Cannabis is commonly characterized as the most normalized illicit drug. However, it remains a prohibited substance in most parts of the world, including Europe, and users can still be subject to stigmatization. The objective of this study is to assess to what extent and how cannabis users in different countries with different cannabis policies perceive, experience and respond to stigmatization. We conducted a survey in the Dutch coffeeshops among 1225 last year cannabis users from seven European countries, with national cannabis policies ranging from relatively liberal to punitive. Three dimensions of cannabis-related stigma were investigated (discrimination, perceived devaluation and alienation) and a sum score was used to reflect the general level of stigmatization. Perceived devaluation was the highest-scoring dimension of stigma and discrimination the lowest-scoring. The general level of stigmatization was lowest in the Netherlands and highest in Greece. This indicates that punitive cannabis policy is associated with stigma and liberal cannabis policy is associated with de-stigmatization. Besides country, daily cannabis use was also found to be a significant predictor of stigma, but gender, age, household type and employment status were not.
Nutrient profiling is defined as the science of categorising foods based on their nutrient composition. The Choices Programme is a nutrient profile system with criteria that determine whether foods are eligible to carry a ‘‘healthier option’’ stamp. The Daily Menu Method which has been developed to evaluate these criteria is described here. This methodsimulates the change in calculated nutrient intakes which would be the result of consumers changing their diets in favour of food products that comply with the criteria.
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The impacts of tourism on destinations and the perceptions of local communities have been a major concern both for the industry and research in the past decades. However, tourism planning has been mainly focused on traditions that promote the increase of tourism without taking under consideration the wellbeing of both residents and visitors. To develop a more sustainable tourism model, the inclusion of local residents in tourism decision-making is vital. However, this is not always possible due to structural, economic and socio-cultural restrictions that residents face resulting to their disempowerment. This study aims to explore and interpret the formal processes around tourism decision-making and community empowerment in urban settings. The research proposes a comparative study of three urban destinations in Europe (The Hague in the Netherlands, San Sebastian in Spain and, Ioannina in Greece) that experience similar degree of tourism growth. The proposed study will use a design-based approach in order to understand tourism decision-making and what empowers or disempowers community participation within the destinations. Based on the findings of primary and secondary data, a community empowerment model will be applied in one the destinations as a pilot for resident engagement in tourism planning. The evaluation of the pilot will allow for an optimized model to be created with implications for tourism planning at a local level that can contribute to sustainable destinations that safeguard the interests of local residents and tourists.
I-DEMO aims at supporting EU tourism professionals in acquiring and developing key competences in game-based tourism in order to foster innovation and improve overall tourism organizations’ performance. Societal IssueIn the tourism sector occurs skills mismatch between offer and demand. The tourism market presents new needs, such as increasing employability of the tourism workforce. i-DEMO will foster and provide grounds for national and cross-border cooperation in the field of professional competencies.Benefit to societyThe specific objects on i-DEMO are: Enhancing specific skills and competences of DMO professionals and VET students in relation to creative game-based tourism.Designing an innovative and needs-oriented on-line training course “Game-based Tourism”, offered through an online platform, which integrates several sector-specific and transversal skills, including digital, entrepreneurial, and soft skills.Providing DMO professionals and VET students an I-DEMO toolkit to apply gamification and creative strategies in planning innovative and inclusive tourism offer and services. The toolkit includes guidelines and a Visual Virtual Map of EU good practices of creative strategies linked to game-based tourism.Enhancing the replicability potential of project results outside of the partners’ destinations.Collaborating partnersTIMESIS SRL, Italy (Lead Partner); The Phoenicians’ Route – Cultural Route of the Council of Europa based in Italy; Associazione Culturale Tuo Museo, Italy; Pafos Regional Board of Tourism, Cyprus; Stichting Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands; Hellenic Open University, Greece; ACIF – Industrial and Commercial Association of Funchal – Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madeira (Portugal); Wojewodztwo Kujawsko Pomorskie, Poland.
The project virtually breaks down a large timber structure into pieces and simultaneously simulates and tests each piece in a different laboratory or facility. In this way, unique aspects of each facility can be used at the same time. The experiments take place in a synchronized way, which is a difficult task considering 4 countries (UK, Canada, Greece and the Netherlands) will work at the same time for testing one hypothetical timber structure. Geographically distributed hybrid testing blue sky research, timber structure testing including soil-structure-interactionHYSTERESIS project aims to use geographically distributed hybrid testing for providing experimental evidence for energy dissipation and SSI response of buildings composed of mass timber and CLT panels. The project outcomes will give a boost to the efforts of building multi-story timber structures in areas with wind and/or earthquake loading conditions. The particularities of the problem in hand and the need for testing in large scale while taking into account the SSI, dictate using a novel hybrid testing approach.