Country

During the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West famously interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for "Best Female Video." A year later both performers returned to the VMAs with songs that responded directly to the original incident. In the meantime, the U.S. media and record-buying public had come to interpret the original incident using the stock scripts and characters of what Linda Williams has called “U.S. racial melodrama,” the fact of which both performers seemed aware. In this way, the Swift-West “incident” had come to reflect and mimic larger racial tensions, especially between black men and white women, as they had specifically come to be understood and portrayed during the Obama presidency, which many commentators have hastily and incorrectly identified as a symptom of “post-racialism.” This essay discusses how Kanye West and Taylor Swift reflect on and revise the tropes of racial melodrama, in the latter case to reinforce what Charles Mills calls "the epistemology of ignorance" when it comes to racism in America, and in the former case to challenge it.

In the aftermath of World War II, the world's economies exhibited very different rates of economic recovery. We provide evidence that those countries that caught up the most with the U.S. in the postwar period are those that also saw an acceleration in the speed of adoption of new technologies. This acceleration is correlated with the incidence of U.S. economic aid and technical assistance in the same period. We interpret this as supportive of the interpretation that technology transfers from the U.S. to Western European countries and Japan were an important factor in driving growth in these recipient countries during the postwar decades.

Hip-Hop and Country musicians concurrently create culture while being affected by the specific subculture of their sociolects and communities. Within these specific speech communities, language is a vital part of constructing reality; of showing class values; and of defining who is 'in' and who is not -often in terms of being in opposition to and standing apart from mainstream society. Inclusion in the Hip-Hop and Country subcultures indicates a delineating boundary of authenticity, which clearly suggests that there are others who are therefore not 'authentic' and must be excluded. Members view their group as separate and work to maintain the boundary from the other, from the majority. In the sociolinguistic exploration of Hip-Hop and Country communities, there are five major themes that will be considered: Legitimacy, Commodification & Globalization, Boundary Margins, Sexuality, and Rebellion -giving prominence to the social context of language use rather than to purely lexical considerations within the two communities.

This article argues for a new kind of country study, now more than ever needed for international understanding. Like an ecosystem, or the human brain, each and every nation-state is a system of systems, a dynamic composite of many interconnected subsystems. So its complexity should be studied accordingly, that is to say, by scientists willing to cooperate and using the latest in system analysis, computer science, and informatics. In order to comprehend the complexity of countries, one-sidedness – no matter its disguise – should be avoided. 'Connect!' is the call on scientists interested in the study of a particular country.

Metaverse, the definition of the new virtual world, is defined as the new generation of internet life. It is a place that allows transitioning to virtual worlds created over the Internet; however, it is where each individual can express himself through digital avatars. Just as users can express themselves in the physical world, they can communicate and collaborate in this new virtual world. There is no longer a need for individuals to come face to face and do activities outside. The new world order after Covid-19
is now the period when virtual associations and virtual interactions reach the highest level. However, the Metaverse universe is a place where people interact with each other and a place where they can buy land virtually. Each country has virtual lands sold on specific platforms. In this study, the minimum floor area prices of 194 countries around the world were determined, and the estimation of the increase rates after 2022 was analyzed with K-NN, one of the machine learning algorithms.

From. .. a post-modern perspective landscape seems less like a palimpsest whose "real" or "authentic" meanings can somehow be recovered with the correct techniques, theories or ideologies, than a flickering text displayed on the wordprocessor screen whose meaning can be created, extended, altered, elaborated and finally obliterated by the merest touch of a button. (Daniels and Cosgrove 1988:8) ith these words t w o present-day geographers envision the virtual reality W o f postmodern landscape. This melting of landscape into cybertextual space is the most recent step in its disciplinary dematerialization. Richard Hartshorne helped set this in motion when he dismissed landscape as the central organizing concept o f geography, and supported, instead, a geographical science of space in which regions are mental construc

Patent documents are one of the most comprehensive data sources on technology development. As such, they provide a unique source of information to analyze and monitor technological performance. Patent indicators are now used by companies and by policy and government agencies alike to assess technological progress on the level of regions, countries, domains, and even specific entities such as companies,

Critiquing the usefulness of cosmopolitanism this paper argues that we need a more nuanced and subtle understanding of how commonalities are found, created and maintained across difference. This paper uses two juxtapositions of perspective (around place and environment) to explore how such boundaries of difference can be negotiated. It uses an examination of the ways in which environmental groups in Australia have sought to negotiate Indigenous interests through creating spaces of dialogue and changing working practices. It is based on thirty interviews with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists across two case regions; Cape York (Queensland) and Barmah-Millewa (Victoria/New South Wales). Four issues were identified that have proved particularly contentious in negotiations to build collaborative campaigns: language; power and ownership; scale and timeframes; and economics. There are examples of both successes and ongoing problematic practices across these tensions. However there is also a growing mutual ownership of the issues. Moving beyond a colonial paternal sense of responsibility, to a dynamic and engaged mutuality of concern for both processes and outcomes has resulted in gradual, small, and progressive steps forward in Indigenous/ non-Indigenous collaborative environmental campaigning.

This paper advances scholarship on ‘lesbian and gay rural idylls’. A growing literature examines how ‘lesbian and gay rural idylls’ are not only produced in opposition to the urban, but are themselves urban constructs. We extend these contentions by exploring the processes of idyllisation suffusing lesbian and gay festival tourism in Daylesford, a town in non-metropolitan Victoria, Australia. We find that Daylesford’s idyllisation by the lesbian and gay tourism industry blurs the urban/rural binary, and instead hybridises rurality and urbanity in the tourism images and practices of ‘cosmopolitan country’ associated with the town. Research findings from Daylesford are analysed to examine how the dynamics of tourism marketing and festival attendance help produce and articulate this hybrid variant of the ‘lesbian and gay rural idyll’. We utilise two sets of mostly qualitative data for this inquiry: travel commentaries in the news media, and a survey conducted in Daylesford at the 2006 ChillOut Festival, Australia’s largest lesbian and gay rural festival.► We advance understanding of idyllic ruralities as social constructions. ► Our case study is the lesbian and gay ChillOut Festival in Daylesford, Australia. ► Festival tourism constructs Daylesford as a ‘lesbian and gay rural idyll’. ► Significantly, Daylesford’s idyllisation hybridises rurality and urbanity. ► We denote this hybrid ‘lesbian and gay rural idyll’ as ‘cosmopolitan country’.

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across twenty countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the heterogeneity in the spread of performance in these sectors. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government, family, and founder owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with improvements in incentive management practices such as performance based promotion.

Background: Migrant studies offer a unique opportunity to analyze variation in disease occurrence due to background factors. The role of environmental and lifestyle exposures are of particular interest in cancer research, and migrant studies can be considered as "natural experiments" in epidemiological research. Large numbers of immigrants from different regions of the world and the availability of comprehensive demographic and health-related registers in Sweden have prompted us to conduct migrant studies on the epidemiology of cancer. Breast cancer and genital tract cancers were selected for study since the role of environmental and lifestyle risk factors are debated for these disorders. Objectives: To compare the risk and survival of the female breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers and male prostate and testicular cancers among immigrants to those among Swedish-born individuals to elucidate the importance and the potential timing of environmental and genetic factors in cancer etiology. Methods: We established different cohorts by linkages between Swedish national registers, including Cancer and Cause of Death registers, through personal identity number. The main exposure variable was country of birth with Swedish-born persons with both parents born in Sweden as reference group. Each cohort was followed from start date of follow-up period, date of birth or first immigration date, whichever occurred last, until exit date from the cohort, which was diagnosis of primary outcomes of interest, first emigration, or end of follow-up, whichever came first. We calculated incidence rate ratios and hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals adjusted for age and calendar period of follow-up using Poisson and Cox proportional hazards regression models. Results: First-generation immigrants in Sweden had an overall lower risk of cancers studied compared with Swedish-born people. However, we found remarkable variations in cancer risks and survival by country of birth. Age at immigration and duration of residence of first-generation immigrants were important factors affecting risk of cervical, breast, prostate, and testis seminomas. An increasing trend in incidence of prostate cancer among first-generation immigrants similar to either Sweden or country of birth was observed. Secondgeneration immigrants showed a risk converging toward the risk in Sweden for testicular and breast cancers. Education, as an indicator of socio-economic position, differentially affected the risk of cervical cancer among first-generation immigrants and Swedish-born women. Among both immigrants and Swedish-born women, breast cancer risk increased, while its mortality decreased with increasing level of education. Conclusions: Country of birth was a major determinant for cancer risk. Variation of risk by age at immigration or duration of residence highlights the effect of environmental and lifestyle factors on cancer risk. The observed patterns of prostate cancer risk imply the importance of both genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of this cancer. Patterns of testicular cancer risk indicate the importance of early environmental risk factors acting even after the intrauterine period.

The birth of the Peruvian republican iconography is intimately related to the Independence Declaration in 1821, moment from which different symbols to the colonial ones are required to be diffused in the collective imaginary in order to transmit diametrically different messages. To achieve this objective, the governmental authorities as well as private initiatives make use of diverse disciplines and mass media. Though to the date the initial iconography is maintained, this has been reinforced through the history with new necessary contributions due to a variety of political joints through which the country has gone through in its almost 200 years of republican life, always searching to achieve cohesion and national identity. KEY WORDS: Peruvian iconography; country; symbols; Peru 19th century and 20 th; peruvian art. Nº 1260 IDENTIDAD, IDEOLOGÍA E ICONOGRAFÍA REPUBLICANA EN EL PERÚ

Background: Migrant studies offer a unique opportunity to analyze variation in disease occurrence due to background factors. The role of environmental and lifestyle exposures are of particular interest in cancer research, and migrant studies can be considered as "natural experiments" in epidemiological research. Large numbers of immigrants from different regions of the world and the availability of comprehensive demographic and health-related registers in Sweden have prompted us to conduct migrant studies on the epidemiology of cancer. Breast cancer and genital tract cancers were selected for study since the role of environmental and lifestyle risk factors are debated for these disorders. Objectives: To compare the risk and survival of the female breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers and male prostate and testicular cancers among immigrants to those among Swedish-born individuals to elucidate the importance and the potential timing of environmental and genetic factors in cancer etiology. Methods: We established different cohorts by linkages between Swedish national registers, including Cancer and Cause of Death registers, through personal identity number. The main exposure variable was country of birth with Swedish-born persons with both parents born in Sweden as reference group. Each cohort was followed from start date of follow-up period, date of birth or first immigration date, whichever occurred last, until exit date from the cohort, which was diagnosis of primary outcomes of interest, first emigration, or end of follow-up, whichever came first. We calculated incidence rate ratios and hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals adjusted for age and calendar period of follow-up using Poisson and Cox proportional hazards regression models. Results: First-generation immigrants in Sweden had an overall lower risk of cancers studied compared with Swedish-born people. However, we found remarkable variations in cancer risks and survival by country of birth. Age at immigration and duration of residence of first-generation immigrants were important factors affecting risk of cervical, breast, prostate, and testis seminomas. An increasing trend in incidence of prostate cancer among first-generation immigrants similar to either Sweden or country of birth was observed. Secondgeneration immigrants showed a risk converging toward the risk in Sweden for testicular and breast cancers. Education, as an indicator of socio-economic position, differentially affected the risk of cervical cancer among first-generation immigrants and Swedish-born women. Among both immigrants and Swedish-born women, breast cancer risk increased, while its mortality decreased with increasing level of education. Conclusions: Country of birth was a major determinant for cancer risk. Variation of risk by age at immigration or duration of residence highlights the effect of environmental and lifestyle factors on cancer risk. The observed patterns of prostate cancer risk imply the importance of both genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of this cancer. Patterns of testicular cancer risk indicate the importance of early environmental risk factors acting even after the intrauterine period.

There is hardly any aspect of life without the involvement of any of the diverse arrays of styles existing in Nigerian popular music scene. The appeal of this genre cuts across class, ethnicity, age, sex and faith, thus affecting millions of lives. Consequently, the contribution of Nigerian popular music cannot be quantified. This paper examines the trend in the evolution of popular music, the challenges faced by the music industry, the role and contributions of popular music in development, and finally makes recommendations for the optimal development of the industry. Among other findings, the study revealed that the most successful compositions are those whose lyrics capture the concerns and are involved in the development of the society. Hence gospel musicians have more patronage than other types of popular music. Popular music which the populace from diverse affiliations and background identifies with, helps create new identities and forge broad cultural solidarity which contrib...

Ethnographic representations of the country and the city in India have changed drastically in the last hundred years. Pre-Independence ethnographies of India focused primarily on the village as a self contained and self-sustaining unit, and connections to the outside world were left largely unexamined. With Indian Independence in 1947, the village became a site of rapid change, and the city began to figure as the source of that transformation. Urban-rural interactions became key to understanding the social, economic, and political transformations ethnographers were attempting to explain. In the tradition of Raymond Williams' The Country and the City (1973), this paper explores the emerging relationship between urban and rural India as witnessed through mid-20th century ethnographic representations of village India. In engaging these ethnographies both as sources of empirical evidence and particular forms of knowledge production, this paper gives historical context to conceptuali...

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across twenty countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the heterogeneity in the spread of performance in these sectors. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government, family, and founder owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with improvements in incentive management practices such as performance based promotion.

« Vivre et travailler au pays » est un slogan qui a eu, en France, un grand succès dans les années 1970. Deux décennies plus tard, le Parlement français a discuté de l’idée d’inscrire dans la loi des « pays ». Mais une telle conception peut-elle valoir pour la région Île-de-France ?
["Living and working in the country" is a slogan that has been in France a success in the years 1970. Two decades later, the French Parliament discussed the idea of including in the law "countries". But can such a view argue for the Ile-de-France re-gion?]

Southern Zagros mountainous region which is the country (Yelagh as local name) for Bakhtiari and a few of Qashqayi tribes, is resided during spring and summer due to suitable geographical and climate conditions such as sufficient water supplies, acceptable pastures and timing for the growth of plants. The mentioned tribes spend their winter quarters during fall and winter in some regions in the Khuzestan and the Fars provinces. In the country regions, the immigrants choose specific places to reside and camp depending on the climate conditions, the level of security for the people and the herd, protection from wind and raining, access to water supplies, and growth of plants in the pastures. This study aims to identify the ancient ways of choosing the locations for camping in the country regions and show where campsites can be easily located. This will be achieved through the Middle Range Theory (MRT) by studying and evaluating modern pastoral groups.

The study built the e-teaching capacity of TVET lecturers to cushion the effect of covid-19 and other future pandemics on tertiary education system of low and middle income countries. Four research questions were posed while the null hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was employed by the study. The population for the study was 430 comprising information and communication technology experts, telecommunication/computer engineers, computer science and education lecturers at Management Information Systems, ICT centres and Departments of computer science and computer education of the participated universities. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from the respondents. The questionnaire was validated by 20 experts while the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach alpha reliability method and 0.86 reliability coef icient was obtained. The finding of the study revealed that 21 competencies were required for effective planning of e-teaching;28 facilities/equipment were required for building the e-teaching capacity of the universities, 45 skills were required for operating and troubleshooting e-teaching facilities and 5 attitudinal management skills were required in using e-teaching. Recommendations include that all the skills and competency items determined should be employed to prepare TVET lecturers and support staf for effective e-teaching, the determined facilities and equipment should be used by relevant bodies including university administrators to setup e-teaching platform

The study built the e-teaching capacity of TVET lecturers to cushion the effect of covid-19 and other future pandemics on tertiary education system of low and middle income countries. Four research questions were posed while the null hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was employed by the study. The population for the study was 430 comprising information and communication technology experts, telecommunication/computer engineers, computer science and education lecturers at Management Information Systems, ICT centres and Departments of computer science and computer education of the participated universities. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from the respondents. The questionnaire was validated by 20 experts while the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach alpha reliability method and 0.86 reliability coefficient was obtained. The finding of the study revealed that 21 competencies were required for effective planning of e-teaching;28 facilities/equipment were required for building the e-teaching capacity of the universities, 45 skills were required for operating and troubleshooting e-teaching facilities and 5 attitudinal management skills were required in using e-teaching. Recommendations include that all the skills and competency items determined should be employed to prepare TVET lecturers and support staff for effective e-teaching, the determined facilities and equipment should be used by relevant bodies including university administrators to setup e-teaching platform

In April 1994, genocide erupted in Rwanda with an unprecedented ferocity. Over the course of 100 days, more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed. A major contributor to the violence was an intense propaganda campaign that dehumanised and demonised the Tutsi minority prior to and during the genocide. This propaganda presented the Tutsi as foreign and feudal oppressors, who would again oppress the Hutu majority as they had in the past if they were not targeted for extermination. Such dubious representations of history have deep roots in Rwanda, which can be traced to the early colonial period. This article will explore three examples of the way in which history has been represented and misrepresented in Rwanda, spanning from colonial to contemporary periods. It will consider how key stakeholders have sometimes portrayed Rwanda's history in skewed and inaccurate ways, and the profound impact this has had on ethnic divisions within the country. Moreover, it will examine how misrepresentations of Rwanda's history are continuing in the post-genocide period. It is only through interrogating (mis)representations of Rwanda's history that the political agendas that have and continue to shape them can be exposed and challenged.

Resumen
El 16 de abril de 2016, cerca de las 19h00, tuvo lugar un terremoto frente a las costas del Ecuador. Al día siguiente, para Manabí, Esmeraldas y el resto del país, todo fue distinto. Desde el ámbito de la contratación pública, mucho trecho tuvo que transcurrir para que se pueda reconstruir lo devastado. A más de un año transcurrido, se analiza cómo se procedió al amparo los procedimientos de contratación por emergencia; las actuaciones de la administración pública y sus funcionarios dentro de un estado de excepción, para finalmente verificar su reparación integral.

ABSTRACT
On Saturday, April 16, 2016, around 19h00, the earthquake started in front of the Ecuador coasts. The next day was different for Esmeraldas, Manabí and the whole country. Talking about public procurement, takes too long to rebuild the devastated areas. A year later, was analyzed how to proceeded in the emergency; the actions of the public administration and its officials in a state of emergency and verify the integral reparation.

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across twenty countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the heterogeneity in the spread of performance in these sectors. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government, family, and founder owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with improvements in incentive management practices such as performance based promotion.

Aircraft is known as the most effective means transportation at this time. Start in terms of safety, comfort, economy, and the time when compared with other means of transportation such as land and sea transportation. By using aircraft, as if there are no more boundaries between regions of the country to another. Since the number of positive benefits, then the air transport becomes very important in human life and even the country. One country to enter into agreements with other countries by exchanging the rights of freedom in the air. ASEAN Open Sky is one form of multilateral agreements between countries which aims to realize the ASEAN aviation liberalization in the ASEAN region. The liberalization of the concept will be realized in 2015. It is expected there will be positive impacts for Indonesia and ASEAN by following the liberalization of the flight. For negative impacts, Indonesia and other ASEAN countries are required to start paying attention and taking into account all possibilities that will happen, so that negative impacts can be avoided and it can be turned into a positive impact. Abstrak : Pesawat udara dikenal sebagai alat transportasi yang paling efektif saat ini. Mulai dari segi keamanan, kenyamanan, ekonomi, dan waktu jika dibandingkan dengan alat transportasi lainnya seperti alat transportasi darat ataupun laut. Dengan menggunakan pesawat udara, seakan-akan tidak ada lagi batas antarwilayah negara yang satu dengan yang lainnya. Karena banyaknya manfaat positif tersebut, maka angkutan udara menjadi sangat penting di dalam kehidupan manusia dan bahkan negara. Negara yang satu melakukan perjanjian dengan negara lainnya dengan mempertukarkan hak-hak kebebasan di udara. ASEAN Open Sky merupakan salah satu bentuk perjanjian multilateral antarnegara ASEAN yang bertujuan untuk mewujudkan liberalisasi penerbangan di wilayah ASEAN. Konsep liberalisasi tersebut akan diwujudkan pada tahun 2015 nanti. Diharapkan akan timbul dampak-dampak positif bagi Indonesia dan ASEAN

Foreign policy is a policy created and owned by every country, but every foreign policy is different in each country, this policy is made to regulate every relationship or cooperation that occurs between countries with policies that exist in the political, economic, military and social fields. Foreign policy also regulates how a country interacts in shaping cooperation or relations between countries and policies in the political, economic, military, and social fields. Foreign policy also regulates how a country interacts in forming cooperation or relations between countries or with actors of non-state organizations. Basically, foreign policy is issued with the aim of benefiting his country.

RESUMEN: Podemos notar que Gilles Deleuze es reacio a establecer una tradición de la «Historia de la Filosofía» que nos conduzca a su origen grande: Grecia. Sin embargo, sí cabe para el filósofo una recuperación de una filosofía singular griega: la filosofía estoica. Aquella que se propone como corriente «menor» y creativa. Corriente que, simplemente, defiende los derechos y la fragilidad de la potencia. La potencia del Acontecimiento. De esta tradición Deleuze recupera toda su ética, ya que tanto sus condiciones como sus planteamientos son aplicables a nuestra actualidad y a nuestros problemas. ¿Cómo establecer una ética en un mundo como el nuestro, tan parecido a aquel del helenismo? ¿Cómo evitar las soluciones universalistas tanto como las relativistas que esgrimen las éticas «mayores» también en nuestra actualidad?

Hip-Hop and Country musicians concurrently create culture while being affected by the specific subculture of their sociolects and communities. Within these specific speech communities, language is a vital part of constructing reality; of showing class values; and of defining who is 'in' and who is not -often in terms of being in opposition to and standing apart from mainstream society. Inclusion in the Hip-Hop and Country subcultures indicates a delineating boundary of authenticity, which clearly suggests that there are others who are therefore not 'authentic' and must be excluded. Members view their group as separate and work to maintain the boundary from the other, from the majority. In the sociolinguistic exploration of Hip-Hop and Country communities, there are five major themes that will be considered: Legitimacy, Commodification & Globalization, Boundary Margins, Sexuality, and Rebellion -giving prominence to the social context of language use rather than to purely lexical considerations within the two communities.

Regina Hofmann-de Keijzer* and Anna Hartl Department of Archaeometry University of Applied Arts Vienna Salzgries 14/1 A-1013 Vienna Austria Fax: +43-1-71133-4829 E-mail: [email protected] ... Maarten R van Bommel and Ineke Joosten Netherlands ...

This paper proposes a framework to account for innovation similar to the usual accounting framework in production analysis and a measure of innovativity comparable to that of total factor productivity. This innovation accounting framework is illustrated using micro-aggregated firm data from the first Community Innovation Surveys (CIS1) for seven European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Italy for the year 1992. Based on the estimation of a generalized Tobit model and measuring innovation as the share of total sales due to improved or new products, it compares the propensity to innovate, and the innovation intensity conditional and unconditional on being innovative across the seven countries and between low-and high-tech manufacturing sectors. Even with relatively few explanatory variables our innovation framework already accounts for sizeable differences in country innovation intensity. It also shows, however, that differences in innovativity across countries can be quite sizeable as well. Deleted: , Deleted: As it stands Deleted: country 1 There have been a number of more or less similar surveys conducted earlier, focusing on particular aspects of firm innovation process. Probably the best known are the one conducted by the Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU) of the University of Sussex, which combined information on specific innovations obtained from firms and from a panel of experts, the Yale survey on appropriability, and more recently the Carnegie-Mellon survey. See for example Robson, Townsend and Pavitt (1988), and Geroski, Van Reenen and Walters (1997) for analyses based on the SPRU innovation data; Levin, Klevorick, Nelson and Winter (1987) and Cockburn and Griliches (1988) for analyses based on the Yale survey data; Cohen, Nelson and Walsh (2000) and Arora, Ceccagnoli and Cohen (2003) for analyses based on the Carnegie-Mellon survey.

This field study invesƟgated food biosecurity pracƟces in private country clubs in the Midwestern United States. Interviews with managers and observaƟons of actual operaƟonal pracƟces were conducted to idenƟfy areas in country clubs that could be at potenƟal risk of a bioterrorist aƩack. Cost and lack of need were idenƟfied as barriers to implemenƟng a food defense management plan. Background checks and good employment pracƟces were perceived as effecƟve in increasing food biosecurity in clubs. RecommendaƟons to improve food biosecurity in country clubs included background checks for all employees, securing access to chemicals, and issuing idenƟficaƟon badges to all employees.

AimTo compare the clinical management of typical scenarios by using three case vignettes in a substantial number of European countries.MethodThree case vignettes and an associated questionnaire, filled in and finalised by at least two experts from each country.ResultsLegislation and clinical practice varies widely across the 16 included countries. No specific pattern emerged. Certain practices (intravenous medication, mechanical restraint, net beds and forensic transfers, respectively) only exist in few countries. Legislation for involuntary medication is most restrictive in the Netherlands.ConclusionsThere is little harmonisation and a lack of consistent standards within and across European countries regarding treatment and management of violent patients.

Mobile phones' exponential growth is fuelling the emergence of mobile health (mHealth), thus contributing to healthcare services' innovative transformation in developing countries. mHealth's ubiquitous personalised capabilities obviate the access barriers and dismal performance of conventional systems, therefore gaining popularity among patients. Researchers have focused on service quality-a vital element of service adoption-and sustainability. For mHealth to become a robust alternative, how patients perceive mHealth vis-à-vis conventional services must be understood. Comparative analysis studies between mHealth and conventional systems are scarce yet would contribute to theory and strengthen the antecedent phases to service quality, that is, design and operation. mHealth is a viable alternative for fulfiling the unmet goal of quality of life for all. Prompted by these insights, this study is the first attempt to discover the differentiating characteristics of mHealth. Patients' perceptions were analyzed by multiple discriminant analysis, a classification technique. The findings show that, in distinguishing between healthcare services, mHealth is a favourable alternative: service differentiation occurs along the dimensions of ubiquity, information-quality, and value. The findings' implications for theory and practice and future research guidelines are also discussed.