Ash species (Fraxinus spp.) in Europe are threatened by the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis, EAB), an invasive wood boring beetle native to East Asia and currently spreading from European Russia westwards. Based on a high-resolution habitat distribution map (grid cell size: 25 × 25 m) and data on distribution and abundance of Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), the most widespread and highl...

Living Arrangements in Western Europe: Does Cultural Origin Matter? Why are there such large differences in living arrangements across Western European countries? Conventional economic analyses have not been successful in explaining differences in living arrangements and particularly the dramatic increase in the fraction of young adults living with their parents in Mediterranean Europe. This pa...

Understanding the genetic structure of the European population is important, not only from a historical perspective, but also for the appropriate design and interpretation of genetic epidemiological studies. Previous population genetic analyses with autosomal markers in Europe either had a wide geographic but narrow genomic coverage [1, 2], or vice versa [3-6]. We therefore investigated Affymet...

BACKGROUND Winter deaths are a known health and social care challenge for many countries. A previous international comparison showed significant differences in excess winter deaths across Europe in the 1990s, with the northern countries having lower excess winter mortality than those in southern Europe. METHODS The Excess Winter Deaths Index (EWDI) is the ratio of deaths in the winter period ...

In southernmost Greenland near Narsarsuaq, the terminal Narsarsuaq moraine was deposited well outside of a historical Little Ice Age (LIA) moraine adjacent to the modern ice margin. Using 10Be surface exposure dating, we determine Narsarsuaq moraine abandonment at 1.51 0.11 ka. A second set of 10Be ages from a more ice-proximal position shows that ice has been within or at its historical (i.e.,...

AIM To use the data on the AH1N1 2009 influenza epidemic in the Southern hemisphere countries to predict the course and size of the upcoming influenza epidemic in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) countries and other regions of the World with temperate climate. METHOD We used a comparative epidemiological method to evaluate accessible electronic data on laboratory-confirmed deaths from AH1N1 2009 in...

The lacustrine deposits infilling the intramontane Guadix-Baza Basin, in the Betic Range of Southern Spain, have yielded abundant well-preserved lithic artifacts. In addition, the lake beds contain a wide range of micromammals including Mimomys savini and Allophaiomys burgondiae and large mammals such as Mammuthus and Hippopotamus together with the African saber-toothed felid Megantereon. The a...

Introduction Debates on labour market and industrial relations convergence in the EU have been concerned mostly with two types of possible convergence: between liberal and co-ordinated market economies, and between East (new member states) and West (old member states). This paper argues that the most striking process of convergence, if a partial one, has actually occurred between South and East...

The Y-chromosome haplogroup N-M231 (Hg N) is distributed widely in eastern and central Asia, Siberia, as well as in eastern and northern Europe. Previous studies suggested a counterclockwise prehistoric migration of Hg N from eastern Asia to eastern and northern Europe. However, the root of this Y chromosome lineage and its detailed dispersal pattern across eastern Asia are still unclear. We an...

This study describes the genetics of the western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte in southern Europe during the introduction (1996-2001) and establishment/spread (2002-2011) phases of its invasion. The Diabrotica microsatellite core-set was used to perform traditional population genetics analyses. Our results indicated that during the introduction phase genetic divers...