Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability

Digital Health Solutions to Reduce the Burden of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Proposed by the CARRIER Consortium

Digital health is a promising tool to support people with an elevated risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and patients with an established disease to improve cardiovascular outcomes. Many digital health initiatives have been developed and employed. However, barriers to their large-scale implementation have remained. This paper focuses on these barriers and presents solutions as proposed by the Dutch CARRIER (ie, Coronary ARtery disease: Risk estimations and Interventions for prevention and EaRly detection) consortium. We will focus in 4 sections on the following: (1) the development process of an eHealth solution that will include design thinking and cocreation with relevant stakeholders; (2) the modeling approach for two clinical prediction models (CPMs) to identify people at risk of developing ASCVD and to guide interventions; (3) description of a federated data infrastructure to train the CPMs and to provide the eHealth solution with relevant data; and (4) discussion of an ethical and legal framework for responsible data handling in health care. The Dutch CARRIER consortium consists of a collaboration between experts in the fields of eHealth development, ASCVD, public health, big data, as well as ethics and law. The consortium focuses on reducing the burden of ASCVD. We believe the future of health care is data driven and supported by digital health. Therefore, we hope that our research will not only facilitate CARRIER consortium but may also facilitate other future health care initiatives

Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Electrolytic hydrogen has to show its true colors

Kenneth Bruninx is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management of the TU Delft. He is also a research fellow at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences of KU Leuven. His research focuses on energy policy and energy market design for integrated, decarbonized energy systems. He holds a MSc in management, a MSc in energy engineering, and a PhD in mechanical engineering from KU Leuven. Jorge A. Moncada is a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) at the KU Leuven and EnergyVille. His research interests focus on understanding the socio-technical dynamics of low-carbon transitions by combining insights from the behavioral sciences and neo-institutional economics with advances in agent-based modeling. He holds a MSc in chemical engineering from the National University of Colombia, a Professional Doctorate in engineering (PDEng) and a PhD in energy system analysis and modeling from TU Delft. Marten Ovaere is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics of Ghent University and is funded by the Research Foundation- Flanders ( FWO). He is also a fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. His research interests lie in energy and environmental economics, with a focus on electricity markets, carbon pricing, and renewable energy. Marten holds a MSc in economics, a MSc in energy engineering, and a PhD in economics from KU Leuven.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Energie and Industri

Using clinical prediction models to personalise lifestyle interventions for cardiovascular disease prevention: A systematic literature review

This study aimed to systematically review the use of clinical prediction models (CPMs) in personalised lifestyle interventions for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. We searched PubMed and PsycInfo for articles describing relevant studies published up to August 1, 2021. These were supplemented with items retrieved via screening references of citations and cited by references. In total, 32 studies were included. Nineteen different CPMs were used to guide the intervention. Most frequently, a version of the Framingham risk score was used. The CPM was used to inform the intensity of the intervention in five studies (16 %), and the intervention's type in 31 studies (97 %). The CPM was supplemented with relative risk estimates for additional risk factors in three studies (9 %), and relative risk estimates for intervention effects in four (13 %). In addition to the estimated risk, the personalisation was determined using criteria based on univariable risk factors in 18 studies (56 %), a lifestyle score in three (9 %), and a physical examination index in one (3 %). We noted insufficient detail in reporting regarding the CPM's use in 20 studies (63 %). In 15 studies (47 %), the primary outcome was a CPM estimate. A statistically significant effect favouring the intervention to the comparator arm was reported in four out of eight analyses (50 %), and a statistically significant improvement compared to baseline in five out of seven analyses (71 %). Due to the design of the included studies, the effect of the use of CPMs is still unclear. Therefore, we see a need for future research

Sensitization to common aeroallergens in patients at an outpatient ENT clinic

The epidemiology of specific sensitization to inhalant allergens remains unknown in patients at tertiary rhinology clinics. We used skin prick testing (SPT) to assess sensitization to major aeroallergens in order to evaluate the prevalence of specific rhinologic diseases, the frequency of polysensitization and the relationship between nasal symptoms, nasal endoscopy parameters, diagnosis and sensitization. A retrospective review of medical records was conducted at the ENT Department of the Catholic University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium. The study analyzed the medical data of patients with rhinologic symptoms suspected of having allergies. The study included 1326 patients with a mean age of 35 +/- 18 years (range: 3-88 years); 52.8% were males. Rhinitis without nasal abnormalities (42.1%), chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (16.5%) and nasal abnormalities (16.1%) were the most prevalent findings. About 31.6% of patients were sensitive to at least one allergen, and the most common aeroallergens were dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (62.1%) and grass pollen (53.2%). Polysensitization was found in 54.2%. The most prevalent clinical symptoms in allergic rhinitis patients were nasal obstruction, clear/watery nasal discharge, sneezing, postnasal drip and headache. Clear nasal discharge, sneezing, and itchy nose and eyes (p <0.05 for all) were significantly higher in sensitized patients. In contrast, postnasal drip, headache and purulent nasal discharge were also observed in non-sensitized patients (p <0.05 for all). At a rhinology clinic at a university ENT clinic, 31.6% of the patients had positive SPT results, mainly to house dust mites and grass pollen. Among sensitized patients, 54.2% were polysensitize