20,916 research outputs found
Poverty and social policy in Europe 2020: ungovernable and ungoverned
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Policy and Politics. The definitive publisher-authenticated version of: Copeland, Paul, and Mary Daly. "Poverty and social policy in Europe 2020: ungovernable and ungoverned." Policy & Politics 42.3 (2014): 351-365 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557312X655503This article examines the latest iteration of EU social policy â the target to reduce poverty and social exclusion by 20 million. The application of a three-part conceptual matrix â focused on ideas, politics and governance â indicates key weaknesses. The target is ungovernable because it melds different approaches to poverty and social exclusion and because of the leeway to Member States to adopt an approach of their own choice. And the target is ungoverned because of low political priority and uncertainty around its legal status, as well as ambiguity over how it fits into the Europe 2020 governance process
Recommended from our members
Functional significance of human female orgasm still hypothetical
The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000Human males are more polygamously inclined than females. However, there is substantial within-sex variation in polygamous inclinations and practices. This is acknowledged by Gangestad & Simpson but we pose the question: Is the target article's âstrategic pluralismâ pluralistic enough? In addition, we argue that the hypothesis that the female orgasm is an adaptation for post-copulatory female choice between rival ejaculates demands more research
Environmental aspects of soil phosphorus testing
peer-reviewedSoil phosphorus testing in Ireland uses Morganâs reagent from samples taken to 10 cm
depth for agronomic recommendations. However, its suitability as an environmental
indicator has been questioned in terms of sample depth and extraction solution. Seven
grassland sites were sampled to depths of 2, 5 and 10 cm and extracted for Morganâs
P, the standard agronomic test, as well as iron-oxide impregnated paper strip P (FeOP),
calcium chloride extractable P (CaCl2-P) and water soluble P (WSP), all proposed
as environmental soil tests. Extractable soil P decreased with increasing sample depth,
as did variances in each test, such that, 2 cm samples had highest concentrations and
variances. The current standard sample depth (10 cm) was linearly related to corresponding
data from samples taken to 2 and 5 cm, indicating that surface soil P can be
consistently estimated from the current standard depth. When soil tests were compared
with dissolved reactive P (DRP) in overland flow collected from two field sites,
certain soil tests were better indicators of P loss than others. The relative difference in
Morganâs P values at the standard sample depth (10 cm) was reflected in the relative
difference in P loss between the two sites. Average values of DRP collected from two
sites ranged from 0.032 to 0.067 mg/l at the low P site and 0.261 to 0.620 at the high P
site. Average DRP values from the high P site and maximum DRP values from the low
P site were simulated using water-soluble P extraction at water to soil ratios 5 to 250
l/kg. In this study, Morganâs P to 10 cm gave a good indication of the relative difference in DRP loss between the two sites
2000 Survey of Rhode Island Law: Legislation: Criminal Law: An Act Relating to Criminal Offenses - Impersonation - Identity Fraud, An Act Relating to Uniform Controlled Substances
Road-traffic pollution and asthma â using modelled exposure assessment for routine public health surveillance
Asthma is a common disease and appears to be increasing in prevalence. There is evidence linking air pollution, including that from road-traffic, with asthma. Road traffic is also on the increase. Routine surveillance of the impact of road-traffic pollution on asthma, and other diseases, would be useful in informing local and national government policy in terms of managing the environmental health risk.
Several methods for exposure assessment have been used in studies examining the association between asthma and road traffic pollution. These include comparing asthma prevalence in areas designated as high and low pollution areas, using distance from main roads as a proxy for exposure to road traffic pollution, using traffic counts to estimate exposure, using vehicular miles travelled and using modelling techniques. Although there are limitations to all these methods, the modelling approach has the advantage of incorporating several variables and may be used for prospective health impact assessment.
The modelling approach is already in routine use in the United Kingdom in support of the government's strategy for air quality management. Combining information from such models with routinely collected health data would form the basis of a routine public health surveillance system. Such a system would facilitate prospective health impact assessment, enabling policy decisions concerned with road-traffic to be made with knowledge of the potential implications. It would also allow systematic monitoring of the health impacts when the policy decisions and plans have been implemented
Recommended from our members
Socio-technical transitions towards environmental sustainability through green ICT
We adopt the broad conceptualisation of Green Information Communication Technology (ICT) used by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), incorporating perspectives on Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) which has currency with both business practitioners and policy makers. The objective of our research is to develop a theory of the institutional mechanisms that underpin socio-technical transitions to environmental sustainability through the direct, indirect and systematic effects of Green ICT in and across organisational fields. We construct our theory by drawing on published research in several disciplines focusing on the organisational field of the ICT industry. We present a mechanism-based theoretical model that explains how institutional change in organisational fields can evoke appropriate socio-technical transitions and organisational responses to Green ICT. Systems researchers agree that Green ICT can help lower GHG emissions directly, through energy efficiencies and indirectly by enabling environmentally sustainable business processes. If this research is to be of theoretical or practical relevance it must recognize that government organizations and business enterprises may not adopt policies and strategies on Green ICT because it is rational or moral to do so rather, a web of social, and institutional mechanisms interact to produce the outcomes observed in practice
Determinants of Exchange Rate Practices in the MENA Countries: Some Further Empirical Results
This paper analyses the determinants of exchange rate practices in 15 MENA countries for the 1977- 2007 period placing special emphasis on structural and macroeconomic explanations. We use three different exchange rate regime classifications in order to avoid potentially misleading specification. Even though the empirical results using the de facto classifications are very different from those obtained from the de jure specification, we find that international reserves play a major role in determining exchange rate practices in the MENA countries.Exchange rate regimes, MENA countries, ordered Probit model.
Comparison of passive microwave and modeled estimates of total watershed SWE in the continental United States
In the U.S., a dedicated system of snow measurement stations and snowpack modeling products is available to estimate the snow water equivalent (SWE) throughout the winter season. In other regions of the world that depend on snowmelt for water resources, snow data can be scarce, and these regions are vulnerable to drought or flood conditions. Even in the U.S., water resource management is hampered by limited snow data in certain regions, as evident by the 2011 Missouri Basin flooding due in large part to the significant Plains snowpack. Satellite data could potentially provide important information in underâsampled areas. This study compared the daily AMSRâE and SSM/I SWE products over nine winter seasons to spatially distributed, modeled output SNODAS summed over 2100 watersheds in the conterminous U.S. Results show large areas where the passive microwave retrievals are highly correlated to the SNODAS data, particularly in the northern Great Plains and southern Rocky Mountain regions. However, the passive microwave SWE is significantly lower than SNODAS in heavily forested areas, and regions that typically receive a deep snowpack. The best correlations are associated with basins in which maximum annual SWE is less than 200 mm, and forest fraction is less than 20%. Even in many watersheds with poor correlations between the passive microwave data and SNODAS maximum annual SWE values, the overall pattern of accumulation and ablation did show good agreement and therefore may provide useful hydrologic information on melt timing and season length
Recommended from our members
Health Beliefs in the Bangladeshi Community in Tower Hamlets: An Exploratory study of beliefs relating to food
- âŠ