Does the European Union create the foundations of an information society for all? Bruges European Economic Policy (BEEP) Briefing 11/2005

In order to increase the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the European Union Member States, the European Commission, on the initiative of Commissioner E. Liikannen, launched in December 1999 a bold programme called “eEurope”. Soon after its creation, the eEurope programme was integrated into the so- called Lisbon agenda for Europe to become the “most advanced knowledge based economy” in the world. We try to assess if the programme is successful in achieving its stated objective of promoting a knowledge based economy through the development of an “information society for all”. First, we conclude that eEurope, due to its origins and its procedures, has intrinsic limits both as regards its scope and effectiveness. Second, we show how Member States have adopted different trajectories towards the “knowledge based society”. To identify these heterogeneous paths of growth, we have selected a set of variables that, combined together, represent the institutional arrangements specific to a country or a group of countries. We found sharp differences between two advanced models that we label, respectively, as Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. Without asserting the superiority of a model, we propose policy orientations to help Europe overcome those gaps hindering the move towards knowledge economies where information society technologies are widely diffused.

Short structured feedback training is equivalent to a mechanical feedback device in two-rescuer BLS: a randomised simulation study.

BACKGROUND Resuscitation guidelines encourage the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) feedback devices implying better outcomes after sudden cardiac arrest. Whether effective continuous feedback could also be given verbally by a second rescuer ("human feedback") has not been investigated yet. We, therefore, compared the effect of human feedback to a CPR feedback device. METHODS In an open, prospective, randomised, controlled trial, we compared CPR performance of three groups of medical students in a two-rescuer scenario. Group "sCPR" was taught standard BLS without continuous feedback, serving as control. Group "mfCPR" was taught BLS with mechanical audio-visual feedback (HeartStart MRx with Q-CPR-Technology™). Group "hfCPR" was taught standard BLS with human feedback. Afterwards, 326 medical students performed two-rescuer BLS on a manikin for 8 min. CPR quality parameters, such as "effective compression ratio" (ECR: compressions with correct hand position, depth and complete decompression multiplied by flow-time fraction), and other compression, ventilation and time-related parameters were assessed for all groups. RESULTS ECR was comparable between the hfCPR and the mfCPR group (0.33 vs. 0.35, p = 0.435). The hfCPR group needed less time until starting chest compressions (2 vs. 8 s, p < 0.001) and showed fewer incorrect decompressions (26 vs. 33 %, p = 0.044). On the other hand, absolute hands-off time was higher in the hfCPR group (67 vs. 60 s, p = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS The quality of CPR with human feedback or by using a mechanical audio-visual feedback device was similar. Further studies should investigate whether extended human feedback training could further increase CPR quality at comparable costs for training.

Results of a sediment profile and water analyses from Lake Hancza in northeastern Poland

We investigated the sedimentary record of Lake Hancza (northeastern Poland) using a multi-proxy approach, focusing on early to mid-Holocene climatic and environmental changes. AMS 14C dating of terrestrial macrofossils and sedimentation rate estimates from occasional varve thickness measurements were used to establish a chronology. The onset of the Holocene at c. 11600 cal. a BP is marked by the decline of Lateglacial shrub vegetation and a shift from clastic-detrital deposition to an autochthonous sedimentation dominated by biochemical calcite precipitation. Between 10000 and 9000 cal. a BP, a further environmental and climatic improvement is indicated by the spread of deciduous forests, an increase in lake organic matter and a 1.7% rise in the oxygen isotope ratios of both endogenic calcite and ostracod valves. Rising d18O values were probably caused by a combination of hydrological and climatic factors. The persistence of relatively cold and dry climate conditions in northeastern Poland during the first one and a half millennia of the Holocene could be related to a regional eastern European atmospheric circulation pattern. Prevailing anticyclonic circulation linked to a high-pressure cell above the retreating Scandinavian Ice Sheet might have blocked the influence of warm and moist Westerlies and attenuated the early Holocene climatic amelioration in the Lake Hancza region until the final decay of the ice sheet.

Age determinations for ODP Sites in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea

Records of biogenic and terrigenous components have been obtained from the interval corresponding to the last 2.6 m.y. of ODP Sites 643 and 644 in order to reconstruct surface and deep water regimes in the Norwegian Sea. Surface water regimes record long lasting moderate glacial conditions during the interval 2.6 1.0 Ma. Small intrusions of Atlantic water episodically penetrated into the Norwegian Sea forming a narrow tongue along the eastern margin, which is documented at Site 644. The polar front was most probably situated between the Site 644 and 643 locations on the outer Voring Plateau during these time intervals. Deep water regimes reflect long-term persistent corrosive bottom waters, most probably due to a weakly undersaturated water column and a low rate of carbonate shell production in surface waters. Deep water production in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea may have operated in a different way, e.g. brine formation during winter sea ice growth. Bottom waters were oxygenated throughout the entire period, and deep water was exchanged persistently with the North Atlantic. Increased glacial/interglacial enviromental contrasts are documented, reflecting a strengthening of the Norwegian Current and intensified glaciations on the surrounding land masses during the interval 1.0 0.6 Ma. During this time a major shift in the mode of deep water production occurred. Tile onset of large amplitudes in glacial/interglacial environmental conditions with maximum contrasts in surface water regimes, different modes of deep water production, and intensified exchange with the North Atlantic marks the last 0.6 Ma. A broad development of the Norwegian Current is observed during peak interglacials, while during glacials seasonally variable sea ice cover and iceberg drift dominate surface water conditions.

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope record of foraminifera from ODP holes 104-643A and 104-644A

Continuous sediment sections spanning the last 2.8 Ma have been studied using stable isotope stratigraphy and sedimentological methods. By using paleomagnetic reversals as a chronostratigraphic tool, climatic and paleoceanographic changes have been placed in a time framework. The results show that the major expansion of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet to the coastal areas occurred in the late Neogene period at about 2.8 Ma. Relatively high-amplitude glacials appeared until about 2 Ma. The period between 2.8 and 1.2 Ma was marked by cold surface water conditions with only weak influx of temperate Atlantic water as compared with late Quaternary interglacials. During this period, climatic variations were smaller in amplitude than in the late Quaternary. The Norwegian Sea was a sink of deep water throughout the studied period but deep water ventilation was reduced and calcite dissolution was high compared with the Holocene. Deep water formed by other processes than today. Between 2 and 1.2 Ma, glaciations in Scandinavia were relatively small. A transition toward larger glacials took place during the period 1.2 to 0.6 Ma, corresponding with warmer interglacials and increasing influx of temperate surface water during interglacials. A strong thermal gradient was present between the Norwegian Sea and the northeastern Atlantic during the Matuyama (2.5-0.7 Ma). This is interpreted as a sign of a more zonal and less meridional climatic system over the region as compared with the present situation. The transition towards more meridionality took place over several hundred thousand yr. Only during the last 0.6 Ma has the oceanographic and climatic system of the Norwegian Sea varied in the manner described from previous studies of the late Quaternary.

Total organic carbon (TOC) on ground bulk and carbonate-free sediment samples of ODP Hole 151-911A

A multiproxy analysis of Hole 911A (Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 151) drilled on the Yermak Plateau (eastern Arctic Ocean) is used to investigate the behaviour of the Svalbard/Barents Sea ice sheet (SBIS) during late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (~3.0-1.7 Ma) climate changes. Contemporary with the 'Mid-Pliocene (~3 Ma) global warmth' (MPGW), a warmer period lasting ~300 kyr with seasonally ice-free conditions in the marginal eastern Arctic Ocean is assumed to be an important regional moisture source, and possibly one decisive trigger for intensification of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation in the Svalbard/Barents Sea area at ~2.7 Ma. An abrupt pulse of ice-rafted debris (IRD) to the Yermak Plateau at ~2.7 Ma reflects distinct melting of sediment-laden icebergs derived from the SBIS and may indicate the protruding advance of the ice sheet onto the outer shelf. Spectral analysis of the total organic carbon (TOC) record being predominantly of terrigenous/fossil-reworked origin indicates SBIS and possibly Scandinavian Ice Sheet response to incoming solar radiation at obliquity and precession periodicities. The strong variance in frequencies near the 41 kyr obliquity cycle between 2.7 and 1.7 Ma indicates, for the first time in the Arctic Ocean, a close relationship of SBIS growth and decay patterns to the Earth's orbital obliquity amplitudes, which dominated global ice volume variations during late Pliocene/early Pleistocene climate changes.

Časopis pro moderní filologii /

Suspended publication during Oct. 1942-June 1945, when Česky časopis filologicky was published instead.

Rufino José Cuervo y la lengua castellana;

Mode of access: Internet.

Folke-sange og melodier : faedrelandske og fremmede /

V. 1-2 published by Th. Lind.

Biographical and bibliographical dictionary of the Italian humanists and of the world of classical scholarship in Italy, 1300-1800.

Vol. 6: Supplement. A-Z has half title: Dictionary of the Italian humanists.

The Manly anniversary studies in language and literature.

"Presented to John Matthews Manly by his students and associates on the completion of his twenty-fifth year as head of the Department of English in the University of Chicago."

A bibliographical guide to the Romance languages and literatures,

Mode of access: Internet.