Multiple perspectives on the attribution of the extreme European summer of 2012 to climate change

Summer 2012 was very wet in northern Europe, and unusually dry and hot in southern Europe. We use multiple approaches to determine whether anthropogenic forcing made the extreme European summer of 2012 more likely. Using a number of observation- and model-based methods, we find that there was an anthropogenic contribution to the extremes in southern Europe, with a qualitative consensus across all methodologies. There was a consensus across the methodologies that there has been a significant increase in the risk of hot summers in southern Europe with climate change. Most approaches also suggested a slight drying, but none of the results were statistically significant. The unusually wet summer in northern Europe was made more likely by the observed atmospheric circulation pattern in 2012, but no evidence was found for a long-term trend in circulation

Repurposing NGO data for better research outcomes: A scoping review of the use and secondary analysis of NGO data in health policy and systems research

Background Non-government organisations (NGOs) collect and generate vast amounts of potentially rich data, most of which are not used for research purposes. Secondary analysis of NGO data (their use and analysis in a study for which they were not originally collected) presents an important but largely unrealised opportunity to provide new research insights in critical areas including the evaluation of health policy and programmes. Methods A scoping review of the published literature was performed to identify the extent to which secondary analysis of NGO data has been used in health policy and systems research (HPSR). A tiered analytic approach provided a comprehensive overview and descriptive analyses of the studies which: 1) used data produced or collected by or about NGOs; 2) performed secondary analysis of the NGO data (beyond use of an NGO report as a supporting reference); 3) used NGO-collected clinical data. Results Of the 156 studies which performed secondary analysis of NGO-produced or collected data, 64% (n=100) used NGO-produced reports (e.g. to critique NGO activities and as a contextual reference) and 8% (n=13) analysed NGO-collected clinical data.. Of the studies, 55% investigated service delivery research topics, with 48% undertaken in developing countries and 17% in both developing and developed. NGO-collected clinical data enabled HPSR within marginalised groups (e.g. migrants, people in conflict-affected areas), with some limitations such as inconsistencies and missing data. Conclusion We found evidence that NGO-collected and produced data are most commonly perceived as a source of supporting evidence for HPSR and not as primary source data. However, these data can facilitate research in under-researched marginalised groups and in contexts that are hard to reach by academics, such as conflict-affected areas. NGO–academic collaboration could help address issues of NGO data quality to facilitate their more widespread use in research. Their use could enable relevant and timely research in the areas of health policy, programme evaluation and advocacy to improve health and reduce health inequalities, especially in marginalised groups and developing countries

Effect of Hall current on MHD mixed convection boundary layer flow over a stretched vertical flat plate

In this paper, the steady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection boundary layer flow of an incompressible, viscous and electrically conducting fluid over a stretching vertical flat plate is theoretically investigated with Hall effects taken into account. The governing equations are solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. The effects of the magnetic parameter, the Hall parameter and the buoyancy parameter on the velocity profiles, the cross flow velocity profiles and the temperature profiles are presented graphically and discussed. Investigated results indicate that the Hall effect on the temperature is small, and the magnetic field and Hall currents produce opposite effects on the shear stress and the heat transfer at the stretching surface

Larger spatial footprint of wintertime total precipitation extremes in a warmer climate

The simultaneous occurrence of extremely wet winters at multiple locations in the same region can contribute to widespread flooding and associated socio‐economic losses. However, the spatial extent of precipitation extremes (i.e., the area in which nearby locations experience precipitation extremes simultaneously) and its future changes are largely overlooked in climate assessments. Employing new multi‐thousand‐year climate model simulations, we show that under both 2.0 °C and 1.5 °C warming scenarios, wintertime total precipitation extreme extents would increase over about 80%–90% of the Northern Hemisphere extratropics (i.e., of the latitude band 28°–78°N). Stabilizing at 1.5 °C rather than 2.0 °C would reduce the average magnitude of the increase by 1.7–2 times. According to the climate model, the increased extents are caused by increases in precipitation intensity rather than changes in the spatial organization of the events. Relatively small percentage increases in precipitation intensities (e.g., by 4%) can drive disproportionately larger, by 1–2 orders of magnitude, growth in the spatial extents (by 93%)

Globalization, security and drones

No abstract availabl

Accountability of Public Servants at the Street Level

Public servants are accountable to the public – as their name suggests. However, the question of accountability is not as clear as it seems. Public servants working at the street level of government bureaucracy enjoy discretion in the implementation of public policies (Thomann, van Engen and Tummers, J Public Adm Res Theory 28(4):583–601, 2018a). In the context of regulatory governance, policy implementers more often than not enforce regulation and hence are regulators at the street level. They use discretion to make decisions that ultimately define policies and regulation; and they do so along different reference systems (Thomann, Hupe, and Sager F, Governance 31:299–319, 2018b). Lipsky (Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public services. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1980, 2010) famously conceptualized the resulting dilemmas for this stratum of public servants. Maynard-Moody and Musheno (J Public Adm Res Theory 10:329–358, 2000) capture the core dilemma of those public servants’ accountability when interacting with clients with the distinction between “state agents” primarily following the law and “citizen agents” first of all addressing clients’ needs. In their accountability regimes framework, Hupe and Hill (Public Adm 85:85–102, 2007) introduce profession as third key reference institution, alongside state and society. In the course of new modes of governance, in particular contexts, private actors have gained an additional role as implementation agents. Sager et al. (Public Manage Rev 16:481–502, 2014) and Thomann et al. (2018) therefore extend the accountability regimes framework with market as central in the fourth accountability regime at the street level. The chapter presents the extended accountability regimes framework, illustrates it with empirical cases, and discusses regulatory and policy implications of the accountability dilemmas of street-level implementers