Who Owns Europe?... and why it matters for Progressives

First paragraph: Ownership matters. Owners of businesses set their strategic direction, purpose and the terms of employment. Owners of land decide what should be done with it and who can access it. Owners of property decide how it is deployed and who can enjoy its benefits. These decisions have a profound impact on the rest of European economy and society. Too often when we try to understand who owns the assets on which we all rely, the beneficial owners are obscured, and capital is controlled by owners whose interests are divergent from the citizenry at large. Politicians rarely consider questions of ownership when making policy, but the frameworks that they establish for market economies have a profound effect on the levels of corporate plurality in business, and ultimately the outcomes for citizens. Progressives must offer a thoughtful critique which ensures that the benefits of ownership are not concentrated in the hands of the few. Policy should facilitate a fair ownership opportunity for all. This project seeks to examine ownership across the EU, it considers how Europe’s businesses are owned and where the benefits of business flow. It looks closely at different types of ownership model, for example - the joint-stock company, the private business, the partnership model and the mutually-owned enterprise. At the same time, it is concerned with ownership more widely. Who owns the land on which our produce is grown, the apartment blocks in which we live and the institutions in which we store our earnings? We have examined whether some forms of ownership are more conducive to the public good and to what extent public goals can be discharged by a wider range of ownership types. Ownership in the public interest can be achieved, but it requires a consistent approach across EU member states, with policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks that support and protect ownership that is designed for a common purpose, rather than simply focussed on maximising private profit. This report makes a series of recommendations which seek to ensure strong economies which are purposeful and successful, but which also benefit the wider public good

Who Owns Europe?... and why it matters for Progressives

First paragraph: Ownership matters. Owners of businesses set their strategic direction, purpose and the terms of employment. Owners of land decide what should be done with it and who can access it. Owners of property decide how it is deployed and who can enjoy its benefits. These decisions have a profound impact on the rest of European economy and society. Too often when we try to understand who owns the assets on which we all rely, the beneficial owners are obscured, and capital is controlled by owners whose interests are divergent from the citizenry at large. Politicians rarely consider questions of ownership when making policy, but the frameworks that they establish for market economies have a profound effect on the levels of corporate plurality in business, and ultimately the outcomes for citizens. Progressives must offer a thoughtful critique which ensures that the benefits of ownership are not concentrated in the hands of the few. Policy should facilitate a fair ownership opportunity for all. This project seeks to examine ownership across the EU, it considers how Europe’s businesses are owned and where the benefits of business flow. It looks closely at different types of ownership model, for example - the joint-stock company, the private business, the partnership model and the mutually-owned enterprise. At the same time, it is concerned with ownership more widely. Who owns the land on which our produce is grown, the apartment blocks in which we live and the institutions in which we store our earnings? We have examined whether some forms of ownership are more conducive to the public good and to what extent public goals can be discharged by a wider range of ownership types. Ownership in the public interest can be achieved, but it requires a consistent approach across EU member states, with policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks that support and protect ownership that is designed for a common purpose, rather than simply focussed on maximising private profit. This report makes a series of recommendations which seek to ensure strong economies which are purposeful and successful, but which also benefit the wider public good

Participant Blinding and Gastrointestinal Illness in a Randomized, Controlled Trial of an In-Home Drinking Water Intervention

We conducted a randomized, triple-blinded home drinking water intervention trial to determine if a large study could be undertaken while successfully blinding participants. Households were randomized 50:50 to use externally identical active or sham treatment devices. We measured the effectiveness of blinding of participants by using a published blinding index in which values >0.5 indicate successful blinding. The principal health outcome measured was “highly credible gastrointestinal illness” (HCGI). Participants (n=236) from 77 households were successfully blinded to their treatment assignment. At the end of the study, the blinding index was 0.64 (95% confidence interval 0.51-0.78). There were 103 episodes of HCGI during 10,790 person-days at risk in the sham group and 82 episodes during 11,380 person-days at risk in the active treatment group. The incidence rate ratio of disease (adjusted for the clustered sampling) was 1.32 (95% CI 0.75, 2.33) and the attributable risk was 0.24 (95% CI -0.33, 0.57). These data confirm that participants can be successfully blinded to treatment group assignment during a randomized trial of an in-home drinking water intervention

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

As mortality rates decline, life expectancy increases, and populations age, non-fatal outcomes of diseases and injuries are becoming a larger component of the global burden of disease. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) provides a comprehensive assessment of prevalence, incidence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 328 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016

Mechanistic evaluation of primary human hepatocyte culture using global proteomic analysis reveals a selective dedifferentiation profile

© 2016 The Author(s)The application of primary human hepatocytes following isolation from human tissue is well accepted to be compromised by the process of dedifferentiation. This phenomenon reduces many unique hepatocyte functions, limiting their use in drug disposition and toxicity assessment. The aetiology of dedifferentiation has not been well defined, and further understanding of the process would allow the development of novel strategies for sustaining the hepatocyte phenotype in culture or for improving protocols for maturation of hepatocytes generated from stem cells. We have therefore carried out the first proteomic comparison of primary human hepatocyte differentiation. Cells were cultured for 0, 24, 72 and 168 h as a monolayer in order to permit unrestricted hepatocyte dedifferentiation, so as to reveal the causative signalling pathways and factors in this process, by pathway analysis. A total of 3430 proteins were identified with a false detection rate of <1 %, of which 1117 were quantified at every time point. Increasing numbers of significantly differentially expressed proteins compared with the freshly isolated cells were observed at 24 h (40 proteins), 72 h (118 proteins) and 168 h (272 proteins) (p < 0.05). In particular, cytochromes P450 and mitochondrial proteins underwent major changes, confirmed by functional studies and investigated by pathway analysis. We report the key factors and pathways which underlie the loss of hepatic phenotype in vitro, particularly those driving the large-scale and selective remodelling of the mitochondrial and metabolic proteomes. In summary, these findings expand the current understanding of dedifferentiation should facilitate further development of simple and complex hepatic culture systems

I've got the love-sick blues.

Gift of Dr. Mary Jane Esplen.Piano vocal [instrumentation]I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love with a girl [first line]Got the feeling called "Blue Hoo's" since my sweetie said "Good Bye" [first line of chorus]G major [key]Moderato [tempo]Popular song [form/genre]Woman, armchair [illustration]Publisher's advertisement on back cover [note

Lovesick blues

(Published By Jack Mills, Inc.

Weighing the Costs and Benefits of State Renewables Portfolio Standards in the United States: A Comparative Analysis of State-Level Policy Impact Projections

State renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as one of the most important policy drivers of renewable energy capacity expansion in the U.S. As RPS policies have been proposed or adopted in an increasing number of states, a growing number of studies have attempted to quantify the potential impacts of these policies, focusing primarily on cost impacts, but sometimes also estimating macroeconomic, risk reduction, and environmental effects. This article synthesizes and analyzes the results and methodologies of 31 distinct state or utility-level RPS cost-impact analyses completed since 1998. Together, these studies model proposed or adopted RPS policies in 20 different states. We highlight the key findings of these studies on the projected costs of state RPS policies, examine the sensitivity of projected costs to model assumptions, evaluate the reasonableness of key input assumptions, and suggest possible areas of improvement for future RPS analyses. We conclude that while there is considerable uncertainty in the study results, the majority of the studies project modest cost impacts. Seventy percent of the state RPS cost studies project retail electricity rate increases of no greater than one percent. Nonetheless, there is considerable room for improving the analytic methods, and therefore accuracy, of these estimates