European perspectives on a new fiscal framework for transport

This chapter presents an overview of changes in transport taxation in European countries to promote more sustainable transport. A number of changes in the framework of car taxation have resulted in some useful environmental gains. However, these changes are limited because the transport tax system has been designed to produce a substantial income from internal-combustion-engine vehicles in an easily administered form. A major restructuring of transport taxation is required to fully address a different goal – that of stimulating improvements to environmental performance. A generalised road user charging-based system could be the way forward. Such a system is now seen by several European countries and some USA states as the transport taxation regime for the 21st century. Tax regime change is emerging onto the transport policy agenda as a vital long-term strategy. Largely by default, transport policy-makers are coming to realise that road taxation regime change is inevitable if traffic and congestion management is to be a reality. The way we taxed vehicles and fuel in the 20th century is simply not appropriate for the transport challenges we face today

Taxation Futures for Sustainable Mobility: final report to the ESRC

The existing transport tax and charging regime has stimulated limited behavioural change and has been politically problematic (as demonstrated by the September 2000 fuel duty protests). This project synthesised a range of research that has explored ways in which road user charging could replace the present regime based on taxing fuels and car ownership. In 2002, when this project was proposed, this was a fringe transport policy issue. Throughout 2003 the subject achieved a sudden prominence, with a government working party being established to explore the possibility of long-term area-wide road user charging. A tax regime change towards a car road user charge for cars has occurred, or is being considered, in societies as contrasting as Oregon State in the USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, reflecting a range of policy considerations. For the UK, these include: the ongoing failure of transport policy measures to achieve adequate cuts in congestion and emissions; the success of the London Congestion Charge; the rise in the cost of transport policy interventions; the reduction in Treasury income of eco-reforms to the current tax regime; and the difficulties of, and equity issues relating to, taxing fuel in a future multi-fuel transport sector. The project developed tax change scenarios in conjunction with the project's user group (including policymakers, NGOs and researchers). Five scenarios were modelled using an adaptation of the Dutch Mobility Explorer program. An 'opt-in' transitional policy mechanism involved replacing VED with a small flat-rate kilometre charge for cars of 0.77 p/km. The model suggested it would have little policy impact, but could be used to familiarise car drivers with the concept of a distance charge. A fiscally neutral scenario involved the replacement of VED and Fuel Duty with a banded kilometre charge for cars of between 2.3 and 8.5 p/km (varied by the environmental performance of the vehicle type). This induced little behaviour change, reducing car driver mobility by only 4%. A further scenario, restored the tax revenues lost from post-2000 tax changes, generating an additional £3 billion or £6b per annum. These reduced car driver mobility by 9% - 14%, and total CO2 emissions were predicted to drop by 6% - 9% by 2015, compared to the base scenario. The type of change involved in the revenue-raising scenarios is significant. There would be only a small increase in the use of public transport, with the predominant response being the better utilisation of cars with higher occupancy and more linking of trips to cut distances driven. The project results suggest that road user charging may deliver more revenue stability than fuel taxation. However, clarity is needed over the policy goals – congestion reduction, emission reduction, revenue stability – for a national road user charge, because the goals are not necessarily complementary. It should also be emphasised that a change of tax regime would not remove the need the hard political decisions in this area

Sheffield city story

La Fabrique de la Cité, a French foundation sponsored by Vinci, funded LSE Housing and Communities to produce seven updated city reports on Leipzig and six other European cities, following our initial reports in 2007. The financial crisis, Eurozone troubles and six-year recession have changed the fortunes of these hard-hit, former industrial cities yet again. These seven stories are up-to-the-minute, grounded evidence of the capacity of cities to recreate themselves as the Phoenix. Each city story is unusual in focussing on a single city and looking in depth at how it survives and thrives, or struggles. The reports draw on the earlier work of Jörg Plöger and Astrid Winkler who wrote the original city reports published in 2007, and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to them for their outstanding research, their meticulous evidence and their direct accounts of visits to the sites. We revisited all the cities several times since 2008, and this report is based on visits to Leipzig and interviews with city stakeholders. It also draws on previous research, city reports and wider evidence. We want to thank all those we met and interviewed, the projects we spent time in, all the residents, officials and programme leaders who shared their insights. In particular we thank Isabella Kohlass-Webber, Jan Richert and Ilke Rzymann. Without their input, the reports would not reflect the dynamic reality of changing cities

Belfast city story

La Fabrique de la Cité, a French foundation sponsored by Vinci, funded LSE Housing and Communities to produce seven updated city reports on Leipzig and six other European cities, following our initial reports in 2007. The financial crisis, Eurozone troubles and six-year recession have changed the fortunes of these hard-hit, former industrial cities yet again. These seven stories are up-to-the-minute, grounded evidence of the capacity of cities to recreate themselves as the Phoenix. Each city story is unusual in focussing on a single city and looking in depth at how it survives and thrives, or struggles. The reports draw on the earlier work of Jörg Plöger and Astrid Winkler who wrote the original city reports published in 2007, and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to them for their outstanding research, their meticulous evidence and their direct accounts of visits to the sites. We revisited all the cities several times since 2008, and this report is based on visits to Leipzig and interviews with city stakeholders. It also draws on previous research, city reports and wider evidence. We want to thank all those we met and interviewed, the projects we spent time in, all the residents, officials and programme leaders who shared their insights. In particular we thank Isabella Kohlass-Webber, Jan Richert and Ilke Rzymann. Without their input, the reports would not reflect the dynamic reality of changing cities

Taxing Cars With Attitude

It is now becoming clear that the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association) CO2 voluntary agreement for a reduction to 140 g/km for 2008-2009 is unlikely to be met. Furthermore, delivering the target of 120 g/km by 2012 now looks improbable. Although pressure for mandatory regulation grows, for a limited time there remains an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of existing consumer price signals to encourage the uptake of low carbon cars. This paper proposes a new approach to designing an effective low carbon taxation regime. This is to start by identifying the most accessible attitudinal levers with which to modify consumer behaviour. This achieved, a taxation system is then devised to influence attitudes and behaviour to maximum effect. In this way, the attitude-action gap is bridged, exploiting the most efficient links between tax policy, consumer attitudes, car purchasing behaviour and carbon impact

Ben Lane Posey to Kinloch Falconer (19 May 1864)

Stewart\u27s Division, Army of Tennessee. Letter discussing a misguided Telegram.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ciwar_corresp/1366/thumbnail.jp

Curricula for Teaching MRI Safety and MRI/CT Contrast Safety To Residents: How Effective Are Live Lectures and Online Modules?

Purpose The advent of the diagnostic radiology core examination and the new ACGME “milestone” evaluation system for radiology residents places new emphasis on topics in MRI and CT safety, and MRI and CT contrast agents. We evaluated whether either lecture-based teaching or online modules would improve baseline resident knowledge in these areas, and assessed which intervention was more effective. Methods Before didactic intervention, 2 cohorts were created from 57 radiology residents, with equal numbers and a matched level of training. The residents were tested on their baseline knowledge of MRI, MRI contrast safety, and CT contrast safety, using a multiple-choice examination. One group attended a live, 1-hour lecture on the preceding topics. The other engaged in 3 short online educational modules. After 6 weeks, the residents were again tested with the same questions to assess for improvement in their understanding. Results Both the module and lecture cohorts demonstrated a statistically significant increase in questions answered correctly on CT contrast safety (13.1%, P < .001, and 19.1%, P < .001, respectively), and on MRI and MRI contrast safety (12.9%, P < .001, and 14.4%, P < .001). The preintervention and postintervention scores, and degree of improvement postintervention, were similar for the module versus lecture groups, without a statistically significant difference (P = .70). Resident confidence improved in both groups, for both modalities. Conclusions Focused didactic intervention improves resident knowledge of MRI and CT safety, and MRI and CT contrast agents. Live lectures and online modules can be equally effective, allowing residency programs flexibility

Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence to Discover Interactions in an Ecological Model for Obesity

Ecological theories suggest that environmental, social, and individual factors interact to cause obesity. Yet, many analytic techniques, such as multilevel modeling, require manual specification of interacting factors, making them inept in their ability to search for interactions. This paper shows evidence that an explainable artificial intelligence approach, commonly employed in genomics research, can address this problem. The method entails using random intersection trees to decode interactions learned by random forest models. Here, this approach is used to extract interactions between features of a multi-level environment from random forest models of waist-to-height ratios using 11,112 participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. This study shows that methods used to discover interactions between genes can also discover interacting features of the environment that impact obesity. This new approach to modeling ecosystems may help shine a spotlight on combinations of environmental features that are important to obesity, as well as other health outcomes

Tests of predictions associated with temporal changes in Australian bird populations

Global biodiversity loss is the cumulative result of local species declines. To combat biodiversity loss, detailed information on the temporal trends of at-risk species at local scales is needed. Here we report the results of a 13-year study of temporal change in bird occupancy in one of the most heavily modified biomes worldwide; the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia. We sought to determine if temporal changes in bird species were different between three broad native vegetation types (old-growth woodland, regrowth woodland and restoration plantings) and between species traits (body size, migratory status, rarity, woodland dependency, or diet). We found evidence of decline for over a quarter of all bird species for which we had sufficient data for detailed analysis (30 out of 108 species). In contrast, only 14 species increased significantly. Temporal change of birds was linked to life-history attributes, with patterns often being habitat-dependent. Nectarivores and large-bodied birds declined across all vegetation types, whereas small-bodied species increased, particularly in restoration plantings. Contrasting with patterns documented elsewhere, resident but not migratory species declined, with this trend strongest in restoration plantings. Finally, our analyses showed that, as a group, common birds tended to decline whereas rare birds tended to increase, with effects for both most pronounced in restoration plantings. Our results highlight the benefit of targeted restoration planting for some species, but also demonstrate that many common species that have long-persisted in human-dominated landscapes are experiencing severe declines. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record*

Characterisation of ball degradation events in professional tennis

Tennis balls are acknowledged to degrade with use and are replaced at regular intervals during professional matches to maintain consistency and uniformity in performance, such that the game is not adversely affected. Balls are subject to the international tennis federation’s (ITF) ball approval process, which includes a degradation test to ensure a minimum standard of performance. The aim of this investigation was to establish if the ITF degradation test can assess ball longevity and rate of degradation and determine if there is a need for a new degradation test that is more representative of in-play conditions. Ball tracking data from four different professional events, spanning the three major court surfaces, including both men’s and women’s matches were analysed. The frequency of first serves, second serves, racket impacts and surface impacts were assessed and the corresponding distribution of ball speed and (for surface impacts) impact angle was determined. Comparison of ball impact frequency and conditions between in-play data and the ITF degradation test indicated the development of a new test, more representative of in-play data, would be advantageous in determining ball longevity and rate of degradation with use. Assessment of data from different surfaces highlighted that grass court subjected the ball to fewer racket and surface impacts than hard court or clay. In turn, this appears to influence the distribution of ball speed on impact with the surface or racket, suggesting a surface-specific degradation test may be beneficial. As a result of these findings a new test protocol has been proposed, utilising the in-play data, to define the frequency of impacts and impact conditions to equate to nine games of professional tennis across the different surfaces