Policy selection in renewable energy transitions. Acceptance and resistance in Switzerland

When the Swiss people supported the new energy act in May 2017 it cleared the path to embark on a journey to restructure Switzerland’s energy system. The decision puts a lot of pressure on Switzerland because currently nuclear power constitutes more than a third of domestic electricity production. By 2035 all nuclear power plants will be off the grid as they reach the maximum running time in what they can be operated securely. The gap in electricity production will have to be replaced with other energy sources such as water, solar, wind or geothermal power. More generally speaking, Switzerland needs to change the general structure of its energy system in order to comply with the newly adopted targets. This thus raises the general question how and with what means can Switzerland achieve such a restructuring of its energy sector? As policy selection in a transitional setting is a dynamic process that involves multiple actors who need to accept and sometimes actively support policy instruments or the policy mix as a whole it is central from a societal and research perspective to shed light on the factors that lead to a desirable policy output. Besides this actor-centered perspective, different contexts or institutional settings may also affect the design of the policy mix that supports the Swiss energy transition. To shed light onto this crucial aspect of energy transitions, the overarching research question of this dissertation is thus what drives policy selection in the context of the Swiss renewable energy transition?Als die Schweizer Bevölkerung im Mai 2017 das neue Energiegesetz unterstützte, machte es den Weg frei, um den Weg für den Umbau des schweizerischen Energiesystems zu beschreiten. Der Entscheid setzt die Schweiz stark unter Druck, da die Kernenergie derzeit mehr als ein Drittel der inländischen Stromproduktion ausmacht. Bis 2035 werden alle Kernkraftwerke vom Netz gehen, da sie die maximale Laufzeit in einem sicheren Betrieb erreichen werden. Die Lücke in der Stromproduktion muss durch andere Energiequellen wie Wasser, Sonne, Wind oder Erdwärme ersetzt werden. Ganz allgemein muss die Schweiz die allgemeine Struktur ihres Energiesystems ändern, um die neu beschlossenen Ziele zu erreichen. Damit stellt sich die allgemeine Frage, wie und mit welchen Mitteln die Schweiz eine solche Umstrukturierung ihres Energiesektors erreichen kann. Da die Politikauswahl in einem Transitionssetting ein dynamischer Prozess ist, an dem eine Vielzahl von Akteuren beteiligt ist, die die Politikinstrumente oder den Policy-Mix als Ganzes akzeptieren und manchmal auch aktiv unterstützen müssen, ist es aus gesellschaftlicher und forschungspolitischer Sicht von zentraler Bedeutung, die Faktoren zu beleuchten, die zu einem wünschenswerten Politikoutput führen. Neben dieser akteurszentrierten Perspektive können auch unterschiedliche Kontexte oder institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen die Gestaltung des Policy-Mixes beeinflussen, der den Schweizer Energiewandel unterstützt. Um diesen entscheidenden Aspekt der Energiewende zu beleuchten, lautet die übergreifende Forschungsfrage dieser Dissertation daher: Was treibt die Politikauswahl im Kontext der Schweizer Energiewende an

Development of a Women\u27s Health Care Course at Eastern Illinois University

The problems of this study were to develop a new course proposal for a women\u27s health care course and to gain final approval of the proposal at Eastern Illinois University where the writer was an instructor. The writer describes the procedure she followed to develop her women\u27s health care course proposal and the steps involved in the process to obtain approval of the course proposal. Included in this narrative are explanations of how the writer prepared the course outline, consulted with other health professionals, taught the course through continuing education for Eastern, and submitted the course proposal to the proper committees at Eastern for their approval. The writer has drawn the following conclusions from her experience with course proposal development and approval: (1) writing and obtaining approval of a new course proposal was a lengthy procedure but could be done by any faculty member; (2) information obtained from other universities teaching similar courses was useful in writing the course content for the proposal; (3) the Chairperson of the Health Education Department was helpful in obtaining approval of the course by the university; (4) the women\u27s health care course the writer taught through continuing education for Eastern was used to gather information as to the topics of interest to students and to justify there was need for such a course; (5) the Women\u27s Studies Committee from Eastern was very helpful in supporting the approval of the new course proposal; (6) the writer learned of two studies concerning the need for and interest in courses dealing with women\u27s health issues at other universities; the results of these studies would have been useful to the writer in developing her course proposal and justifying the need for and interest in women\u27s health courses had they been completed at the time of this study. The writer would like to propose the following recommendations as a result of this study: (1) an instrument to determine the need for and interest in a course proposed, as well as the topics of interest, could be used to write the course content and justify approval of the course at Eastern; (2) a follow-up study should be done to evaluate and modify the content of a course as well as establish how frequently the course is offered; (3) an experimental continuing education course or workshop could be used to gather information as to the students\u27 perceived need for such a course and the number of students interested in enrolling in the course; (4) the University and individual departments should be aware of and responsive to the needs of the population they serve; therefore, they should encourage the development of new courses; (5) it is recommended that faculty seeking approval for new course proposals not become frustrated and drop their effort during the long process as many revisions may need to be made; (6) a follow-up study could be done to attempt to determine the effect this course has on the health of the students and their families plus the money they spend for health care in future years

A matheuristic for a customer assignment problem in direct marketing

In direct marketing, companies use sales campaigns to target their customers with personalized product offers. The effectiveness of direct marketing greatly depends on the assignment of customers to campaigns. In this paper, we consider a real-world planning problem of a major telecommunications company that assigns its customers to individual activities of its direct marketing campaigns. Various side constraints, such as budgets and sales targets, must be met. Conflict constraints ensure that individual customers are not assigned too frequently to similar activities. Related problems have been addressed in the literature; however, none of the existing approaches cover all the side constraints considered here. To close this gap, we develop a matheuristic that employs a new decomposition strategy to cope with the large number of conflict constraints in typical problem instances. In a computational experiment, we compare the performance of the proposed matheuristic to the performance of two mixed-binary linear programs on a test set that includes large-scale real-world instances. The matheuristic derives near-optimal solutions in short running times for small- to medium-sized instances and scales to instances of practical size comprising millions of customers and hundreds of activities. The deployment of the matheuristic at the company has considerably increased the overall effectiveness of its direct marketing campaigns

Biografiearbeit in der Laufbahnberatung : Bedeutung, Methoden und Grenzen der ressourcenorientierten Biografiearbeit bei beruflichen Übergängen

Die vorliegende Masterarbeit befasst sich mit der Biografiearbeit, einer strukturierten, angeleiteten Form der Selbstreflexion, im Kontext der Laufbahnberatung. Sie verfolgt das Ziel, Bedeutung, Methoden sowie Grenzen der ressourcenorientierten Biografiearbeit in der Laufbahnberatung aufzuzeigen. Dazu wurde eine qualitative Erhebung mit vier erfahrenen Laufbahnberater:innen durchgeführt. Der Hauptfokus wird dabei gezielt auf berufliche Übergänge gerichtet und einen Bezug zur Laufbahngestaltung in der heutigen Arbeitswelt 4.0 hergestellt. Insgesamt weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die Biografiearbeit in der Laufbahnberatung in Ergänzung zu weiteren Verfahren wertvoll sein kann. Da die Biografiearbeit ressourcenorientierte, systemische und narrative Ansätze vereint, wird in der Beratung eine ganzheitliche, vertiefte Auseinandersetzung mit der individuellen Lebensgeschichte möglich. Durch die angeleitete Reflexion können Erkenntnisse aus früheren Erfahrungen gewonnen oder Ressourcen sichtbar gemacht werden, die für die Bewältigung beruflicher Übergänge bedeutsam sind. In diesem Zusammenhang spielen nebst der Ressourcenaktivierung insbesondere die Sinn- und Identitätsarbeit eine wichtige Funktion. Die Untersuchung zeigt zudem auf, dass die Selbstreflexion die Klient:innen unterstützen kann, den roten Faden in der eigenen Biografie zu entdecken und weiterzuentwickeln. Durch die Verbindung von Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft gelingt es den Klient:innen oftmals, die nächsten Schritte in ihrer Laufbahn bewusster und selbstbestimmter zu planen. Die Erkenntnisse aus der Befragung machen deutlich, dass bei der biografischen Arbeit eine wertschätzende, ressourcenorientierte Haltung und eine Abgrenzung zur Therapie wichtig sind. Der Stellenwert der Biografiearbeit in der Laufbahnberatung ist unterschiedlich hoch. Der grosse Zeitbedarf beim Einsatz von biografisch-narrativen Methoden stellt diesbezüglich eine Herausforderung in der Praxis dar. Abschliessen werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit konkrete Methoden der Biografiearbeit aus Theorie und Praxis aufgeführt, um das Methodenrepertoire für die Laufbahnberatung zu erweitern

"Selbstscreen-Prodrom" - ein Selbstbeurteilungsinstrument zur Früherkennung von psychischen Erkrankungen und Psychosen

OBJECTIVE: In the past years, the significance of early detection of psychoses has been increasingly recognized. Screening for the onset of disorders should focus on individuals seeking treatment in an outpatient setting and should preferably operate stepwise. Within a prospective study for the early detection of psychoses (FePsy = Früh Erkennung von PSYchosen) the self-rating instrument "Self-screen Prodrome" was developed to differentiate between healthy individuals, individuals with psychosis or an at-risk mental state for psychosis and patients with other ICD-10 diagnoses. METHOD: The "Self-screen Prodrome" was developed by taking established risk factors and early signs of disease into account. In particular, prodromes and pre-psychotic symptoms were captured. A total score and a subscale were analyzed with regard to validity and reliability. RESULTS: The total score "Self-screen Prodrome" distinguished between outpatients with a mental disorder and healthy individuals (Cut-off < or = 6; sensitivity: 85 % specificity: 91 %). Additionally the subscale distinguished between psychosis-(risk)-individuals and outpatients with other ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses (Cut-off < or = 2; sensitivity: 85 % specificity: 39 %). CONCLUSION: The "Self-screen Prodrome" is a useful instrument that a) separates mentally ill patients from healthy individuals and b) filters individuals with a risk of developing psychoses from patients with other ICD-10 diagnoses for further screening. The next step in the early detection of psychoses for identified individuals should be a detailed psychiatric exploration by experts

Streamlining Hospital IT - Improving the Admission Process

We analyzed the admission workflow in three Swiss hospitals of different size for normal and emergency admissions. Our goal was to detect shortcomings mainly in the administrative admission process due to media breaks. We obtained 9 different workflows (three per hospital) and a total of 22 shortcomings in the admission process which were present or likely in two or more of the hospitals. A considerable number could be traced back to missing information requiring time consuming extra work. We drafted five potential IT-based workflow changes and made, together with the hospital partners, a cost-benefit analysis which solution would be most interesting. As a result, a concept for an open multi center hospital admission portal was drafted, which, in theory, should influence 8 of the 22 problems found. Specifically, the prototype of the portal was designed for a direct triangular interaction between the referring doctor, the patient and the hospital staff

Naturjodel und Emotion

This study investigated the emotional experiences of yodelers and listeners in relation to a specific type of yodeling, practiced in Unterwalden, a region in Central Switzerland. The yodels of Unterwalden are based on a local repertoire, sung with a complex vocal technique that focuses on syllabic pitch change. Across three consecutive studies was explored how yodelers and listeners experienced different evocations and felt emotions in connection with the yodels of Unterwalden. Reported are herein a) the characteristics of strong experiences with yodel including positive feelings, physiological reactions, a loss of control while being touched by the music, and aspects of enhanced socialization within the community, b) an evaluation of selected audio samples illustrating that the yodels of Unterwalden preferentially evoke certain sensations, such as a balanced relationship between sublimity and vitality, and c) that contextual and personal factors, as well as the musical structure, the type of polyphony, and the characteristic timbres of the yodel voices have a decisive influence on the emotional intensity experienced

13-month climatology of the aerosol hygroscopicity at the free tropospheric site Jungfraujoch (3580 m a.s.l.)

A hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyzer (HTDMA) was operated at the high-alpine site Jungfraujoch in order to characterize the hygroscopic diameter growth factors of the free tropospheric Aitken and accumulation mode aerosol. More than ~5000 h of valid data were collected for the dry diameters &lt;i&gt;D&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;0&lt;/sub&gt; = 35, 50, 75, 110, 165, and 265 nm during the 13-month measurement period from 1 May 2008 through 31 May 2009. No distinct seasonal variability of the hygroscopic properties was observed. Annual mean hygroscopic diameter growth factors (&lt;i&gt;D&lt;/i&gt;/&lt;i&gt;D&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;0&lt;/sub&gt;) at 90% relative humidity were found to be 1.34, 1.43, and 1.46 for &lt;i&gt;D&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;0&lt;/sub&gt; = 50, 110, and 265 nm, respectively. This size dependence can largely be attributed to the Kelvin effect because corresponding values of the hygroscopicity parameter κ are nearly independent of size. The mean hygroscopicity of the Aitken and accumulation mode aerosol at the free tropospheric site Jungfraujoch was found to be &amp;kappa;≈0.24 with little variability throughout the year. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; The impact of Saharan dust events, a frequent phenomenon at the Jungfraujoch, on aerosol hygroscopicity was shown to be negligible for &lt;i&gt;D&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;0&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;265 nm. Thermally driven injections of planetary boundary layer (PBL) air, particularly observed in the early afternoon of summer days with convective anticyclonic weather conditions, lead to a decrease of aerosol hygroscopicity. However, the effect of PBL influence is not seen in the annual mean hygroscopicity data because the effect is small and those conditions (weather class, season and time of day) with PBL influence are relatively rare. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Aerosol hygroscopicity was found to be virtually independent of synoptic wind direction during advective weather situations, i.e. when horizontal motion of the atmosphere dominates over thermally driven convection. This indicates that the hygroscopic behavior of the aerosol observed at the Jungfraujoch can be considered representative of the lower free troposphere on at least a regional if not continental scale