Proportionate and disproportionate policy responses to climate change: core concepts and empirical applications

A fresh perspective on policy-making and planning has emerged which views disproportionate policy as an intentional policy response. A disproportionate policy response is understood to be a lack of‘fit’or balance between the costs of a public policy and the benefits that are derived from this policy, and between policy ends and means. This paper applies this new perspective on the proportionality of policy-making to the area of climate change. The first part of the paper discusses the underlying causes of disproportionate policy responses in broad terms and then applies the theoretical reasoning to understand the conditions in which they are likely to appear in relation to climate change. These conditions are hypothesized to relate to four main factors: economic considerations; levels of public demand; focusing events; and strategic considerations. It concludes with the suggestion that societal actors may be able to manipulate these four factors to encourage politicians to adopt policies that mitigate climate change more rapidly than is currently the case in most countries

Perceived economic self‑sufficiency: a countryand generation‑comparative approach

We thank Michael Camasso and Radha Jagannathan as well as Asimina Christoforou, Gerbert Kraaykamp, Fay Makantasi, Tiziana Nazio, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Jacqueline O’Reilly and Jan van Deth for their contribution to the CUPESSE project (Seventh Framework Programme; Grant Agreement No. 61325). CUPESSE received additional funding from the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Field of Focus 4 “Self-Regulation and Regulation: Individuals and Organisations” at Heidelberg University. We further acknowledge helpful comments on this article by two anonymous reviewers. Julian Rossello provided valuable research assistance.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1057/ s4130 4-018-0186-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Existing datasets provided by statistical agencies (e.g. Eurostat) show that the economic and financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 significantly impacted the lives and livelihoods of young people across Europe. Taking these official statistics as a starting point, the collaborative research project “Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship in Europe” (CUPESSE) generated new survey data on the economic and social situation of young Europeans (18–35 years). The CUPESSE dataset allows for country-comparative assessments of young people’s perceptions about their socio-economic situation. Furthermore, the dataset includes a variety of indicators examining the socio-economic situation of both young adults and their parents. In this data article, we introduce the CUPESSE dataset to political and social scientists in an attempt to spark a debate on the measurements, patterns and mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of economic self-sufficiency as well as its political implications.CUPESSE project (Seventh Framework Programme; Grant Agreement No. 61325

An industry experiment on the effects of test-driven development on external quality and productivity

Existing empirical studies on test-driven development (TDD) report different conclusions about its effects on quality and productivity. Very few of those studies are experiments conducted with software professionals in industry. We aim to analyse the effects of TDD on the external quality of the work done and the productivity of developers in an industrial setting. We conducted an experiment with 24 professionals from three different sites of a software organization. We chose a repeated-measures design, and asked subjects to implement TDD and incremental test last development (ITLD) in two simple tasks and a realistic application close to real-life complexity. To analyse our findings, we applied a repeated-measures general linear model procedure and a linear mixed effects procedure. We did not observe a statistical difference between the quality of the work done by subjects in both treatments. We observed that the subjects are more productive when they implement TDD on a simple task compared to ITLD, but the productivity drops significantly when applying TDD to a complex brownfield task. So, the task complexity significantly obscured the effect of TDD. Further evidence is necessary to conclude whether TDD is better or worse than ITLD in terms of external quality and productivity in an industrial setting. We found that experimental factors such as selection of tasks could dominate the findings in TDD studies.This research has been partly funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation projects TIN2011-23216, the Distinguished Professor Program of Tekes, and the Academy of Finland (Grant Decision No. 260871)

Grain rotation and lattice deformation during perovskite spray coating and annealing probed in situ by GI-WAXS

We report for the first time on grain rotation in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite films for ∼12% efficient planar solar cells and present a new method for investigating their texture evolution during thermal annealing. Our technique is based on in situ 2D grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GI-WAXS) and employs a 10 keV wide-focussed X-ray beam to simultaneously probe a large number of grains. The ability to track the texture dynamics from a statistically relevant number of spots diffracting from single grains during thermal annealing and in grazing incidence geometry can have applications understanding the processing dynamics of a range of new materials

Screening of chickpea accessions for resistance against the pulse beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis L. (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)

During storage, chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is severely attacked by some bruchid species, especially Callosobruchus chinensis L. (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), resulting in losses in quantity and nutritional quality. In the present study, three species of Cicer including five accessions of Cicer arietinum L. (three kabuli and two desi chickpeas), four accessions of C. echinospermum P.H. Davis and five accessions of C. reticulatum Ladiz. were screened for resistance to C. chinensis in both free-choice and no-choice tests in the laboratory. Resistance was evaluated by measuring oviposition (number of eggs per seed), adult emergence (number of holes per seed), damaged seed rate and seed weight loss (%). The results revealed that no eggs were laid by the bruchid females to the C. echinospermum accessions in free-choice test, but in no-choice test only two C. echinospermum accessions (AWC 304 and AWC 305) had few eggs (4.3 and 3.3 eggs/seed, respectively). The highest rate of oviposition occurred in kabuli chickpeas, especially in YAR (25.1 eggs/seed in free-choice test). The accessions exhibited a similar pattern for adult emergence like in the oviposition rates. As for damaged seed rate, no damage was observed in both tests in the C. echinospermum accessions, except AWC 304 (6.7%) in no-choice test. The highest seed damage was seen in kabuli-type accessions, being 100% in YAR and ILC 8617. Considering seed weight loss, no weight loss occurred in the C. echinospermum accessions in both tests (except, AWC 304 in no-choice test) whereas the highest weight loss was seen in the kabuli-type accession, CA 2969 (28.6%) in free-choice test and in the desi type accession, ICC 4957 (35.0%) in no-choice test. Since lower numbers of eggs were laid on hairy, wrinkled/reticulated and dark seed accessions, these features seemed to be important in the preference of the bruchid for host selection and oviposition. These results suggest that resistant varieties can be used as gene sources in breeding new cultivars resistant to C. chinensis

The Atlantic Bonito ( Sarda sarda,Bloch 1793) Transcriptome and Detection of Differential Expression during Larvae Development

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Phonon-assisted carrier transport through a lattice-mismatched interface

We showed the distinctive unconventional junction effect of MoS2 junctions: a lattice mismatched MoS2. It is unique to observe the difference originated from the atomic interrelation at the interface. The results revealed the dominant scattering source at the conventional naturally stepwise junction, while the misorientationally stacked layer exhibited effectively decoupled behavior and a significantly smaller junction resistance via phonon assist carrier. Therefore, our finding in this paper clearly shows the different mechanisms in carrier transport at both junction interface of MoS2

The potential of Cittaslow for sustainable tourism development: enhancing local community’s empowerment

The slow movement has recently offered an alternative approach to sustainable tourism development, and this study aims to investigate the potential of Cittaslow philosophy and practices for enhancing local community involvement and empowerment in the tourism sector through which sustainable tourism is better implemented. Qualitative research was conducted on the case of Goolwa in South Australia, the first non-European Cittaslow. The results reveal that not only did Cittaslow accreditation and its accompanying practices encourage local community participation in decision making processes, but also revitalised the locality of Goolwa through promoting local specialities and products, in particular food and wine. A stronger and more effective collaboration among local communities, businesses and residents after the Cittaslow accreditation was noted in the context of psychological and social aspects of local community empowerment, especially for developing and managing tourism. This paper further discusses the implications of Cittaslow through which local community empowerment and sustainability in tourism can be more achievable

Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels Contribute to Thromboxane A2-Induced Contraction of Rat Small Mesenteric Arteries

Background: Thromboxane A 2 (TxA 2)-induced smooth muscle contraction has been implicated in cardiovascular, renal and respiratory diseases. This contraction can be partly attributed to TxA2-induced Ca 2+ influx, which resulted in vascular contraction via Ca 2+-calmodulin-MLCK pathway. This study aims to identify the channels that mediate TxA2-induced Ca 2+ influx in vascular smooth muscle cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: Application of U-46619, a thromboxane A2 mimic, resulted in a constriction in endothelium-denuded small mesenteric artery segments. The constriction relies on the presence of extracellular Ca 2+, because removal of extracellular Ca 2+ abolished the constriction. This constriction was partially inhibited by an L-type Ca 2+ channel inhibitor nifedipine (0.5–1 mM). The remaining component was inhibited by L-cis-diltiazem, a selective inhibitor for CNG channels, in a dose-dependent manner. Another CNG channel blocker LY83583 [6-(phenylamino)-5,8-quinolinedione] had similar effect. In the primary cultured smooth muscle cells derived from rat aorta, application of U46619 (100 nM) induced a rise in cytosolic Ca 2+ ([Ca 2+]i), which was inhibited by L-cis-diltiazem. Immunoblot experiments confirmed the presence of CNGA2 protein in vascular smooth muscle cells. Conclusions/Significance: These data suggest a functional role of CNG channels in U-46619-induced Ca 2+ influx and contraction of smooth muscle cells

Property Value Assessment Growth Limits, Tax Base Erosion, and Regional In-Migration

In 1994 a limit on the growth of property values for tax purposes was imposed in Michigan. One consequence of the newly imposed assessment growth cap was an emerging differential in tax prices between potential new property owners and long-time property owners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of this growing tax price differential on migration patterns. Using county level data on migration activity over the 1994-2006 period, we present evidence that differential tax prices resulting from the assessment growth cap have reduced in-migration