Archives littéraires de l'Europe : ou Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie par une société de gens de lettres : suivis d'une Gazette littéraire universelle

1806/07 (T11)-1806/09.

Archives littéraires de l'Europe : ou Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie par une société de gens de lettres : suivis d'une Gazette littéraire universelle

1807/04 (T14)-1807/06.

Archives littéraires de l'Europe : ou Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie par une société de gens de lettres : suivis d'une Gazette littéraire universelle

1804/07 (T3)-1804/09.

Archives littéraires de l'Europe : ou Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie par une société de gens de lettres : suivis d'une Gazette littéraire universelle

1804/10 (T4)-1804/12.

Archives littéraires de l'Europe : ou Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie par une société de gens de lettres : suivis d'une Gazette littéraire universelle

1804/01 (T1)-1804/03.

Universal Service Policies in Europe & Latam: Evidence on Bridging the Divide in Rural Areas

Broadband access is a key factor for economic and social development. However, providing broadband to rural areas is not attractive to private telecommunications operators due its low or zero investment return. To deal with broadband provision in rural areas, different governance systems based on private and public cooperation have appeared. This paper not only identifies and defines public and private cooperation models but also assesses their impact on overcoming the digital divide in rural areas. The results show that public ownership infrastructure under private management policy has had positive effects on reducing the broadband digital divide and being applied to areas with higher digital divide; subsides to private operators providers only positive effects on reducing broadband digital divide; but public infrastructure with public management programs did not. The results, obtained using quasi-experimental methods, suggest the importance of incentives and control mechanisms in broadband universal service provision plans.

Research networks and inventors’ mobility as drivers of innovation evidence from Europe

We investigate the importance of the labour mobility of inventors, as well as the scale, extent and density of their collaborative research networks, for regional innovation outcomes. To do so, we apply a knowledge production function framework at the regional level and include inventors’ networks and their labour mobility as regressors. Our empirical approach takes full account of spatial interactions by estimating a spatial lag model together, where necessary, with a spatial error model. In addition, standard errors are calculated using spatial heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent estimators to ensure their robustness in the presence of spatial error autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity of unknown form. Our results point to the existence of a robust positive correlation between intraregional labour mobility and regional innovation, whilst the relationship with networks is less clear. However, networking across regions positively correlates with a region’s innovation intensity.

The Association of H1N1 Pandemic Influenza with Congenital Anomaly Prevalence in Europe: An Ecological Time Series Study.

BACKGROUND: In the context of the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) surveillance response to the 2009 influenza pandemic, we sought to establish whether there was a detectable increase of congenital anomaly prevalence among pregnancies exposed to influenza seasons in general, and whether any increase was greater during the 2009 pandemic than during other seasons. METHODS: We performed an ecologic time series analysis based on 26,967 pregnancies with nonchromosomal congenital anomaly conceived from January 2007 to March 2011, reported by 15 EUROCAT registries. Analysis was performed for EUROCAT-defined anomaly subgroups, divided by whether there was a prior hypothesis of association with influenza. Influenza season exposure was based on World Health Organization data. Prevalence rate ratios were calculated comparing pregnancies exposed to influenza season during the congenital anomaly-specific critical period for embryo-fetal development to nonexposed pregnancies. RESULTS: There was no evidence for an increased overall prevalence of congenital anomalies among pregnancies exposed to influenza season. We detected an increased prevalence of ventricular septal defect and tricuspid atresia and stenosis during pandemic influenza season 2009, but not during 2007-2011 influenza seasons. For congenital anomalies, where there was no prior hypothesis, the prevalence of tetralogy of Fallot was strongly reduced during influenza seasons. CONCLUSIONS: Our data do not suggest an overall association of pandemic or seasonal influenza with congenital anomaly prevalence. One interpretation is that apparent influenza effects found in previous individual-based studies were confounded by or interacting with other risk factors. The associations of heart anomalies with pandemic influenza could be strain specific.

Epidemiology of hypospadias in Europe: a registry-based study.

BACKGROUND: Hypospadias is a common congenital malformation. The prevalence of hypospadias has a large geographical variation, and recent studies have reported both increasing and decreasing temporal trends. It is unclear whether hypospadias prevalence is associated with maternal age. AIM: To analyze the prevalence and trends of total hypospadias, isolated hypospadias, hypospadias with multiple congenital anomalies, hypospadias with a known cause, and hypospadias severity subtypes in Europe over a 10-year period and to investigate whether maternal age is associated with hypospadias. METHODS: We included all children with hypospadias born from 2001 to 2010 who were registered in 23 EUROCAT registries. Information on the total number of births and maternal age distribution for the registry population was also provided. We analyzed the total prevalence of hypospadias and relative risks by maternal age. RESULTS: From 2001 to 2010, 10,929 hypospadias cases were registered in 5,871,855 births, yielding a total prevalence of 18.61 per 10,000 births. Prevalence varied considerably between different registries, probably due to differences in ascertainment of hypospadias cases. No significant temporal trends were observed with the exceptions of an increasing trend for anterior and posterior hypospadias and a decreasing trend for unspecified hypospadias. After adjusting for registry effects, maternal age was not significantly associated with hypospadias. CONCLUSIONS: Total hypospadias prevalence was stable in 23 EUROCAT registries from 2001 to 2010 and was not significantly influenced by maternal age.

Tindara Addabbo, Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga, Cristina Borderías y Alastair Owens (eds.), Gender Inequalities, Households and the Production of Well-being in Modern Europe

Ressenya del llibre: 'Gender Inequalities, Households and the Production of Well-being in Modern Europe'

Long term trends in prevalence of neural tube defects in Europe: population based study.

STUDY QUESTION: What are the long term trends in the total (live births, fetal deaths, and terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly) and live birth prevalence of neural tube defects (NTD) in Europe, where many countries have issued recommendations for folic acid supplementation but a policy for mandatory folic acid fortification of food does not exist? METHODS: This was a population based, observational study using data on 11 353 cases of NTD not associated with chromosomal anomalies, including 4162 cases of anencephaly and 5776 cases of spina bifida from 28 EUROCAT (European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies) registries covering approximately 12.5 million births in 19 countries between 1991 and 2011. The main outcome measures were total and live birth prevalence of NTD, as well as anencephaly and spina bifida, with time trends analysed using random effects Poisson regression models to account for heterogeneities across registries and splines to model non-linear time trends. SUMMARY ANSWER AND LIMITATIONS: Overall, the pooled total prevalence of NTD during the study period was 9.1 per 10 000 births. Prevalence of NTD fluctuated slightly but without an obvious downward trend, with the final estimate of the pooled total prevalence of NTD in 2011 similar to that in 1991. Estimates from Poisson models that took registry heterogeneities into account showed an annual increase of 4% (prevalence ratio 1.04, 95% confidence interval 1.01 to 1.07) in 1995-99 and a decrease of 3% per year in 1999-2003 (0.97, 0.95 to 0.99), with stable rates thereafter. The trend patterns for anencephaly and spina bifida were similar, but neither anomaly decreased substantially over time. The live birth prevalence of NTD generally decreased, especially for anencephaly. Registration problems or other data artefacts cannot be excluded as a partial explanation of the observed trends (or lack thereof) in the prevalence of NTD. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: In the absence of mandatory fortification, the prevalence of NTD has not decreased in Europe despite longstanding recommendations aimed at promoting peri-conceptional folic acid supplementation and existence of voluntary folic acid fortification. FUNDING, COMPETING INTERESTS, DATA SHARING: The study was funded by the European Public Health Commission, EUROCAT Joint Action 2011-2013. HD and ML received support from the European Commission DG Sanco during the conduct of this study. No additional data available.

Prevalence and clinical outcomes for patients with MET protein expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in Europe: Results from the European Thoracic Oncology Platform Lungscape Project.

Aim The reported prevalence of MET overexpression varies from 25-55% in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and clinical correlations are emerging slowly. In a well-defined NSCLC cohort of the Lungscape program, we explore the epidemiology, the natural history of IHC MET positivity and its association to OS, RFS and TTR. Methods Resected stage I-III NSCLC identified based on the quality of clinical data and FFPE tissue availability were assessed for MET expression using immunohistochemistry (IHC) on TMAs (CONFIRM anti total c-MET assay, clone SP44, Ventana BenchMark platform). All cases were analysed at participating pathology laboratories using the same protocol, after passing an external quality assurance program. MET positive status is defined as ≥ 50% of tumor cells staining with 2+ or 3+ intensity. Results A total of 2709 cases are included in the iBiobank and will be analysed. IHC MET expression is currently available for 1552 patients, with positive MET IHC staining in 380 cases [24.5%; IHC 3+ in 157 cases (41.3%) and 2+ in 223 cases (58.7%)]. The cohort of 1552 patients includes 48.2%, 44.7% and 4.4% cases of adenocarcinoma, squamous and large cell histologies, respectively. IHC MET status was independent of stage, age and smoking history. Significant differences in MET positivity were associated with gender (32% vs. 21% for female vs. male, p < 0.001), with performance status (25% vs. 18% for 0 vs. 1-3, p = 0.006), and histology (34%, 14% and 24% for adenocarcinoma, squamous and large cell carcinoma, p < 0.001). IHC MET positivity was independent of the IHC ALK status (p = 0.08). At last FU, 52% of patients were still alive, with a median FU of 4.8 yrs. No association of IHC MET was found with OS, RFS or TTR. Conclusions The preliminary results for this large multicentre European cohort describe a prevalence of MET overexpression that seems lower than previous observations in NSCLC, such as reported for the OAM4971g trial, suggesting potential biological differences between surgically resected and metastatic disease. Analysis for the full cohort is ongoing and results will be presented. Disclosure L. Bubendorf: Disclosures: Stock ownership: Roche Advisory boards: Roche, Pfizer Research support: Roche; K. Schulze: Full time employee of Roche; A. Das-Gupta: I am a full time employee of Roche. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Epilepsy priorities in Europe: A report of the ILAE-IBE Epilepsy Advocacy Europe Task Force.

The European Forum on Epilepsy Research (ERF2013), which took place in Dublin, Ireland, on May 26-29, 2013, was designed to appraise epilepsy research priorities in Europe through consultation with clinical and basic scientists as well as representatives of lay organizations and health care providers. The ultimate goal was to provide a platform to improve the lives of persons with epilepsy by influencing the political agenda of the EU. The Forum highlighted the epidemiologic, medical, and social importance of epilepsy in Europe, and addressed three separate but closely related concepts. First, possibilities were explored as to how the stigma and social burden associated with epilepsy could be reduced through targeted initiatives at EU national and regional levels. Second, ways to ensure optimal standards of care throughout Europe were specifically discussed. Finally, a need for further funding in epilepsy research within the European Horizon 2020 funding programme was communicated to politicians and policymakers participating to the forum. Research topics discussed specifically included (1) epilepsy in the developing brain; (2) novel targets for innovative diagnostics and treatment of epilepsy; (3) what is required for prevention and cure of epilepsy; and (4) epilepsy and comorbidities, with a special focus on aging and mental health. This report provides a summary of recommendations that emerged at ERF2013 about how to (1) strengthen epilepsy research, (2) reduce the treatment gap, and (3) reduce the burden and stigma associated with epilepsy. Half of the 6 million European citizens with epilepsy feel stigmatized and experience social exclusion, stressing the need for funding trans-European awareness campaigns and monitoring their impact on stigma, in line with the global commitment of the European Commission and with the recommendations made in the 2011 Written Declaration on Epilepsy. Epilepsy care has high rates of misdiagnosis and considerable variability in organization and quality across European countries, translating into huge societal cost (0.2% GDP) and stressing the need for cost-effective programs of harmonization and optimization of epilepsy care throughout Europe. There is currently no cure or prevention for epilepsy, and 30% of affected persons are not controlled by current treatments, stressing the need for pursuing research efforts in the field within Horizon 2020. Priorities should include (1) development of innovative biomarkers and therapeutic targets and strategies, from gene and cell-based therapies to technologically advanced surgical treatment; (2) addressing issues raised by pediatric and aging populations, as well as by specific etiologies and comorbidities such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cognitive dysfunction, toward more personalized medicine and prevention; and (3) translational studies and clinical trials built upon well-established European consortia.