Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations. ENEPRI Policy Brief No. 14, 28 December 2012

This Policy Brief presents the research questions, main results and policy implications and recommendations of the seven Work Packages that formed the basis of the ANCIEN research project, financed under the 7th EU Research Framework Programme of the European Commission. Carried out over a 44-month period and involving 20 partners from EU member states, the project principally concerns the future of long-term care (LTC) for the elderly in Europe and addresses two questions in particular: How will need, demand, supply and use of LTC develop? How do different systems of LTC perform?

Extending working life in Finland. CEPS Working Document No. 387, 22 November 2013

This report reviews national and private initiatives to allow the elderly to continue their participation in the Finnish labour market and provides an analysis of the labour market and living conditions of seniors. We are interested in how those over 50 can be engaged in various forms of employment and lifelong learning. We find strong evidence that Finland generally provides good institutional conditions for active ageing. The quick and early ageing process was tackled by the fundamental pension reform that already prolonged retirement substantially and will probably facilitate later retirement as the attitudes concerning retirement change. On the other hand, Finland still seems to lag behind the other Nordic welfare states, has considerable problems in providing the same health conditions to low educated people in physically demanding occupations and could - – with respect to family pension in particular – invest further efforts in reforming the pension system. While many of the reforms Finland has conducted seem to be favourable and transferable to other European countries that still face the steepest phases of ageing in their societies, a reluctance towards changing attitudes that we observe in Finland, shows that organizing active ageing is a long-term project.

The Economics of EU Railway Reform. Bruges European Economic Policy (BEEP) Briefing 8/2004

The EU began railway reform in earnest around the turn of the century. Two ‘railway packages’ have meanwhile been adopted amounting to a series of directives and a third package has been proposed. A range of complementary initiatives has been undertaken or is underway. This BEEP Briefing inspects the main economic aspects of EU rail reform. After highlighting the dramatic loss of market share of rail since the 1960s, the case for reform is argued to rest on three arguments: the need for greater competitiveness of rail, promoting the (market driven) diversion of road haulage to rail as a step towards sustainable mobility in Europe, and an end to the disproportional claims on public budgets of Member States. The core of the paper deals respectively with market failures in rail and in the internal market for rail services; the complex economic issues underlying vertical separation (unbundling) and pricing options; and the methods, potential and problems of introducing competition in rail freight and in passenger services. Market failures in the rail sector are several (natural monopoly, economies of density, safety and asymmetries of information), exacerbated by no less than 7 technical and legal barriers precluding the practical operation of an internal rail market. The EU choice to opt for vertical unbundling (with benefits similar in nature as in other network industries e.g. preventing opaque cross-subsidisation and greater cost revelation) risks the emergence of considerable coordination costs. The adoption of marginal cost pricing is problematic on economic grounds (drawbacks include arbitrary cost allocation rules in the presence of large economies of scope and relatively large common costs; a non-optimal incentive system, holding back the growth of freight services; possibly anti-competitive effects of two-part tariffs). Without further detailed harmonisation, it may also lead to many different systems in Member States, causing even greater distortions. Insofar as freight could develop into a competitive market, a combination of Ramsey pricing (given the incentive for service providers to keep market share) and price ceilings based on stand-alone costs might be superior in terms of competition, market growth and regulatory oversight. The incipient cooperative approach for path coordination and allocation is welcome but likely to be seriously insufficient. The arguments to introduce competition, notably in freight, are valuable and many e.g. optimal cross-border services, quality differentiation as well as general quality improvement, larger scale for cost recovery and a decrease of rent seeking. Nevertheless, it is not correct to argue for the introduction of competition in rail tout court. It depends on the size of the market and on removing a host of barriers; it requires careful PSO definition and costing; also, coordination failures ought to be pre-empted. On the other hand, reform and competition cannot and should not be assessed in a static perspective. Conduct and cost structures will change with reform. Infrastructure and investment in technology are known to generate enormous potential for cost savings, especially when coupled with the EU interoperability programme. All this dynamism may well help to induce entry and further enlarge the (net) welfare gains from EU railway reform. The paper ends with a few pointers for the way forward in EU rail reform.

Extending Working Lives: The Case of Denmark. CEPS Working Document No. 404, 17 February 2015

Extending working lives has been a key item on the political agenda in Denmark for at least two decades now. This study details recent and prospective reforms to the voluntary early retirement scheme and the pension age, as well as current policy initiatives to keep older workers in employment. Other aspects central to a long working life, such as health, lifelong learning, age management practices in companies, and elderly workers’ motivation are discussed in depth. Overall, Denmark is in a relatively good state when it comes to older workers’ labour market participation and related job satisfaction. This impacts positively on the public finance challenge linked to population ageing which, given agreed reforms, should be manageable. Ongoing reform implementation is likely to substantially increase the employment of those aged 60 and over. Nevertheless, surveys point to age discrimination as a potential problem and people who fall into unemployment at a late stage of their careers still face challenges to reemployment.

Concepções e práticas de avaliação de professores de ciências físico-químicas do ensino básico

Este estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar as concepções e práticas de avaliação de professores portugueses de Ciências Físico-Químicas do ensino básico e conhecer como estes integram a avaliação nas suas aulas no contexto de uma reorganização curricular. Realizaram-se três estudos de caso, em que participaram professores com menos de três anos de serviço. A recolha de dados consistiu na observação naturalista de aulas, entrevistas semiestruturadas e documentos fornecidos pelos participantes. Os resultados evidenciam duas concepções de avaliação das aprendizagens: avaliação da aprendizagem e avaliação para a aprendizagem. Um dos participantes evidencia uma concepção de avaliação da aprendizagem, valorizando uma avaliação de natureza sumativa. Os professores com uma concepção sobre avaliação para a aprendizagem promovem uma avaliação orientada para a melhoria das aprendizagens, valorizando o carácter formativo da avaliação. Relativamente às práticas avaliativas dos três participantes, verificou-se que os critérios de avaliação não são explicitados aos alunos, o feedback é pouco frequente e os alunos têm um papel reduzido no processo de avaliação. Todos os professores demonstram dificuldades na avaliação das competências atitudinais e processuais, sendo que, apenas um dos participantes elabora registos de observação para avaliar estas competências. Os testes constituem o principal instrumento de avaliação nas aulas dos professores participantes neste estudo, o que é coerente com uma concepção de ensino e aprendizagem ainda, marcadamente tradicional.

O desenvolvimento das competências de literacia nos idosos e a promoção da autoestima : estudo com idosos numa academia sénior

O presente estudo diz respeito a um estudo de caso que relaciona entre si alguns conceitos fundamentais: envelhecimento ativo; aprendizagem ao longo da vida; literacia e, por fim, autoestima. Neste tipo de estudo, privilegia-se o método qualitativo, bem como a entrevista e a observação como técnicas de recolha de dados adequadas ao mesmo. Por esta via, o que se pretende é analisar o perfil dos alunos que frequentam a Academia Sénior de Estremoz, bem como as competências de literacia que daí advêm e como capítulo final, verificar de que forma a autoestima é potenciada pelos intervenientes no projeto, por via das atividades desenvolvidas. Desta mesma forma, pretende-se analisar as perceções que os intervenientes no projeto detêm acerca da promoção das competências de literacia nos idosos, no referido contexto específico.

Benthic foraminifera off West Africa (1°N to 32°S)

Recent benthic foraminifera (> 125 µm) were investigated from multicorer samples on a latitudinal transect of 20 stations between 1°N and 32°S along the upper slope off West Africa. Samples were selected from a narrow water depth interval, between 1200 and 1500 m, so that changes in water masses are minimized, but changes in surface productivity are important and the only significant environmental variable. Live (Rose Bengal stained) benthic foraminifera were counted from the surface sediment down to a maximum of 12 cm. Dead foraminifera were investigated in the top 5 cm of the sediment only. Five live and five dead benthic foraminiferal assemblages were identified using Q-mode principal component analysis, matching distinct primary productivity provinces, characterized by different systems of seasonal and permanent upwelling. Differences in seasonality, quantity, and quality of food supply are the main controlling parameters on species composition and distribution of the benthic foraminiferal faunas. To test the sensitivity of foraminiferal studies based on the uppermost centimeter of sediment only, a comparative Q-mode principal component analysis was conducted on live and dead foraminiferal data from the top 1 cm of sediment. It has been demonstrated that, on the upper slope off West Africa, most of the environmental signals as recorded by species composition and distribution of the 'total' live and dead assemblages, i.e., including live and dead foraminifera from the surface sediment down to 12 cm and 5 cm, respectively, can be extracted from the assemblages in the top centimeter of sediment only. On the contrary, subsurface abundance maxima of live foraminifera and dissolution of empty tests strongly bias quantitative approaches based on the calculation of standing stocks and foraminiferal numbers in the topmost centimeter.

Postsecondary education and the new workforce /

"PLLI 96-8005"--P. [4] of cover.

Human factors criteria for vehicle controls and displays. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Reaching the goals.

No longer available for sale by the Supt. of Docs. (goal 6).

Going global with assessment: what to do when the dominant culture's literacy drives assessment

This article explores how the dominant cultural literacy in a western context relies on a western template of knowledge that can inhibit internationalisation of the curricula unless it is identified, transformed, and broadened to become interculturally responsive. As Brian Street has said "literacies may be sites of negotiation and transform ation" (1994, p. 99). Drawing on the findings of an innovative website, Worldmarks , developed at Queensland University of Technology, as well as qualitative interviews with international students and staff, this article addresses the serious implications of assessment driven by the dominant culture's literacy. We identify how and why assessment driven by responsive cultural literacy enables all students to develop comprehensive intercultural communication skills and understandings as part of their lifelong learning in Australian universities.

Entanglement and boundary critical phenomena

We investigate boundary critical phenomena from a quantum-information perspective. Bipartite entanglement in the ground state of one-dimensional quantum systems is quantified using the Renyi entropy S-alpha, which includes the von Neumann entropy (alpha -> 1) and the single-copy entanglement (alpha ->infinity) as special cases. We identify the contribution of the boundaries to the Renyi entropy, and show that there is an entanglement loss along boundary renormalization group (RG) flows. This property, which is intimately related to the Affleck-Ludwig g theorem, is a consequence of majorization relations between the spectra of the reduced density matrix along the boundary RG flows. We also point out that the bulk contribution to the single-copy entanglement is half of that to the von Neumann entropy, whereas the boundary contribution is the same.

Abstract specification in Object-Z and CSP

A number of integrations of the state-based specification language Object-Z and the process algebra CSP have been proposed in recent years. In developing such integrations, a number of semantic decisions have to be made. In particular, what happens when an operation's precondition is not satisfied? Is the operation blocked, i.e., prevented from occurring, or can it occur with an undefined result? Also, are outputs from operations angelic, satisfying the environment's constraints on them, or are they demonic and not influenced by the environment at all? In this paper we discuss the differences between the models, and show that by adopting a blocking model of preconditions together with an angelic model of outputs one can specify systems at higher levels of abstraction.

APRENDIZAGEM ORGANIZACIONAL EM SUAS DIFERENTES DIMENSÕES: A VISÃO DOS GERENTES DE UMA INDÚSTRIA FARMACÊUTICA

Esse estudo tem como propósito investigar como se desenvolve a aprendizagem organizacional (AO) e identificar como a aprendizagem individual e grupal contribui para este processo. A aprendizagem pode-se tornar uma vantagem competitiva, uma vez que a organização aprende mais rápido e busca aumentar a capacidade da empresa em ações de melhoria de desempenho. Enquanto parâmetros metodológicos adotou-se uma abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, da qual participaram seis gestores de nível intermediário pertencentes a uma organização do ramo farmacêutico. O instrumento para coleta de dados configurou-se na entrevista baseada em roteiro semiestruturado. Os resultados evidenciaram que a aprendizagem organizacional se manifesta enquanto processo e como resultado, bem como sua importância para o desenvolvimento da vantagem competitiva na empresa, além de apontar também a relevância e a contribuição da aprendizagem individual e grupal para a AO.