EURRECA has an excellent opportunity to develop tools to improve transparency on the approaches used in setting micronutrient recommendations, including the selection of criteria for adequacy, weighing of evidence, and interpretation of data.

The EURRECA Network will contribute to the broader field of food and nutrition policy by encouraging and enabling the alignment of nutrient recommendations. It will do this through the development of a scientific toolkit by its partners and other stakeholders across Europe. This will facilitate and improve the formulation of micronutrient recommendations, based on transparently evaluated and quantified scientific evidence. The Network aims to be sustainable beyond its EC funding period.

Despite the high risk of bias of many of the included studies, the results suggested that urinary iodine, thyroglobin, serum thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone are useful biomarkers of iodine status, at least in some groups. High-quality controlled studies measuring relevant long-term outcomes are needed to address which biomarker is the most appropriate for assessing iodine intake in some population groups and settings.

Protectin (CD59), a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell membrane glycoprotein, is differentially expressed on melanocytic cells and represents the main restriction factor of C-mediated lysis of melanoma cells. In this study, we report that CD59-positive melanoma cells constitutively release a soluble form of CD59 (

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of overweight, obesity and body mass index (BMI) distribution in people living in large territories of Greece, Serbia and Turkey. A cross-sectional multi-national epidemiological survey was designed on the basis of self-reported information on height and weight using the formula kg/m2. Overall, 20,329 individuals, aged 20-68 yrs, 8,973 males and 11,356 females, participated in the study. Of these, 4,032 were selected from northern Greece, 10,069 from southwest Turkey and 6,228 from central Serbia. More specifically, participants from northern Greece were recruited from central Macedonia, from Southwest Turkey from the Kayseri region and from central Serbia from the greater Belgrade area. Our results showed that 12.4% of the population studied was obese and 31.3% overweight. The corresponding figures for participants from Greece were 19.9% and 35.4%, from Turkey 12.0% and 30.9% and from Serbia 8.2% and 29.4%, respectively. Overall, male participants had a higher mean BMI than females. However, Greek females were more obese in comparison with males. The opposite was true of the other two countries. Finally, in both males and females mean BMI tended to increase with age up to 50-59 years, and declined slightly thereafter. In conclusion, the overall prevalence of obesity and overweight in the Balkan peninsula does not differ from that reported in other European countries. However, BMI values between different countries of the Balkan peninsula are fairly variable, Greece leading in the prevalence of obesity with Serbia having the lowest prevalence of obesity. The data from this survey underline the need for health intervention aimed at preventing obesity, especially in Greece.

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At the present time, there is considerable diversity in the dietary reference values and recommendations used across Europe, both in terms of terminology and guideline values. Harmonization of dietary reference values would be beneficial in simplifying nutritional policy, trade, and public understanding of diet and health issues. However, this is not a simple task because of the differences in methodological approaches adopted and the assumptions made. In addition, there are genuine differences in diet, lifestyle and geography that may necessitate retaining variation in some dietary reference values between European nations. The complexities of harmonization were discussed at a recent symposium held under the auspices of the Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS). This provided overviews of the different terminologies currently in use, of the variations in reference values for children and adolescents, and of the disparities between different groups of countries in Europe. The symposium hosted by FENS provided a forum to exchange views and to consider the steps that will be needed if harmonization is to be realized in the future. A summary of the presentations and conclusions is presented here.

Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship (MOTR, also called Complementary Therapeutic Relationship) has already shown itself to be related to therapeutic outcome in several studies. The present study aims to test MOTR in a 4-session Brief Psychodynamic Intervention for patients presenting with major depressive disorder (MDD) and comorbid personality disorder (PD). In total, N = 20 patients were selected; n = 10 had MDD, n = 10 had MDD with comorbid PD. The first therapy session was videotaped and analyzed by means of Plan Analysis and the MOTR scale. Results suggest a differential effect on outcome: only the nonverbal component of MOTR is related to symptomatic change in patients presenting with MDD and comorbid PD; no such effect was found for patients with MDD alone. These results are discussed in line with the generalization and refinement of the conclusions of previous findings on the MOTR.