CFC research programmes in Western Europe

The structure of CFC use in Western Europe is different from that in the USA and Japan, with the highest percentage use of CFCs in Europe in aerosols. The use of CFCs in automotive air conditioning in the EEC is much less than elsewhere and this, together with the fact that R-12 and R-22 already have similar market shares, means that the refrigeration industry in Western Europe will not be as greatly affected by CFC reduction as elsewhere. More stringent reduction programmes than those imposed by the Montreal Protocol are in force in most Western European countries, to some extent due to consumer and environmental pressure group influences. Some countries, especially in Scandinavia, are introducing additional legislation to restrict CFC use. The strongest stand has been taken by the Federal Republic of Germany, which requires a 95% reduction in CFC use by 1995, with a voluntary ban from 1992. This paper discusses in detail European research programmes into CFC replacements. Many projects have been proposed, including work on refrigerants [fundamentals (four projects), thermophysical properties (18 projects) and lubricants and materials (five projects)] and cycles and components (17 projects).     

Treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes in Western Europe

In western Europe, as in other industrialised areas, there has been growing concern about the disposal of wastes of a hazardous or toxic nature. The increasing quantities and complexities of wastes from industrial processes, and the greater awareness of potential risks to health of present and future generations arising from indiscriminate or inadequate methods of disposal, are causing governments to undertake an intensive examination of the whole field of waste management.Reliable data on the types and quantities of hazardous wastes are very difficult to acquire and information available is generally based on estimates.Legislative and administrative measures are being proposed and developed, which will provide a framework for better control and improved standards for the handling, treatment and disposal of toxic and other hazardous wastes.In planning disposal systems, more attention will be given to methods of recovering and recycling materials which are becoming scarce or expensive. As stricter environmental controls raise disposal costs, there will be more incentive on industry to recycle wastes, where practicable.     

Corruption and Private Participation Projects in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper investigates the role of host-country corruption in private participation projects in emerging markets. Privatization activities, especially in infrastructure development, were traditionally inaccessible to multinational enterprises, but they are nowadays encouraged in many countries. Prior literature on corruption finds two contradictory (“grease” and “sand”) results when examining the consequences of corruption on investments. Drawing on a sample of 1185 projects from 1997 to 2013 in 18 Central and Eastern European Countries, our results show that higher levels of host-country corruption are associated with greater probabilities of failure. Our results also show that including local investors in the ownership structure of the project weakens the negative effect of corruption by reducing the liability of foreignness. In contrast, being a publicly traded project has no moderating effect in the effect of corruption in this region. Therefore, our results highlight that not all common strategies to deal with corruption are equally effective in this region.     

Humanistic design of manufacturing systems in Western Europe

This paper lists various criteria for describing manufacturing system designs The systems implemented in six West European countries are compared. Various methods which have evolved for choosing designs are described and a classification system for them is developed.     

Linguistic patterns of academic Web use in Western Europe

A survey of linguistic dimensions of Web site hosting and interlinking of the universities of sixteen European countries is described. The results show that English is the dominant language both for linking pages and for all pages. In a typical country approximately half the pages were in English and half in one or more national languages. Normalised interlinking patterns showed three trends: 1) international interlinking throughout Europe in English, and additionally in Swedish in Scandinavia; 2) linking between countries sharing a common language, and 3) countries extensively hosting international links in their own major languages. This provides evidence for the multilingual character of academic use of the Web in Western Europe, at least outside the UK and Eire. Evidence was found that Greece was significantly linguistically isolated from the rest of the EU but that outsiders Norway and Switzerland were not. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Measurement and Analysis of Vibration Levels in Rail Transport in Central Europe

In the last decade, with a continued change in world economic conditions and global trade, transportation of goods has continued to increase. The opening of new and existing markets requires that products and packages move through various regions of the world using available logistical equipment and networks at a faster pace. It also requires that damage be kept at a minimum while providing maximum safety to individuals. This can be achieved by properly designing packages to transportation levels that occur in the supply chain. The purpose of this research is to both measure and analyse the vibration physical forces that occur during rail transport. Rail shipments are widely used across the world, and they are an integral part of the intermodal transfer of ISO containers from ships and trucks to rail. The aim of this paper is to provide vibration levels measured for rail shipments on a major railway line in Central Europe that has not been previously published. The vibration levels that were measured in this study were compared with American Society of Testing and Materials, United States Military Standards and United Kingdom Defense Standard standards and International Safe Transit Association procedures in the form of power spectral density spectrums. A composite power spectral density spectrum is provided which can be used to simulate the measured rail vibration levels in Central Europe. Results are also compared with rail travel in other international shipments for North America and Asia. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photography in 1848: Five Case Studies from Central Europe

This article examines the role of photography in the Year of Revolution and the place this topic holds in historiography. Unlike many historical disciplines which perceive 1848 as a turning point in the nineteenth century, the history of photography gives the impression that photographic production was not really affected by the upheavals which otherwise had a great impact on the whole of continental Europe. Collections and archives, however, contain large amounts of visual and written material that indicate the very opposite – that the involvement of photography in the events of 1848 was not rare. Using five examples from Central Europe, three portraits and two cityscapes, this article provides an insight into the cultural and historical backgrounds of photographic production in that year. The article demonstrates the ways in which photographs were involved in the social, political, and cultural events of the time, and how they helped shape ideas about them.     

Health in financial crises: economic recession and tuberculosis in Central and Eastern Europe

The ongoing global financial crisis, which began in 2007, has drawn attention to the effect of declining economic conditions on public health. A quantitative analysis of previous events can offer insights into the potential health effects of economic decline. In the early 1990s, widespread recession across Central and Eastern Europe accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, despite previously falling tuberculosis (TB) incidence in most countries, there was an upsurge of TB cases and deaths throughout the region. Here, we study the quantitative relationship between the lost economic productivity and excess TB cases and mortality. We use the data of the World Health Organization for TB notifications and deaths from 1980 to 2006, and World Bank data for gross domestic product. Comparing 15 countries for which sufficient data exist, we find strong linear associations between the lost economic productivity over the period of recession for each country and excess numbers of TB cases (r² = 0.94, p < 0.001) and deaths (r² = 0.94, p < 0.001) over the same period. If TB epidemiology and control are linked to economies in 2009 as they were in 1991 then the Baltic states, particularly Latvia, are now vulnerable to another upturn in TB cases and deaths. These projections are in accordance with emerging data on drug consumption, which indicate that these countries have undergone the greatest reductions since the beginning of 2008. We recommend close surveillance and monitoring during the current recession, especially in the Baltic states.     

全方位的质量管理分工和职责

一、问题的提出我公司是一个有 6 0年历史的老厂 ,解放后质量管理工作经历了三个阶段 :一是层层把关和单纯的产品符合性检验阶段 ,主要是按照原苏联提供的一套企业管理模式进行组织和控制产品质量 ;二是以预防为主的统计质量控制阶段 ;三是以不断改进为目的的全面质量管理 (简称ＴＱＭ )阶段。通过上述三个阶段 ,从管理机构和管理方式上逐步形成一个包括质量立法、质量控制、质量检验、质量监督的质量保证体系。但与ＩＳＯ 90 0 2∶1994国际标准相对照 ,感到原先的质量管理模式仍存在许多需要解决的矛盾和问题。质量管理职责细则涉及面较窄 …     

Attitudes toward stress and coping among primary caregivers of patients undergoing hemodialysis: A Q‐methodology study

Introduction Hemodialysis (HD) causes many life changes, not only for patients undergoing it but also for their families by allowing them to rely on this lifesaving equipment unless they receive a kidney transplant. The stress of the primary caregivers, who spends the most time in the family taking care of the patient undergoing HD, is quite high. This study was to identify attitudes about stress and coping among primary caregivers of HD patients. Methods Q‐methodology was undertaken because it integrates quantitative and qualitative research methods. A convenience sample of 33 primary caregivers of HD patients participated. Forty selected Q‐samples were obtained from each participant and were classified into a forced normal distribution using a nine‐point grid. Data was analyzed using a pc‐QUANL program. Findings Three discrete factors emerged as follows: Factor I (they reduced their stress by participating in religious activities; religious sublimation), Factor II (they always worried about the caregiving situations and about the patients' conditions; nervousness), and Factor III (they thought it better to accept their stressful situations; leading handler). Three factors accounted for 44.5% of all the variance, including Factor I (26.0%), Factor II (10.1%), and Factor III (8.4%). The eigenvalues were 8.58, 3.34, and 2.79, respectively. Discussion The subjectivities of the three factors that were identified can be applied during the planning stages of effective interventions for stress and coping. Healthcare workers in clinical practices should consider assesses primary caregivers' attitudes about stress and coping and approaches their situation to cope with it and to adapt to lifestyle changes.     

Updated energy policy of the Czech Republic may result in instability of the electricity grid in Central Europe

Brown coal is the resource used for generating half of the electricity and most of the heat that is distributed over the public network in the Czech Republic, which is one of the largest exporters of electricity in Europe. As a result of public call for cleaner energy sources, the energy policy of the Czech Republic has been updated recently. The government act calls for significant decrease in brown coal mining. Prediction of material flow analysis for the entire energy sector of the Czech Republic till 2040 was carried out. The data revealed mounting evidence indicating that the novel energy policy proposed was too ambitious which may affect the stability of the power grid in the surrounding countries. Worse still, it appears that after 2025, the Czech energy sector will be in short supply of limestone, which is likely to result in lower levels of flue gas desulphurization or limestone mining in protected landscape areas. It is concluded that further diversification of local energy resources is advisable to avoid unwanted negative environmental impacts.     

The meteorology of the Western Indian Ocean, and the influence of the East African Highlands

This paper reviews the meteorology of the Western Indian Ocean and uses a state-of-the-art atmospheric general circulation model to investigate the influence of the East African Highlands on the climate of the Indian Ocean and its surrounding regions. The new 44-year re-analysis produced by the European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has been used to construct a new climatology of the Western Indian Ocean. A brief overview of the seasonal cycle of the Western Indian Ocean is presented which emphasizes the importance of the geography of the Indian Ocean basin for controlling the meteorology of the Western Indian Ocean. The principal modes of inter-annual variability are described, associated with El Nino and the Indian Ocean Dipole or Zonal Mode, and the basic characteristics of the subseasonal weather over the Western Indian Ocean are presented, including new statistics on cyclone tracks derived from the ECMWF re-analyses. Sensitivity experiments, in which the orographic effects of East Africa are removed, have shown that the East African Highlands, although not very high, play a significant role in the climate of Africa, India and Southeast Asia, and in the heat, salinity and momentum forcing of the Western Indian Ocean. The hydrological cycle over Africa is systematically enhanced in all seasons by the presence of the East African Highlands, and during the Asian summer monsoon there is a major redistribution of the rainfall across India and Southeast Asia. The implied impact of the East African Highlands on the ocean is substantial. The East African Highlands systematically freshen the tropical Indian Ocean, and act to focus the monsoon winds along the coast, leading to greater upwelling and cooler sea-surface temperatures.     

Measuring S&T activities in the Former Socialist Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Conceptual and methodological issues in linking past with present

The economic and social transformation of countries of central and eastern Europe has deeply affected their S&T systems. However, conceptual and methodological problems in monitoring transformation of their S&T systems are not trivial. In this paper we analyse conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring S&T activities in the socialist and post-socialist period across the most important S&T indicators (R&D, US and national patents; innovation surveys; bibliometrics). Our conclusions are that: i) the process of methodological harmonisation of S&T indicators has progressed considerably and we have provided some evidence in that respect; ii) the use of similar or identical indicators (business R&D, innovation counts, patents, citations) when making inter-country or inter-temporal comparisons should be approached with caution because of the significant differences between the socialist and post-socialist periods as well as between post-socialist R&D systems and R&D in other market economies. This latter applies especially to the interpretation of business R&D data in the post-socialist period. A first version of this paper was presented at the Conference on the implementation of OECD methodologies for R&D/S&T statistics in central and eastern European countries' which was held in Budapest from 6.–8. November 1996. Research which formed the basis for this paper was funded in case of one of the authors by the EC TSER programme. Correspondence should be addressed to: SlavoRadosevic, SPRU, University of Sussex, BN1 9RF, Brighton. We are grateful to SylvanKatz for stimulative discussions and to two anonymous referees for comments in revisions of this paper. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisations for which they work.