Public policy labs in European Union members states

Policy Labs are emerging structures that construct public policies in an innovative, design-oriented fashion, in particular by engaging citizens and companies working within the public sector. Currently, a number of Policy Labs exist in a handful of Member States of the European Union. Interest stemming from administrations and government organizations in other Member States indicate the objective to create a Lab, many of whom have a desire to build upon the experience and best practices of their peers. The EU Policy Lab at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre wishes to enable such collaboration and commissioned the creation of a map of Policy Labs in the European Union by Conseil & Recherche and the 27e Région. This map and report enables the first step of that process by identifying 'who works on what?' at the local, regional, and national levels of government. It is intended to be a living document which can evolve and expand over time to reflect the progress, diversity, and evolution of Policy Labs in Europe.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Polic

Did policies to abate atmospheric emissions from traffic have a positive effect in London?

AbstractA large number of policy initiatives are being taken at the European level, across the United Kingdom and in London to improve air quality and reduce population exposure to harmful pollutants from traffic emissions. Trends in roadside increments of nitrogen oxides (NOX), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM), black carbon (CBLK) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were examined at 65 London monitoring sites for two periods of time: 2005–2009 and 2010–2014. Between 2005 and 2009 there was an overall increase in NO2 reflecting the growing evidence of real world emissions from diesel vehicles. Conversely, NO2 decreased by 10%·year−1 from 2010 onwards along with PM2.5 (−28%·year−1) and black carbon (−11%·year−1). Downwards trends in air pollutants were not fully explained by changes in traffic counts therefore traffic exhaust emission abatement policies were proved to be successful in some locations. PM10 concentrations showed no significant overall change suggesting an increase in coarse particles which offset the decrease in tailpipe emissions; this was especially the case on roads in outer London where an increase in the number of Heavy Good Vehicles (HGVs) was seen. The majority of roads with increasing NOX experienced an increase in buses and coaches. Changes in CO2 from 2010 onwards did not match the downward predictions from reduced traffic flows and improved fleet efficiency. CO2 increased along with increasing HGVs and buses. Polices to manage air pollution provided differential benefits across London's road network. To investigate this, k-means clustering technique was applied to group roads which behaved similarly in terms of trends to evaluate the effectiveness of policies to mitigate traffic emissions. This is the first time that London's roadside monitoring sites have been considered as a population rather than summarized as a mean behaviour only, allowing greater insight into the differential changes in air pollution abatement policies

A closer look at the pppp-chain reaction in the Sun: Constraining the coupling of light mediators to protons

The $pp$-chain of nuclear reactions is the primary route for energy production in the Sun. The first step in that reaction sequence converts two protons to a deuterium nucleus with the emission of a positron and electron neutrino. This reaction is extremely slow because it is a weak interaction, and significantly, it involves quantum tunneling through the Coulomb barrier. Though the reaction rate can be calculated with high confidence in the Standard Model, it has not been measured at solar energies. If there exist interactions that are engendered by non-standard mediators then the rate of this reaction in the Sun could be altered. We probe such non-standard interactions by comparing calculations of solar evolution to the current solar system age in the presence and absence of the non-standard mediators. These reveal ranges of non-standard mediator mass and couplings that are inconsistent with measured properties of the Sun, including solar neutrino results. Our constraints on these non-standard parameters, in many cases overlapping those derived via other considerations, could be extended further with better confidence in the value of the metalicity of the Sun and the solar neutrino CNO flux. Intriguingly, our work reveals a degeneracy between the solar metalicity and the presence of the invoked non-standard mediators.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures. Extended discussion on the changes in the Coulomb barriers in other nuclear reactions in the Sun. Matches version accepted in JCA

Risk-Sharing in Retiree Medical Benefits

Retiree medical care expenditures in the United States are growing at a rapid rate, while and the retired portion of the population is increasing. This puts pressure on government and employer programs providing retiree health care coverage. Retirees also face increasing challenges in gaining access to affordable coverage, particularly before eligibility for Medicare. In this chapter we assess prospects for US retiree health coverage and the challenges, risks, and roles of employers, Medicare, and retirees in providing and financing it. We discuss both traditional approaches to retiree health benefits, where the employer assumes most risk, and new defined contribution approaches, where significant risk is shifted to the retiree. We also review government benefits for retirees including new Medicare prescription drug benefits. We model future retiree health care costs and opportunities to save before retiring, highlighting public policy obstacles and issues for employer-provided retiree health benefit

Comparison of copper imine and amine podates: geometric consequences of podand size and donor type

The imine podands tris[(2-nitrobenzylidene)aminoethyl]amine and tris[(2-nitrobenzylidene)aminopropyl]amine both stabilize copper(I), forming {tris[(2-nitrobenzylidene)aminoethyl]amine-κ4 N}copper(I) perchlorate aceto-nitrile disolvate, [Cu(C27H27N7O6)]ClO4.2CH3CN, (II), and {tris[(2-nitrobenzylidene)aminopropyl]amine-κ4 N}copper(I) perchlorate, [Cu(C30H33N7O6)]ClO4, (VI), respectively. The larger propyl-based ligand is a poorer fit for the CuI ion. The reduced amine podand tris[(2-nitrobenzyl)aminoethyl]amine binds CuII and the resulting compound, chloro{tris[(2-nitrobenzyl)aminoethyl]amine-κ4 N}copper(II) chloride ethanol solvate, [Cu(C27H33N7O6)Cl]Cl.C2H5OH, (IV), shows both intra- and inter-molecular hydrogen bonding, which gives rise to RRS or SSR conformations in the podand strands rather than the expected pseudo-threefold symmetry

Natchez Bluffs Cuisine and the Transition to Maize Agriculture (AD 750-1500)

This dissertation investigates the relationship between food and social identity for Native groups in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) during the transition to maize agriculture. The intensification of maize agriculture in the LMV is notable because it occurred several hundred years after surrounding regions. Previous studies have focused on why LMV communities adopted maize, ignoring how maize was added to existing foodways. Data from ceramics and plant remains from communal gathering spaces at six sites in the Natchez Bluffs region—Feltus (22Je500), Smith Creek (22Wk526), Center’s Creek (22Cb518), Bayou Pierre (22Cb534), Lessley (22Wk504), and Fatherland (22Ad501)—support the conclusion that communities in the region had a longstanding shared cuisine. Notably, these sites span the periods before and after maize was introduced and intensified (AD 750–1500), indicating that maize was an addition, rather than a disruption, to existing cuisine practices. Plant data indicate that Natchez Bluffs communities relied on a mixture of nuts and starchy seeds, some of which were cultivated. The types and amounts of plant foods used does not dramatically change following the intensification of maize, indicating continuity in cuisine staples. Ceramic evidence reveals that the forms and sizes of ceramic vessel that communities used to cook and serve their food was consistent through time, suggesting people adapted maize to existing cooking techniques and routines. Taken together, the plant and ceramic evidence demonstrate a consistent cuisine through time, as communities made use of similar types of ingredients and cooking styles despite the addition of maize. While the content of cuisine was not considerably altered, ceramic evidence and contextual data indicate that the performance of community meals shifted from humble and integrative to fancy and prestige-building over time. Differences in use-wear patterns on bowls from pre- and post-maize contexts suggest changes in how and where the meal was prepared. Additionally, large serving vessels, which were primarily plain and undecorated in the pre-maize periods, are elaborately decorated in post-maize contexts. Contextual data also indicate that some portion of the community began living in these gathering spaces in the post-maize period. I interpret these lines of evidence together as indicating that communal meals had taken on a prestige-building component for host communities. I argue that these findings demonstrate that a shared cuisine tradition remained important to Natchez Bluffs communities, despite shifting social relationships. Overall, this project demonstrates the dynamic relationship between continuity and change within cuisine practices through time.Doctor of Philosoph

Anna Curtis Chandler Correspondence

Entries include a typed letter from Fish on Fred A. Stokes Company Publishers, Canada, stationery, correspondence from the Maine State Library to Chandler at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, and handwritten letters from Chandler on personal stationery

Comparing SNP Panels and Statistical Methods for Estimating Genomic Breed Composition of Individual Animals in Ten Cattle Breeds

Background: SNPs are informative to estimate genomic breed composition (GBC) of individual animals, but selected SNPs for this purpose were not made available in the commercial bovine SNP chips prior to the present study. The primary objective of the present study was to select five common SNP panels for estimating GBC of individual animals initially involving 10 cattle breeds (two dairy breeds and eight beef breeds). The performance of the five common SNP panels was evaluated based on admixture model and linear regression model, respectively. Finally, the downstream implication of GBC on genomic prediction accuracies was investigated and discussed in a Santa Gertrudis cattle population. Results: There were 15,708 common SNPs across five currently-available commercial bovine SNP chips. From this set, four subsets (1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 SNPs) were selected by maximizing average Euclidean distance (AED) of SNP allelic frequencies among the ten cattle breeds. For 198 animals presented as Akaushi, estimated GBC of the Akaushi breed (GBCA) based on the admixture model agreed very well among the five SNP panels, identifying 166 animals with GBCA = 1. Using the same SNP panels, the linear regression approach reported fewer animals with GBCA = 1. Nevertheless, estimated GBCA using both models were highly correlated (r = 0.953 to 0.992). In the genomic prediction of a Santa Gertrudis population (and crosses), the results showed that the predictability of molecular breeding values using SNP effects obtained from 1,225 animals with no less than 0.90 GBC of Santa Gertrudis (GBCSG) decreased on crossbred animals with lower GBCSG. Conclusions: Of the two statistical models used to compute GBC, the admixture model gave more consistent results among the five selected SNP panels than the linear regression model. The availability of these common SNP panels facilitates identification and estimation of breed compositions using currently-available bovine SNP chips. In view of utility, the 1 K panel is the most cost effective and it is convenient to be included as add-on content in future development of bovine SNP chips, whereas the 10 K and 16 K SNP panels can be more resourceful if used independently for imputation to intermediate or high-density genotypes