Paving the Way to Simpler: Experiencing from Maximizing Enrollment States in Streamlining Eligibility and Enrollment

Since 2009, the eight states (Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin) participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Maximizing Enrollment program have worked to streamline and simplify enrollment systems, policies, and processes for children and those eligible for health coverage in 2014. The participating states aimed to reduce enrollment barriers for consumers and administrative burdens in processing applications and renewals for staff by making improvements and simplifications at every step of the enrollment process. Although the states began their work before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), their efforts positioned them well for implementation in 2014, and offer experiences and lessons that other states may find useful in their efforts to improve efficiency, lower costs, and promote responsible stewardship of limited public resources

Dissemination and adoption of bottom-up agriculture to improve soil fertility in Africa: An interdisciplinary approach

Soil fertility is at stake at a global scale, putting pressure on food security, poverty alleviation and environmental protection, under scenarios of climate change that in most cases aggravate the threat. In sub-Saharan Africa, a combination of depleted soils and population growth adds particular pressure to smallholder farmers and society. Their capacity to innovate in a social, economic, political and cultural context is seen as decisive to reverse the trend of declining soil fertility. However, many technologies with a potential to protect, maintain and build up soil fertility are hardly used by small-scale farmers, triggering the urgent question on their reasoning not to do so. Exploring and understanding the constraints and complexity of the social systems interacting with the implied institutional dynamics are essential steps in designing appropriate agricultural innovations that are scalable and adoptable. The focus of the inter- and transdisciplinary approach applied in the project ORM4Soil (Organic Resource Management for Soil Fertility; www.orm4soil.net) lies at the heart of this project. We are combining qualitative and quantitative methods from agronomy, sociology and communication sciences in order to bring soil-fertility-enhancing-technologies and their adoption to the center of the decision-making process of farmers’ as well as local and regional institutions. At local and regional innovation platforms, stakeholders from business, government, academia and farmer organizations are discussing the outcomes of agronomic trials and sociological research. We are expecting to create bridges between the needs and concerns of farmers, relevant segments of society and policymaking, with the new common goal to enhance soil fertility

A rapid review of the background to source control

Background to researchThe start of the 21st Century witnessed a revolution in drainage practices with the implementation of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS). Prior to 2000, rainfall was managed by directing it away as quickly as possible in underground pipes. Increasing pressures such as watercourse pollution, stricter environmental laws, climate change and urbanisation called for a paradigm shift with Scotland leading the way for implementing SUDS. SUDS are designed to mimic natural drainage processes, managing rainfall in stages as it drains from a development. Collectively this process is called the stormwater treatment train. The first stage is source control, with stages two and three being site and regional controls respectively. Source control principally controls and treats polluted runoff at source (where the rain falls) and if designed and implemented correctly, protect watercourses and downstream SUDS through filtration, infiltration and storage. In Scotland, site and regional control SUDS have become business as usual, however uptake of the stormwater treatment train and the use of source control SUDS in practice is less routine than would be expected.Objectives of researchThe SUDS Working Party in Scotland is an interdisciplinary stakeholder platform to discuss issues relating to the SUDS agenda and promote their use. In 2009, a consultation paper on ‘Implementing the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act’ set out proposals to improve the sustainable management of Scotland’s water resources. The need for increased source control measures for the mitigation of diffuse pollution and climate change effects in urban areas was identified. To assist in this aspiration, the SUDS Working Party commissioned this study via CREW to identify opportunities and barriers to increasing the uptake of source control in Scotland. This report covers phase one of a three-phase study. It focuses on tracking the evolution of source control to gain an insight into enabling factors and obstacles for successful uptake of the systems. A literature review identified source control origins, the techniques available, and options for their application.Key findings and recommendationsIn the UK, research to validate the performance of source control measures began in the early 1990’s. This was enabled by stakeholder platforms such as the SUDS Working Party and the Scottish Universities SUDS Monitoring Group. By the mid-1990s, the SUDS concept was developed which included source control and outlined water quality, quantity and biodiversity / amenity benefits of the systems. By 2000, Scottish guidance was developed and by 2006 it became law to implement SUDS in all new developments. This was quickly followed by technical standards in 2007. SUDS for roads networks were addressed in 2010. Currently, many types of source control exist, most of which have been validated by research and are commonplace. The state of the art techniques such as rain gardens, green roofs and rainwater harvesting however, have had limited uptake in Scotland.It is evident that the enabling factors for the uptake of SUDS have been the result of top down drivers such as environmental initiatives and regulation. However, clarity surrounding the definition and application of source control as part of the stormwater treatment train is becoming a barrier to its uptake by practitioners. Extensive research provided a bottom up driver to validate effectiveness of the technologies for attenuating pollutants, mitigating flooding and creating habitats. Validation of emerging innovative techniques however, such as green roofs and rain gardens for different development types is limited in Scotland and this may prove to be a barrier in the future

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STRUCTURE, AGENCY AND CHANGE IN THE CAR REGIME. A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

This paper is aimed at filling the gap between the already well structured literature on the 'car regime' and the debate on policies for sustainable transport. Two main results emerge from the literature on the past and current evolution of the car regime: ? the car regime was established thanks to the ability of purposeful private actors to use the technology of internal combustion to influence markets and institutions, and finally society as a whole; ? previous attempts to make urban and regional mobility more sustainable fail because multiple – and mutually reinforcing – path-dependence phenomena lock the society into the car regime. For the future, the dominant scenario appears to be the internal transformation of the existing car regime, which is currently driven by the automotive industry and based on hybrid technology; the emergence of an alternative electric car regime – driven by producers of batteries and managers of electric utilities – remains a secondary option. Further research is needed to understand how – starting from the existing alternatives to the car and the innovations in the car itself – a coalition of public and private actors may be promoted and sustained to create a new regime of sustainable mobility.Car-based mobility; Regime; Sustainable Transport; Transport Policy

Self-Sustaining Caching Stations: Towards Cost-Effective 5G-Enabled Vehicular Networks

In this article, we investigate the cost-effective 5G-enabled vehicular networks to support emerging vehicular applications, such as autonomous driving, in-car infotainment and location-based road services. To this end, self-sustaining caching stations (SCSs) are introduced to liberate on-road base stations from the constraints of power lines and wired backhauls. Specifically, the cache-enabled SCSs are powered by renewable energy and connected to core networks through wireless backhauls, which can realize "drop-and-play" deployment, green operation, and low-latency services. With SCSs integrated, a 5G-enabled heterogeneous vehicular networking architecture is further proposed, where SCSs are deployed along roadside for traffic offloading while conventional macro base stations (MBSs) provide ubiquitous coverage to vehicles. In addition, a hierarchical network management framework is designed to deal with high dynamics in vehicular traffic and renewable energy, where content caching, energy management and traffic steering are jointly investigated to optimize the service capability of SCSs with balanced power demand and supply in different time scales. Case studies are provided to illustrate SCS deployment and operation designs, and some open research issues are also discussed.Comment: IEEE Communications Magazine, to appea

The slow implementation of sustainable innovations in the asphalt paving sector: the role of actors and their interactions

International climate agreements and government policies, push the road construction industry towards more sustainable practices using alternative materials, new production techniques, and more efficient construction processes. Despite the broad availability of these sustainable solutions, their adoption is slow and uncertain. The reasons behind this remain unclear. This study employs a system innovation perspective to analyze the process that leads to the implementation of sustainable innovations in the Dutch asphalt paving sector. By exploring actors’ roles and their interactions at different stages of the process, we aim to identify key aspects influencing the pace and outcome of the innovation implementation process in the industry. The results highlight that (1) the asphalt paving sector is anchored in a project perspective that often overlooks long-term sustainability goals, (2) several key innovation roles are not fully fulfilled, and the absence of a coordinating role is leading to misunderstandings, and (3) monitoring at both the project and sector levels is lacking; there is no holistic assessment of the overall impact of innovations. Overall, the findings suggest that sustainable innovation processes in Dutch asphalt paving remain confined to the niche level, which can be overcome by redistributing actors' responsibilities, addressing the lack of system monitoring, and overcoming the project perspective could help address the challenges in the process

Innovation Systems in the Terms of Schumpeterian Crea-tive Destruction

‘Creative destruction\u27 is one of the most important analytical tools, taking into consideration both the economic and sociological characteristics of capitalist society. According to Schumpeter, in the long term, evolution gives rise to economic develo-pment resulting from batches of innovative solutions, leading to improvements in the standard of living. The innovation activity of firms is based on supply-side factors, hence it is large en-terprises that excel in innovation since they strive to achieve a monopoly market posi-tion and above-average profits. Schumpeter attempts to combine two elements: the spread of monopolies and the con-tinuation of economic development, both occurring through innovation, which is far more important than price competition. The Schumpeterian ‘creative destruction\u27 permeates the main aspects of macroeconomic activity, not only in the long term, but also in the area of economic fluctuations, structural changes, or the functioning of markets. As a result, it becomes a factor determining changes in the economic order