Focus on the Right of Children with Disabilities to Live in the Community

[Excerpt] The European Coalition for Community Living believes that all children have the right to live in the community and be included in society. However, this is far from reality for many children with disabilities. Across Europe, thousands of children with disabilities are placed in large residential institutions which are often situated in remote areas so that residents have little or no contact with the outside world. Thus these children are excluded from community life and separated from their families. It is unacceptable to place any child in such segregated environments. ECCL therefore considers that urgent action is required at all levels of government to ensure that appropriate quality community-based services and family supports are available as alternatives to these institutions

Detecting a signal in the noise : Monitoring the global spread of novel psychoactive substances using media and other open source information

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Date of Acceptance: 16/02/2015To determine the feasibility and utility of using media reports and other open-source information collected by the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN), an event-based surveillance system operated by the Public Health Agency of Canada, to rapidly detect clusters of adverse drug events associated with ‘novel psychoactive substances’ (NPS) at the international levelPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Successful, small scale, manufacturing from five European island regions

The support of the European Commission, through its Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational Training Action Programme, in this ongoing pilot project- MT/2002/B/F/139000- is gratefully acknowledged. This manual has been compiled by University of Malta Professor Godfrey Baldacchino (the NISSOS Project ideator and academic coordinator) with the kind support of the project’s 11 institutional partners, their delegates and associated support staff involved in the NISSOS Project. These are: Estonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Saaremaa Branch (Delegate: Tullio Liblik); Kuressaare College at Tallinn Technical University (Maret Pank); Åland Trade Association (Mika Lindfors & Johnny Mattson); Åland Polytechnic (Anna-Lena Freman, Christer Kullman & Thor-Bjorn Wik); Technological Institute of Iceland (Bjorn Gislason); Institute of Business Studies at the University of Iceland (Gylfi Dalmann Adalsteinsson); Foundation for Human Resources Development, Malta (Helga Ellul, Mario Grixti, Godwin Micallef, John Muscat Drago); Malta Enterprise (Karl Herrera); University of Malta (Roger Ellul Micallef, Saviour Rizzo); Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (Frank Edwards); the Highland Council of Scotland (Catriona Maclean; Lisa Stephen) and the UHI Millennium Institute, Scotland (Maggie Marr; Anne Marie McDairmid, Stephanie Tristam). Thanks also to the expert independent input of Joe Vella Bonnici (Malta), Ingi Runar Edvardsson (Iceland) and Tage Petersen (Denmark). The institutional support of the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is also acknowledged. Responsibility for the contents of this manual and any errors are those of the author and are not attributable to the European Commission or any of the specific NISSOS Project institutional partners.It is common knowledge nowadays that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are very important to economic growth. Their positive contribution is all the more evident in the context of massive lay-offs from large firms and especially appreciated in epochs of long term, structural unemployment. SMEs play an even more pronounced role in the case of very small islands, since the typical average enterprise size is even smaller than elsewhere. Manufacturing is also seen as an important contributor to economic growth and development. The factory has been a symbol of industrial progress for the last 200 years. Manufacturing creates many jobs, usually in large firms, develops technical skills, adds higher value to products and creates many supportive service industries. However, many handicaps can affect the set-up and operation of SMEs which are based in small island territories And are involved in manufacturing. How challenging are these handicaps? Can they be overcome? How? Can some small firms from small islands serve as models of successful export-oriented development? And if so, which? What would be their characteristics?peer-reviewe

Use of QSARs in international decision-making frameworks to predict health effects of chemical substances

This article is a review of the use of quantitative (and qualitative) structure-activity relationships (QSARs and SARs) by regulatory agencies and authorities to predict acute toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, and other health effects. A number of SAR and QSAR applications, by regulatory agencies and authorities, are reviewed. These include the use of simple QSAR analyses, as well as the use of multivariate QSARs, and a number of different expert system approaches

The European Road Map to a Zero Victim Target: The EC Mine Action Strategy and Multi Annual Indicative Programming 2005-2007

Outlines main aspects of EC mine action programming- development highlighted as key criteria. Emphasises that mine action is mainstreamed into wider EC programmes wherever possible

The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union.

Europe is a region of relatively high population density and productive agriculture subject to substantial government intervention under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Many habitats and species of high conservation interest have been created by the maintenance of agricultural practices over long periods. These practices are often no longer profitable, and nature conservation initiatives require government support to cover the cost for them to be continued. The CAP has been reformed both to reduce production of agricultural commodities at costs in excess of world prices and to establish incentives for landholders to adopt voluntary conservation measures. A separate nature conservation policy has established an extensive series of protected sites (Natura 2000) that has, as yet, failed to halt the loss of biodiversity. Additional broader scale approaches have been advocated for conservation in the wider landscape matrix, including the alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies, which remains a challenge. Possibilities for alignment include further shifting of funds from general support for farmers toward targeted payments for biodiversity goals at larger scales and adoption of an ecosystem approach. The European response to the competing demands for land resources may offer lessons globally as demands on rural land increase.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available fromWiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.1253

Will improving wastewater treatment impact shorebirds? Effects of sewage discharges on estuarine invertebrates and birds

Human communities often discharge wastewaters into estuaries, influencing their organic and pollutant loading, benthic community and trophic structure. The implementation of the Water Framework Directive has encouraged the treatment of wastewater discharges across European estuaries, but the implications for invertebrate and waterbird communities are poorly understood. We explore the effects of untreated sewage discharges on the distribution and abundance of foraging black-tailed godwits Limosa limosa and their main benthic prey (bivalves and polychaetes) on the Tejo estuary in Portugal, a major European Special Protection Area with ongoing wastewater improvements. Patches of mudflat in close proximity to sewage streams (70 m), and godwits foraging in these areas can attain the highest intake rates recorded for the estuary. However, high intake rates can also be attained on bivalve prey, and bivalve biomass and density increase slightly with distance from sewage streams. As the organic input from sewage outfalls influences invertebrate abundance and godwit foraging rates over relatively small areas, the ongoing implementation of a sewage treatment network on the Tejo estuary seems likely to have only a limited impact on the wintering godwit population. The localized effect of untreated sewage discharges on benthic communities suggests that the implications for predatory birds are relatively minor where alternative prey are available, but may be more severe in locations with more depauperate, polychaete-dominated invertebrate communities

Relationship between spatial proximity and travel-to-work distance : the effect of the compact city

In this paper, an assessment is made of the relationship between selected aspects of spatial proximity (density, diversity, minimum commuting distance, jobs-housing balance and job accessibility) and reported commuting distances in Flanders (Belgium). Results show that correlations may depend on the considered trip end. For example, a high residential density, a high degree of spatial diversity and a high level of job accessibility are all associated with a short commute by residents, while a high job density is associated with a long commute by employees. A jobs-housing balance close to one is associated with a short commute, both by residents and by employees. In general, it appears that the alleged sustainability benefits of the compact city model are still valid in a context of continuously expanding commuting trip lengths

Prevalence of Oral Pain and Barriers to use of Emergency Oral Care Facilities Among Adult Tanzanians.

Oral pain has been the major cause of the attendances in the dental clinics in Tanzania. Some patients postpone seeing the dentist for as long as two to five days. This study determines the prevalence of oral pain and barriers to use of emergency oral care in Tanzania. Questionnaire data were collected from 1,759 adult respondents aged 18 years and above. The study area covered six urban and eight rural study clusters, which had been selected using the WHO Pathfinder methodology. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify associations.\ud Forty two percent of the respondents had utilized the oral health care facilities sometimes in their lifetime. About 59% of the respondents revealed that they had suffered from oral pain and/or discomfort within the twelve months that preceded the study, but only 26.5% of these had sought treatment from oral health care facilities. The reasons for not seeking emergency care were: lack of money to pay for treatment (27.9%); self medication (17.6%); respondents thinking that pain would disappear with time (15.7%); and lack of money to pay for transport to the dental clinic (15.0%). Older adults were more likely to report that they had experienced oral pain during the last 12 months than the younger adults (OR = 1.57, CI 1.07-1.57, P < 0.001). Respondents from rural areas were more likely report dental clinics far from home (OR = 5.31, CI = 2.09-13.54, P < 0.001); self medication at home (OR = 3.65, CI = 2.25-5.94, P < 0.001); and being treated by traditional healer (OR = 5.31, CI = 2.25-12.49, P < 0.001) as reasons for not seeking emergency care from the oral health care facilities than their counterparts from urban areas. Oral pain and discomfort were prevalent among adult Tanzanians. Only a quarter of those who experienced oral pain or discomfort sought emergency oral care from oral health care facilities. Self medication was used as an alternative to using oral care facilities mainly by rural residents. Establishing oral care facilities in rural areas is recommended