeostasis. The low immunogenicity and natural cell-targeting capabilities of EVs has led to extensive research investigating their potential as novel acellular tools for tissue regeneration or for the diagnosis of pathological conditions. However, the clinical use of EVs has been hindered by issues with yield and heterogeneity. From the modification of parental cells and naturally-derived vesicles to the development of artificial biomimetic nanoparticles or the functionalisation of biomaterials, a multitude of techniques have been employed to augment EVs therapeutic efficacy. This review will explore various engineering strategies that could promote EVs scalability and therapeutic effectiveness beyond their native utility. Herein, we highlight the current state-of-the-art EV-engineering techniques with discussion of opportunities and obstacles for each. This is synthesised into a guide for selecting a suitable strategy to maximise the potential efficacy of EVs as nanoscale therapeutics.


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