Boustras, Georgios

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) constitute the cornerstone of the economy in each country, especially in the European Union, where they are perceived as main components for economic development, innovation, employment and social integration. Effective management of occupational safety and health (OSH) in MSEs’ working environment contributes in sustaining corporate longevity and protects workers’ well-being and productivity. This may become essential, especially for economies that are struggling to recover from economic recession. One essential aspect of OSH involves the identification and management of psychosocial risks. EU-OSHA (2010) has launched two significant surveys related to psychosocial risks; named ESENER 1 and ESENER 2. Since micro-enterprises (employing 1–5 employees) were not included in ESENER 2 (EU-OSHA, 2015), an important part of the picture has been left unattended on a European level. This paper aims to address this gap by focussing on the case of Cyprus, since insufficient amount of micro enterprises from Cyprus participated in ESENER 2. A survey utilising ESENER-2 questions was adapted for exploring micro-enterprises’ employees’ perceptions and awareness about psychosocial risks and their management in the work setting. The main differences and some similarities that were spotted between the results of this study and ESENER-2 results regarding Cyprus are highlighted. The differences indicate that the size of the business and the peculiarities of the Cypriot context impact on the perception and management of psychosocial risks. Further research is required in the field of microenterprises that employ from 1 to 5 people, on an EU and international level with a special focus on psychosocial risk issues in micro-enterprises at the service sector and family businesses.

During the last decades, humanity experiences an increasing demographic change. The relative percentage of older people is growing, while fewer young employees are entering the labour force. This phenomenon is directly connected with ageing of the workforce. Older workers constitute a special group with characteristics that require special attention from the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) point of view. The aim of this paper is to address what changes occur in ageing workers as a result of physical and psychological processes and the possible impacts of these at work in relation to OHS and the concept of sustainable work and workplaces. In addition, this paper discusses factors affecting work ability and worker's performance in relation to the ageing phenomenon. Finally, based on the literature, the paper proposes measures to minimize age-related risks and increase awareness. These measures should be designed and adopted at the early stages of working life and continue until retirement. By reducing risk factors of employees, the rate of occupational accidents and occupational diseases may be decreased, thus saving costs for employers, health system and insurance costs, while simultaneously facilitating a healthier retirement for the working-age population.

This paper discusses the concept of ageing as this applies to the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, and examines its relationship to the concept of ageing as this is understood for human beings. Evolutionary Algorithms constitute a family of search algorithms which base their operation on an analogy from the evolution of species in nature. The paper initially provides the necessary knowledge on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, focusing on the use of ageing strategies during the implementation of the evolutionary process. Background knowledge on the concept of ageing, as this is defined scientifically for biological systems, is subsequently presented. Based on this information, the paper provides a comparison between the two ageing concepts, and discusses the philosophical inspirations which can be drawn for human ageing based on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms.

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a relatively new scientific domain stemming from an American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998. Critical Infrastructure (CI) performance and protection are national priorities for all European Union (EU) countries following the introduction of the EU Directive 2008/114/EC, which takes an all hazards approach. This paper has an international focus. At the global and European level, the interest in identifying the impacts of climate change on CIs and extreme weather events (EWE) has increased in the last decades, following several high-profile so-called natural disasters. Concern is evidenced by the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the EU Commission's Staff Working Document on Risk Assessment and Mapping; Guidelines for Disaster Management, SEC (2010) 1626. This paper presents and discusses scientific work which has been published in this area, with a focus on energy CI. The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on energy CI are initially identified. Important aspects in CI protection such as risk assessment, interdependencies with other sectors, and adaptation/resilience options are subsequently presented and discussed.