[Eleven thesis on the archive of scientific research, for a new patrimonial and scientific policy].

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Bertrand

2015-12-01

Abstracting the main content of a recent report on the bad state of the archives of scientific research, this paper puts forward eleven thesis likely to feed, in this time of numeric transition to a new documentary regime and to a new patrimonial policy. The recent numeric conditions impose to set new archival pratices, more proactive, anticipative and prospective. Archives of scientific research must be thought in a double memorial and scientific dimension, and not only as a patrimonial or historical one.

Communicating Scientific Findings to Lawyers, Policy-Makers, and the Public (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, W.; Velsko, S. P.

2013-12-01

This presentation will summarize the authors' collaborative research on inferential errors, bias and communication difficulties that have arisen in the area of WMD forensics. This research involves analysis of problems that have arisen in past national security investigations, interviews with scientists from various disciplines whose work has been used in WMD investigations, interviews with policy-makers, and psychological studies of lay understanding of forensic evidence. Implications of this research for scientists involved in nuclear explosion monitoring will be discussed. Among the issues covered will be: - Potential incompatibilities between the questions policy makers pose and the answers that experts can provide. - Common misunderstandings of scientific and statistical data. - Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for describing and characterizing the strength of scientific findings. - Problems that can arise from excessive hedging or, alternatively, insufficient qualification of scientific conclusions. - Problems that can arise from melding scientific and non-scientific evidence in forensic assessments.

Assessing the impact of information and framing on support for climate policy action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hatfield-Dodds, Steve

2007-01-01

50% of respondents supported policy action across all plausible levels of policy impact, implying deep cuts in global emissions would provide net welfare gains in Australia and New Zealand on the basis of the preferences and values of the current generation. These findings suggest that clearly communicating the nature and extent of policy impacts is likely to be more salient to motivating climate policy action than further incremental improvements in the scientific understanding and communication of the impacts of climate change

Scientific Information Policy Board 90th Meeting

CERN Multimedia

AUTHOR|(CDS)2051371

2017-01-01

Gigi Rolandi, sitting in the middle, chairing his last meeting of the Scientific Information Policy Board before his retirement. Rolandi was the chairman of the board from March 2006 until April 2017, a period that has seen lots of dynamics within the field of authoring, publishing and librarianship - both at CERN and beyond. In the first row from left to right: Eckhard Elsen (Director of Research), Jens Vigen (Head Librarian) Gigi Rolandi (SIPB Chair), Anita Hollier (Archivist) and Urs Wiedemann (Theory). In the second row from left to right: Nikos Kasioumis (Invited speaker), Alexander Kohls (Invited speaker), Stella Christodoulaki (Invited speaker), Nick Ellis (Chair CREB), Clara Troncon (ACCU), Annette Holtkamp (Scientific Information Service), Tim Smith (IT) Brigitte Bloch-Devaux (non-LHC experiments), Constantinos Loizides (ALICE), Thierry Stora (Engineering), John Jowett (Beams), Arjan Verweij (Technology), Anne Gentil-Beccot (Scientific Information Service), Fergus Wilson (LHCb), Ludmila Marian (Invit...

Authorship policies of scientific journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Resnik, David B; Tyler, Ana M; Black, Jennifer R; Kissling, Grace

2016-03-01

We analysed the authorship policies of a random sample of 600 journals from the Journal Citation Reports database. 62.5% of the journals we sampled had an authorship policy. Having an authorship policy was positively associated with impact factor. Journals from the biomedical sciences and social sciences/humanities were more likely to have an authorship policy than journals from the physical sciences, engineering or mathematical sciences. Among journals with a policy, the most frequent type of policy was guidance on criteria for authorship (99.7%); followed by guidance on acknowledgments (97.3%); requiring that authors make substantial contributions to the research (94.7%); requiring that authors be accountable for the research as a whole (84.8%); guidance on changes in authorship (77.9%); requiring that authors give final approval to the manuscript (77.6%); requiring that authors draft or critically revise the manuscript (71.7%); providing guidance on corporate authorship (58.9%); prohibiting gift, guest or ghost authorship (31.7%); requiring authors to describe their contributions (5.3%); limiting the number of authors for some types of articles (4.0%) and requiring authors to be accountable for their part in the research (1.1%). None of the policies addressed equal contribution statements. Journals that do not have authorship policies should consider adopting or developing ones. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Challenges of linking scientific knowledge to river basin management policy: AquaTerra as a case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slob, A.F.L.; Rijnveld, M.; Chapman, A.S.; Strosser, P.

2007-01-01

The EU Project AquaTerra generates knowledge about the river-soil-sediment-groundwater system and delivers scientific information of value for river basin management. In this article, the use and ignorance of scientific knowledge in decision making is explored by a theoretical review. We elaborate on the 'two-communities theory', which explains the problems of the policy-science interface by relating and comparing the different cultures, contexts, and languages of researchers and policy makers. Within AquaTerra, the EUPOL subproject examines the policy-science interface with the aim of achieving a good connection between the scientific output of the project and EU policies. We have found two major barriers, namely language and resources, as well as two types of relevant relationships: those between different research communities and those between researchers and policy makers. - Using scientific output in River Basin Management requires researchers and policy makers to acknowledge the multiple rationalities and different viewpoints that are brought in by the variety of stakeholders involved

Water use data to enhance scientific and policy insight

Science.gov (United States)

Konar, M.

2017-12-01

We live in an era of big data. However, water use data remains sparse. There is an urgent need to enhance both the quality and resolution of water data. Metered water use information - as opposed to estimated water use, typically based on climate - would enhance the quality of existing water databases. Metered water use data would enable the research community to evaluate the "who, where, and when" of water use. Importantly, this information would enable the scientific community to better understand decision making related to water use (i.e. the "why"), providing the insight necessary to guide policies that promote water conservation. Metered water use data is needed at a sufficient resolution (i.e. spatial, temporal, and water user) to fully resolve how water is used throughout the economy and society. Improving the quality and resolution of water use data will enable scientific understanding that can inform policy.

A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures

Science.gov (United States)

Bollen, Johan; Van de Sompel, Herbert

2009-01-01

Background The impact of scientific publications has traditionally been expressed in terms of citation counts. However, scientific activity has moved online over the past decade. To better capture scientific impact in the digital era, a variety of new impact measures has been proposed on the basis of social network analysis and usage log data. Here we investigate how these new measures relate to each other, and how accurately and completely they express scientific impact. Methodology We performed a principal component analysis of the rankings produced by 39 existing and proposed measures of scholarly impact that were calculated on the basis of both citation and usage log data. Conclusions Our results indicate that the notion of scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution. PMID:19562078

A principal component analysis of 39 scientific impact measures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johan Bollen

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The impact of scientific publications has traditionally been expressed in terms of citation counts. However, scientific activity has moved online over the past decade. To better capture scientific impact in the digital era, a variety of new impact measures has been proposed on the basis of social network analysis and usage log data. Here we investigate how these new measures relate to each other, and how accurately and completely they express scientific impact. METHODOLOGY: We performed a principal component analysis of the rankings produced by 39 existing and proposed measures of scholarly impact that were calculated on the basis of both citation and usage log data. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the notion of scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution.

Assessing the influence of Environmental Impact Assessments on science and policy: an analysis of the Three Gorges Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Tullos, Desiree

2009-07-01

The need to understand and minimize negative environmental outcomes associated with large dams has both contributed to and benefited from the introduction and subsequent improvements in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. However, several limitations in the EIA process remain, including those associated with the uncertainty and significance of impact projections. These limitations are directly related to the feedback between science and policy, with information gaps in scientific understanding discovered through the EIA process contributing valuable recommendations on critical focus areas for prioritizing and funding research within the fields of ecological conservation and river engineering. This paper presents an analysis of the EIA process for the Three Gorges Project (TGP) in China as a case study for evaluating this feedback between the EIA and science and policy. For one of the best-studied public development projects in the world, this paper presents an investigation into whether patterns exist between the scientific interest (via number of publications) in environmental impacts and (a) the identification of impacts as uncertain or priority by the EIA, (b) decisions or political events associated with the dam, and (c) impact type. This analysis includes the compilation of literature on TGP, characterization of ecosystem interactions and responses to TGP through a hierarchy of impacts, coding of EIA impacts as "uncertain" impacts that require additional study and "priority" impacts that have particularly high significance, mapping of an event chronology to relate policies, institutional changes, and decisions about TGP as "events" that could influence the focus and intensity of scientific investigation, and analysis of the number of publications by impact type and order within the impact hierarchy. From these analyses, it appears that the availability and consistency of scientific information limit the accuracy of environmental impact

Scientific impact: the story of your big hit

Science.gov (United States)

Sinatra, Roberta; Wang, Dashun; Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo

2014-03-01

A gradual increase in performance through learning and practice characterize most trades, from sport to music or engineering, and common sense suggests this to be true in science as well. This prompts us to ask: what are the precise patterns that lead to scientific excellence? Does performance indeed improve throughout a scientific career? Are there quantifiable signs of an impending scientific hit? Using citation-based measures as a proxy of impact, we show that (i) major discoveries are not preceded by works of increasing impact, nor are followed by work of higher impact, (ii) the precise time ranking of the highest impact work in a scientist's career is uniformly random, with the higher probability to have a major discovery in the middle of scientific careers being due only to changes in productivity, (iii) there is a strong correlation between the highest impact work and average impact of a scientist's work. These findings suggest that the impact of a paper is drawn randomly from an impact distribution that is unique for each scientist. We present a model which allows to reconstruct the individual impact distribution, making possible to create synthetic careers that exhibit the same properties of the real data and to define a ranking based on the overall impact of a scientist. RS acknowledges support from the James McDonnell Foundation.

Ten-year growth in the scientific production of Brazilian Psychiatry: the impact of the new evaluation policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerolin, Jerônimo; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Pietrobon, Ricardo; Mari, Jair de Jesus

2010-03-01

Developed by the Ministry of Education, the Qualis evaluation criteria have strongly impacted the scientific production of Post-Graduation Programs. A new set of more stringent criteria has been proposed for Qualis. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of the new Qualis criteria on the scientific production of Post-Graduation Programs in psychiatry over the last 10 years. We extracted data from annual reports published between 1998 and 2008, and compared performance measured in terms of the old Qualis rating criteria and the new set of criteria. There was a 25% increase in the number of Information Science Institute-indexed articles in the second five-year period, which rose from 1,213 to 1,518. While, according to the old Qualis criteria, 84% of the Information Science Institute production would have been classified as highly-rated (IF > 1), only 17% of the papers were classified as highly-rated (A1) according to the new Qualis rating criteria. Most papers (65%) were assigned to intermediate categories (B1 and B2) with an IF production, but by favoring quality over quantity, the new rules have proved to be more useful for discriminating among the scientific production.

Social Network Analysis of Scientific Articles Published by Food Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

József Popp

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The article analyses co-authorship and co-citation networks in Food Policy, which is the most important agricultural policy journal in the field of agricultural economics. The paper highlights the principal researchers in this field together with their authorship and citation networks on the basis of 714 articles written between 2006 and 2015. Results suggest that the majority of the articles were written by a small number of researchers, indicating that groups and central authors play an important role in scientific advances. It also turns out that the number of articles and the central role played in the network are not related, contrary to expectations. Results also suggest that groups cite themselves more often than average, thereby boosting the scientific advancement of their own members.

Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinatra, Roberta; Wang, Dashun; Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Barabási, Albert-László

2016-11-04

Despite the frequent use of numerous quantitative indicators to gauge the professional impact of a scientist, little is known about how scientific impact emerges and evolves in time. Here, we quantify the changes in impact and productivity throughout a career in science, finding that impact, as measured by influential publications, is distributed randomly within a scientist's sequence of publications. This random-impact rule allows us to formulate a stochastic model that uncouples the effects of productivity, individual ability, and luck and unveils the existence of universal patterns governing the emergence of scientific success. The model assigns a unique individual parameter Q to each scientist, which is stable during a career, and it accurately predicts the evolution of a scientist's impact, from the h-index to cumulative citations, and independent recognitions, such as prizes. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The stratified H-index makes scientific impact transparent

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Würtz, Morten; Schmidt, Morten

2017-01-01

The H-index is widely used to quantify and standardize researchers' scientific impact. However, the H-index does not account for the fact that co-authors rarely contribute equally to a paper. Accordingly, we propose the use of a stratified H-index to measure scientific impact. The stratified H......-index supplements the conventional H-index with three separate H-indices: one for first authorships, one for second authorships and one for last authorships. The stratified H-index takes scientific output, quality and individual author contribution into account....

Scientific issues and emerging challenges for radiological protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving as more advanced technologies become available and more in-depth research is carried out. Given the potential implications that new findings could have on policy decisions, in 1998 the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) performed a survey of state-of-the-art research in radiological protection science. This study suggested that, while the current system of radiological protection was well under-pinned by scientific understanding, growing knowledge in several areas could seriously impact policy and regulation. Ten years later, the CRPPH has again performed a survey of state-of-the-art research which reiterates and clarifies its earlier conclusions. This report summarises the results of this latest CRPPH assessment of radiological protection science. Specifically, it explains that knowledge of non-targeted and delayed effects, as well as of individual sensitivity, have been significantly refined over the past ten years. Although at this point there is still no scientific certainty in these areas, based on the most recent studies and results, the report strongly suggests that policy makers and regulatory authorities should consider possible impacts that could arise from research in the next few years. Further, the report identifies research areas that should be supported to more definitively answer scientific questions having the most direct impacts on policy choices. (author)

Open science: policy implications for the evolving phenomenon of user-led scientific innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Stodden

2010-03-01

Full Text Available From contributions of astronomy data and DNA sequences to disease treatment research, scientific activity by non-scientists is a real and emergent phenomenon, and raising policy questions. This involvement in science can be understood as an issue of access to publications, code, and data that facilitates public engagement in the research process, thus appropriate policy to support the associated welfare enhancing benefits is essential. Current legal barriers to citizen participation can be alleviated by scientists’ use of the “Reproducible Research Standard,” thus making the literature, data, and code associated with scientific results accessible. The enterprise of science is undergoing deep and fundamental changes, particularly in how scientists obtain results and share their work: the promise of open research dissemination held by the Internet is gradually being fulfilled by scientists. Contributions to science from beyond the ivory tower are forcing a rethinking of traditional models of knowledge generation, evaluation, and communication. The notion of a scientific “peer” is blurred with the advent of lay contributions to science raising questions regarding the concepts of peer-review and recognition. New collaborative models are emerging around both open scientific software and the generation of scientific discoveries that bear a similarity to open innovation models in other settings. Public engagement in science can be understood as an issue of access to knowledge for public involvement in the research process, facilitated by appropriate policy to support the welfare enhancing benefits deriving from citizen-science.

An Overview of the Future Development of Climate and Earth System Models for Scientific and Policy Use (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Washington, W. M.

2010-12-01

The development of climate and earth system models has been regarded primarily as the making of scientific tools to study the complex nature of the Earth’s climate. These models have a long history starting with very simple physical models based on fundamental physics in the 1960s and over time they have become much more complex with atmospheric, ocean, sea ice, land/vegetation, biogeochemical, glacial and ecological components. The policy use aspects of these models did not start in the 1960s and 1970s as decision making tools but were used to answer fundamental scientific questions such as what happens when the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration increases or is doubled. They gave insights into the various interactions and were extensively compared with observations. It was realized that models of the earlier time periods could only give first order answers to many of the fundamental policy questions. As societal concerns about climate change rose, the policy questions of anthropogenic climate change became better defined; they were mostly concerned with the climate impacts of increasing greenhouse gases, aerosols, and land cover change. In the late 1980s, the United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to perform assessments of the published literature. Thus, the development of climate and Earth system models became intimately linked to the need to not only improve our scientific understanding but also answering fundamental policy questions. In order to meet this challenge, the models became more complex and realistic so that they could address these policy oriented science questions such as rising sea level. The presentation will discuss the past and future development of global climate and earth system models for science and policy purposes. Also to be discussed is their interactions with economic integrated assessment models, regional and specialized models such as river transport or ecological components. As an example of one

Developing research about extreme events and impacts to support international climate policy

Science.gov (United States)

Otto, Friederike; James, Rachel; Parker, Hannah; Boyd, Emily; Jones, Richard; Allen, Myles; Mitchell, Daniel; Cornforth, Rosalind

2015-04-01

Climate change is expected to have some of its most significant impacts through changes in the frequency and severity of extreme events. There is a pressing need for policy to support adaptation to changing climate risks, and to deal with residual loss and damage from climate change. In 2013, the Warsaw International Mechanism was established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to address loss and damage in developing countries. Strategies to help vulnerable regions cope with losses from extreme events will presumably require information about the influence of anthropogenic forcing on extreme weather. But what kind of scientific evidence will be most useful for the Warsaw Mechanism? And how can the scientific communities working on extreme events and impacts develop their research to support the advance of this important policy? As climate scientists conducting probabilistic event attribution studies, we have been working with social scientists to investigate these questions. Our own research seeks to examine the role of external drivers, including greenhouse gas emissions, on the risk of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding, and drought. We use large ensembles of climate models to compute the probability of occurrence of extreme events under current conditions and in a world which might have been without anthropogenic interference. In cases where the models are able to simulate extreme weather, the analysis allows for conclusions about the extent to which climate change may have increased, decreased, or made no change to the risk of the event occurring. These results could thus have relevance for the UNFCCC negotiations on loss and damage, and we have been communicating with policymakers and observers to the policy process to better understand how we can develop our research to support their work; by attending policy meetings, conducting interviews, and using a participatory game developed with the Red Cross

Turning the big knob: an evaluation of the use of energy policy to modulate future climate impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pielke, R.A. Jnr.; Klein, R.; Sarewitz, D.

2000-01-01

Conventional wisdom on climate change policy is straightforward: reducing greenhouse gas emissions will avoid the increased frequency and magnitude of climate impacts on environment and society that might occur if emissions are not controlled. The proponents of conventional wisdom widely consider energy policy to be the main policy tool available to decision makers to intentionally modulate future climate impacts. In this paper we challenge the notion that policy makers should intentionally use energy policy to modulate future climate impacts. The paper argues that policy makers may well make large changes in energy policy (and future emissions) without significantly affecting future climate impacts. In other words, even if a theoretical case could be made that energy policy could be used intentionally to modulate future climate, other factors will play a larger role in creating future impact.y and are arguably more amenable to policy change. To illustrate this conclusion, the paper presents a sensitivity analysis under the assumptions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the case of tropical cyclones. One implication of the paper's conclusions is that policy responses to extreme weather events should be decoupled from considerations of energy policy. This decoupling is not intended to diminish either the importance of responding to climate change or of energy policy. Rather, it is to emphasise that there are many responses under the rubric of adaptation that could play a much greater role in reducing societal vulnerability to losses. One of the implications of this change is that scientific uncertainty need not stand in the way of effective action because the measures proposed make sense under any future climate scenario. (author)

Misconduct Policies, Academic Culture and Career Stage, Not Gender or Pressures to Publish, Affect Scientific Integrity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Fanelli

Full Text Available The honesty and integrity of scientists is widely believed to be threatened by pressures to publish, unsupportive research environments, and other structural, sociological and psychological factors. Belief in the importance of these factors has inspired major policy initiatives, but evidence to support them is either non-existent or derived from self-reports and other sources that have known limitations. We used a retrospective study design to verify whether risk factors for scientific misconduct could predict the occurrence of retractions, which are usually the consequence of research misconduct, or corrections, which are honest rectifications of minor mistakes. Bibliographic and personal information were collected on all co-authors of papers that have been retracted or corrected in 2010-2011 (N=611 and N=2226 papers, respectively and authors of control papers matched by journal and issue (N=1181 and N=4285 papers, respectively, and were analysed with conditional logistic regression. Results, which avoided several limitations of past studies and are robust to different sampling strategies, support the notion that scientific misconduct is more likely in countries that lack research integrity policies, in countries where individual publication performance is rewarded with cash, in cultures and situations were mutual criticism is hampered, and in the earliest phases of a researcher's career. The hypothesis that males might be prone to scientific misconduct was not supported, and the widespread belief that pressures to publish are a major driver of misconduct was largely contradicted: high-impact and productive researchers, and those working in countries in which pressures to publish are believed to be higher, are less-likely to produce retracted papers, and more likely to correct them. Efforts to reduce and prevent misconduct, therefore, might be most effective if focused on promoting research integrity policies, improving mentoring and training

Methodology for Participatory Policy Analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geurts, J.L.A.; Joldersma, F.

2001-01-01

In the course of time it has become clear that policy analysts who use traditional formal modeling techniques have limited impact on policy making regarding complex policy problems. These kinds of problems require the analyst to combine scientific insights with subjective knowledge resources and to

The limits of scientific information for informing forest policy decisions under changing climate

Science.gov (United States)

McLachlan, J. S.

2011-12-01

The distribution of tree species is largely determined by climate, with important consequences for ecosystem function, biodiversity, and the human economy. In the past, conflicts about priority among these various goods have produced persistent debate about forest policy and management. Despite this history of conflict, there has been general agreement on the framework for the debate: Our benchmark for assessing human impact is generally some historical condition (in the New World, this is often pre-European settlement). Wilderness is to be managed with minimal human intervention. Native species are preferred over non-natives. And regional landscapes can be effectively partitioned into independent jurisdictions with different management priorities. Each of these principles was always somewhat mythical, but the dynamics of broad scale species range shifts under climate change make all of them untenable in the future. Managed relocation (MR, or assisted migration) is a controversial proposal partly because it demands scientific answers that we do not have: Are trees naturally capable of shifting their ranges as fast as climate will force them? Will deliberate introductions of species beyond their native ranges have adverse impacts on the receiving ecosystem? What are appropriate targets for hydrologic or fire management under novel no-analog climates? However, these demands on science mask a more fundamental concern: the ethical framework underlying existing forest policy is unsupported in the context of long-term non-stationary environmental trends. Whether or not we conclude that MR is a useful policy option, debate about MR is useful because it forces us to place the global change ecology agenda in a larger ethical debate about our goals when managing novel ecosystems.

The (Mis)understanding of Scientific Uncertainty? How Experts View Policy-Makers, the Media and Publics

OpenAIRE

Landstrom, Catharina; Hauxwell-Baldwin, Richard; Lorenzoni, Irene; Rogers-Hayden, Tee

2015-01-01

Frequent claims that publics ‘misunderstand’ science ignore the contested definition of scientific uncertainty itself. Scientific uncertainty means different things in the natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities, while public controversies show that these interpretations of scientific uncertainty have different implications for policy and decision-making. This prompts analysis of the ways that experts view scientific uncertainty and how they characterise the (mis)understandings o...

Land Sparing and Land Sharing Policies in Developing Countries - Drivers and Linkages to Scientific Debates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mertz, Ole; Mertens, Charlotte Filt

2017-01-01

The need for developing land sparing or land sharing policies for protecting the environment has been a polarized debate in the scientific literature. Some studies show that "spared" landscapes with clearly separated intensive agriculture and pristine forest are better for biodiversity and other...... ecosystem services, whereas others demonstrate the benefits of "shared" mosaic landscapes composed of a mix of forest types, agricultural fields, grassland, and plantations. Increasingly, these scientific views have been depolarized, recognizing that both shared and spared landscapes have a role to play......, depending on the context. However, it is less clear from the literature what drives actual policy-making related to land sparing and land sharing in developing countries and what the outcomes of these policies are. We therefore reviewed the international peer-reviewed literature for evidence of policies...

Promoting Scientific Faculties: Does It Work? Evidence from Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Maestri, Virginia

2013-01-01

In reaction to the OECD-wide declining trend in scientific enrollments, the Italian government launched a policy in 2005 to promote the study of science at the university. The policy promoted extra-curricular activities for secondary school students in Chemistry, Physics, Math and Materials Science. This article evaluates the policy impact on…

Equity Impacts of Environmental Policy

OpenAIRE

Antonio M. Bento

2013-01-01

This article surveys recent literature on the equity impacts of environmental policy. We focus on studies that look at the distribution of costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies. We also examine potentially important trade-offs between efficiency and equity that arise in the context of environmental policy, as well as transition effects. In many of the applications surveyed here, environmental policies can be regressive. Strategies are discussed to reduce this regressivity t...

Acquisition of Scientific Literature in Developing Countries. 2: Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Taib, Rosna

1989-01-01

Describes the acquisition of scientific literature by academic libraries in Malaysia. The discussion covers the impact of government policies, library acquisition policies, the selection process, acquisition of special materials, the role of gifts and exchanges, and problems with customs clearance and censorship. Progress in cooperative…

[Scientific Research Policy for Health in Portugal: II - Facts and Suggestions].

Science.gov (United States)

Guerreiro, Cátia Sá; Hartz, Zulmira; Sambo, Luís; Conceição, Cláudia; Dussault, Gilles; Russo, Giuliano; Viveiros, Miguel; Silveira, Henrique; Pita Barros, Pedro; Ferrinho, Paulo

2017-03-31

After more than 40 years of democracy and 30 years of European integration, Portugal has bridged the research gap it had previously. However, when compared to global and European research policies, Portugal still has a long way go regarding investment in research and development. Health Research in Portugal has been managed by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and the National Health Institute Doctor Ricardo Jorge, and it has not been a political priority, emphasized by the absence of a national scientific research plan for health, resulting in a weak coordination of actors in the field. The strategic guidelines of the 2004 - 2010 National Health Plan are what comes closest to a health research policy, but these were not implemented by the institutions responsible for scientific research for the health sector. Trusting that adopting a strategy of incentives to stimulate health research is an added-value for the Portuguese health system, the authors present five strategic proposals for research in health in Portugal.

Zebrafish in Brazilian Science: Scientific Production, Impact, and Collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Gheno, Ediane Maria; Rosemberg, Denis Broock; Souza, Diogo Onofre; Calabró, Luciana

2016-06-01

By means of scientometric indicators, this study investigated the characteristics of scientific production and research collaboration involving zebrafish (Danio rerio) in Brazilian Science indexed by the Web of Science (WoS). Citation data were collected from the WoS and data regarding Impact Factor (IF) were gathered from journals in the Journal Citation Reports. Collaboration was evaluated according to coauthorship data, creating representative nets with VOSviewer. Zebrafish has attained remarkable importance as an experimental model organism in recent years and an increase in scientific production with zebrafish is observed in Brazil and around the world. The citation impact of the worldwide scientific production is superior when compared to the Brazilian scientific production. However, the citation impact of the Brazilian scientific production is consistently increasing. Brazil does not follow the international trends with regard to publication research fields. The state of Rio Grande do Sul has the greatest number of articles and the institution with the largest number of publications is Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Journals' average IF is higher in Brazilian publications with international coauthorship, and around 90% of articles are collaborative. The Brazilian institutions presenting the greatest number of collaborations are Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Fundação Universidade Federal de Rio Grande, and Universidade de São Paulo. These data indicate that Brazilian research using zebrafish presents a growth in terms of number of publications, citation impact, and collaborative work.

Administrator Perceptions of School Improvement Policies in a High-Impact Policy Setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARIO S. TORRES

2008-10-01

Full Text Available This study investigated school administrators’ perceptions of school improvement policies in a high-impact policy environment by measuring the impact of accountability, site-based management, professional development, and scheduling reform on the three dependent variables of a academic outcomes, b staff morale, and c parent and community involvement. Using a convenience sampling method, 49 public school principals from Texas participated and an online survey was constructed to gather both quantitative (i.e., Likert scale and qualitative (i.e., open ended response data. The findings clearly point to principals, regardless of geographical district type and grade level school type, viewing less controversial and more intrinsically oriented policies (i.e., site-based management and professional development as having a greater positive impact on outcomes as a whole than more radical alternatives (i.e., accountability and time and schedule reform. The evidence suggests that more aggressive school improvement policy approaches are likely failing to generate enough convincing outcomes to generate high commitment and confidence from school leaders. Further studies may look at the interaction of policy impact with minority student enrollments and with subgroup populations.

Scientific Data and Its Limits: Rethinking the Use of Evidence in Local Climate Change Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Pearce, Warren

2014-01-01

Climate policy is typically seen as informed by scientific evidence that anthropogenic carbon emissions require reducing in order to avoid dangerous consequences. However, agreement on these matters has not translated into effective policy. Using interviews with local authority officials in the UK's East Midlands region, this paper argues that the…

41 CFR 101-25.111 - Environmental impact policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Environmental impact...-General Policies § 101-25.111 Environmental impact policy. (a) From time to time, Congress enacts... Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321). The objective of such legislation is, among other things, the...

American Legal Realism: Research Programme and Policy Impact

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frans L. Leeuw

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article addresses two questions:1. Can Legal Realism be seen as a scientific research programme enabling growth of knowledge? To answer that question, the author uses Lakatos’s  work on the methodology of scientific research programmes as a frame of reference.2. What has been the role of American Legal Realism during the first part of the 20th century in helping to develop and implement the New Deal policy vis-à-vis its scientific work?After outlining some characteristics of American Legal Realism and Lakatos’s concept, the author studies LR from this perspective and concludes that LR can at the maximum be seen as a research programme of a very rudimentary nature with largely only a focus on procedures/methods. Despite this conclusion, LR has been important in stimulating questions in which social science research and law came together. Next, the professor-realist-relationship that helped President Roosevelt to have his New Deal developed and implemented is also discussed. A downside of this ‘professor-realist-advisor-partnership’ may have been that a LR scientific research programme has not been developed. Given the increased visibility of New Legal Realism, the paper finally stresses the relevance of working with scientific research programmes and the importance of being on the alert when linking research to (legal policies.

Team Structure and Scientific Impact of "Big Science" Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauto, Giancarlo; Valentin, Finn; Jeppesen, Jacob

This paper summarizes preliminary results from a project studying how the organizational and cognitive features of research carried out in a Large Scale Research Facility (LSRF) affect scientific impact. The study is based on exhaustive bibliometric mapping of the scientific publications...... of the Neutron Science Department of Oak Ridge National Laboratories in 2006-2009. Given the collaborative nature of research carried out at LSRFs, it is important to understand how its organization affects scientific impact. Diversity of teams along the institutional and cognitive dimensions affects both...... opportunities for combination of knowledge and coordination costs. The way specific collaborative configurations strike this trade-offs between these opportunities and costs have notable effects on research performance. The findings of the paper show that i.) scientists combining affiliations to both...

Asymmetry in scientific method and limits to cross-disciplinary dialogue: toward a shared language and science policy in pharmacogenomics and human disease genetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozdemir, Vural; Williams-Jones, Bryn; Graham, Janice E; Preskorn, Sheldon H; Gripeos, Dimitrios; Glatt, Stephen J; Friis, Robert H; Reist, Christopher; Szabo, Sandor; Lohr, James B; Someya, Toshiyuki

2007-04-01

Pharmacogenomics is a hybrid field of experimental science at the intersection of human disease genetics and clinical pharmacology sharing applications of the new genomic technologies. But this hybrid field is not yet stable or fully integrated, nor is science policy in pharmacogenomics fully equipped to resolve the challenges of this emerging hybrid field. The disciplines of human disease genetics and clinical pharmacology contain significant differences in their scientific practices. Whereas clinical pharmacology originates as an experimental science, human disease genetics is primarily observational in nature. The result is a significant asymmetry in scientific method that can differentially impact the degree to which gene-environment interactions are discerned and, by extension, the study sample size required in each discipline. Because the number of subjects enrolled in observational genetic studies of diseases is characteristically viewed as an important criterion of scientific validity and reliability, failure to recognize discipline-specific requirements for sample size may lead to inappropriate dismissal or silencing of meritorious, although smaller-scale, craft-based pharmacogenomic investigations using an experimental study design. Importantly, the recognition that pharmacogenomics is an experimental science creates an avenue for systematic policy response to the ethical imperative to prospectively pursue genetically customized therapies before regulatory approval of pharmaceuticals. To this end, we discuss the critical role of interdisciplinary engagement between medical sciences, policy, and social science. We emphasize the need for development of shared standards across scientific, methodologic, and socioethical epistemologic divides in the hybrid field of pharmacogenomics to best serve the interests of public health.

Atypical combinations and scientific impact.

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Uzzi, Brian; Mukherjee, Satyam; Stringer, Michael; Jones, Ben

2013-10-25

Novelty is an essential feature of creative ideas, yet the building blocks of new ideas are often embodied in existing knowledge. From this perspective, balancing atypical knowledge with conventional knowledge may be critical to the link between innovativeness and impact. Our analysis of 17.9 million papers spanning all scientific fields suggests that science follows a nearly universal pattern: The highest-impact science is primarily grounded in exceptionally conventional combinations of prior work yet simultaneously features an intrusion of unusual combinations. Papers of this type were twice as likely to be highly cited works. Novel combinations of prior work are rare, yet teams are 37.7% more likely than solo authors to insert novel combinations into familiar knowledge domains.

impacts of alternative farm policies on rural communities

Science.gov (United States)

J. Michael Bowker; James W. Richardson

1989-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe an LP/IO model for evaluating the economic impacts of alternative farm policies on rural communities and demonstrate its capabilities by analyzing the impacts of three farm policies on a rural community in Texas. Results indicate that in the noncrop sector, two groups of industries are most affected by farm policy. The first...

The global climate Policy Evaluation Framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohan, D.; Stafford, R.K.; Scheraga, J.D.; Herrod, S.

1994-01-01

The Policy Evaluation Framework (PEF) is a decision analysis tool that enables decision makers to continuously formulate policies that take into account the existing uncertainties, and to refine policies as new scientific information is developed. PEF integrates deterministic parametric models of physical, biological, and economic systems with a flexible decision tree system. The deterministic models represent greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric accumulation of these gases, global and regional climate changes, ecosystem impacts, economic impacts, and mitigation and adaptation options, The decision tree system captures the key scientific and economic uncertainties, and reflects the wide range of possible outcomes of alternative policy actions. The framework contains considerable flexibility to allow a wide range of scientific and economic assumptions or scenarios to be represented and explored. A key feature of PEF is its capability to address both mitigation policies and investments in anticipatory adaptation to protect ecological and economic systems, as well as interactions among such options. PEF's time structure allows issues related to the timing and flexibility of alternatives to be evaluated, while the decision tree structure facilitates examining questions involving the value of information, contingent actions, and probabilistic representations. This paper is intended to introduce PEF to the global climate policy community. The paper provides an overview of the structure, modules, and capabilities of PEF, and discusses selected results from an initial set of illustrative applications

A new public policy to ensure access to scientific information resources: the case of Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Soledad Bravo-Marchant

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The design and implementation of public policies to grant access to scientific information is now a marked trend among numerous countries of Latin America. The creation of specific instruments, the allocation of an ongoing budget and the accumulation of experience in negotiation and contracting of national licences have all been clear signs of the achievements resulting from recent initiatives in these countries. This article reviews the experience of the Consorcio para el Acceso a la Información Cientifíca Electrónica (CINCEL Corporation, a Chilean consortium created in 2002, the public policy that made it possible and the evaluation experience of its main programme, the Electronic Library of Scientific Information (BEIC.

"Entrepreneurship policy: Trade-offs and impact in the EU"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Murdock, Karen

2012-01-01

Based on the notion that trade-offs in public policies form the basis of the separation of managed and entrepreneurial economies; this paper investigates the impact of policy on actual entrepreneurship activity in these two categories of economies. Using data from 19 European Union member countries......, the impact that policy trade-offs in the goal, target, location and system of finance have on entrepreneurship activity is measured using ordinary least squares regression. The results indicate that while business regulation negatively impact entrepreneurship activity, the location of policy does not show...

From GRID to gridlock: the relationship between scientific biomedical breakthroughs and HIV/AIDS policy in the US Congress.

Science.gov (United States)

Platt, Matthew B; Platt, Manu O

2013-11-27

From the travel ban on people living with HIV (PLHIV) to resistance to needle exchange programmes, there are many examples where policy responses to HIV/AIDS in the United States seem divorced from behavioural, public health and sociological evidence. At its root, however, the unknowns about HIV/AIDS lie at biomedical science, and scientific researchers have made tremendous progress over the past 30 years of the epidemic by using antiretroviral therapy to increase the life expectancy of PLHIV almost to the same level as non-infected individuals; but a relationship between biomedical science discoveries and congressional responses to HIV/AIDS has not been studied. Using quantitative approaches, we directly examine the hypothesis that progress in HIV/AIDS biomedical science discoveries would have a correlative relationship with congressional response to HIV/AIDS from 1981 to 2010. This study used original data on every bill introduced, hearing held and law passed by the US Congress relating to HIV/AIDS over 30 years (1981-2010). We combined congressional data with the most cited and impactful biomedical research scientific publications over the same time period as a metric of biomedical science breakthroughs. Correlations between congressional policy and biomedical research were then analyzed at the aggregate and individual levels. Biomedical research advancements helped shape both the level and content of bill sponsorship on HIV/AIDS, but they had no effect on other stages of the legislative process. Examination of the content of bills and biomedical research indicated that science helped transform HIV/AIDS bill sponsorship from a niche concern of liberal Democrats to a bipartisan coalition when Republicans became the majority party. The trade-off for that expansion has been an emphasis on the global epidemic to the detriment of domestic policies and programmes. Breakthroughs in biomedical science did associate with the number and types of HIV/AIDS bills introduced

Impact of EU agricultural policy on developing countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boysen, Ole; Jensen, Hans Grinsted; Matthews, Alan

2016-01-01

Despite substantial reforms, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is still criticised for its detrimental effects on developing countries. This paper provides updated evidence on the impact of the CAP on one developing country, Uganda. It goes beyond estimating macro-level economic effects...... by analysing the impacts on poverty. The policy simulation results show that eliminating EU agricultural support would have marginal but nonetheless positive impacts on the Ugandan economy and its poverty indicators. From the perspective of the EU’s commitment to policy coherence for development, this supports...... the view that further reducing EU Agricultural support would be positive for development....

Balance in scientific impact assessment: the EGU Awards Committe experience

Science.gov (United States)

Montanari, Alberto

2016-04-01

Evaluation of scientific impact is becoming an essential step all over the world for assigning academic positions, funding and recognition. Impact is generally assessed by means of objective bibliometric indicators which are frequently integrated with a subjective evaluation by one or more individuals. An essential requirement of impact assessment is to ensure balance across several potential discriminating factors, including gender, ethnics, culture, scientific field and many others. Scientific associations need to ensure balance in any step of their activity and in particular when electing their representatives, evaluating scientific contributions, reviewing papers and assigning awards. While ensuring balance is a strict necessity, how to get to target is still a matter of vivid debates. In fact, the context of science is very different with respect to the general context of society and the need for scientific associations to maintain confidentiality in their evaluation procedures makes the application of transparent procedures more complicated. This talk aims to present the experience and the efforts of the European Geosciences Union to ensure balance, with a particular focus on gender balance. Data and statistics will be presented in the attempt to provide constructive indications to get to the target of giving equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups. Science is a unifying discipline and balance will be vital to ensure that humans and our planet co-evolve sustainably.

Measuring scientific impact beyond academia: An assessment of existing impact metrics and proposed improvements.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravenscroft, James; Liakata, Maria; Clare, Amanda; Duma, Daniel

2017-01-01

How does scientific research affect the world around us? Being able to answer this question is of great importance in order to appropriately channel efforts and resources in science. The impact by scientists in academia is currently measured by citation based metrics such as h-index, i-index and citation counts. These academic metrics aim to represent the dissemination of knowledge among scientists rather than the impact of the research on the wider world. In this work we are interested in measuring scientific impact beyond academia, on the economy, society, health and legislation (comprehensive impact). Indeed scientists are asked to demonstrate evidence of such comprehensive impact by authoring case studies in the context of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). We first investigate the extent to which existing citation based metrics can be indicative of comprehensive impact. We have collected all recent REF impact case studies from 2014 and we have linked these to papers in citation networks that we constructed and derived from CiteSeerX, arXiv and PubMed Central using a number of text processing and information retrieval techniques. We have demonstrated that existing citation-based metrics for impact measurement do not correlate well with REF impact results. We also consider metrics of online attention surrounding scientific works, such as those provided by the Altmetric API. We argue that in order to be able to evaluate wider non-academic impact we need to mine information from a much wider set of resources, including social media posts, press releases, news articles and political debates stemming from academic work. We also provide our data as a free and reusable collection for further analysis, including the PubMed citation network and the correspondence between REF case studies, grant applications and the academic literature.

Measuring scientific impact beyond academia: An assessment of existing impact metrics and proposed improvements.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Ravenscroft

Full Text Available How does scientific research affect the world around us? Being able to answer this question is of great importance in order to appropriately channel efforts and resources in science. The impact by scientists in academia is currently measured by citation based metrics such as h-index, i-index and citation counts. These academic metrics aim to represent the dissemination of knowledge among scientists rather than the impact of the research on the wider world. In this work we are interested in measuring scientific impact beyond academia, on the economy, society, health and legislation (comprehensive impact. Indeed scientists are asked to demonstrate evidence of such comprehensive impact by authoring case studies in the context of the Research Excellence Framework (REF. We first investigate the extent to which existing citation based metrics can be indicative of comprehensive impact. We have collected all recent REF impact case studies from 2014 and we have linked these to papers in citation networks that we constructed and derived from CiteSeerX, arXiv and PubMed Central using a number of text processing and information retrieval techniques. We have demonstrated that existing citation-based metrics for impact measurement do not correlate well with REF impact results. We also consider metrics of online attention surrounding scientific works, such as those provided by the Altmetric API. We argue that in order to be able to evaluate wider non-academic impact we need to mine information from a much wider set of resources, including social media posts, press releases, news articles and political debates stemming from academic work. We also provide our data as a free and reusable collection for further analysis, including the PubMed citation network and the correspondence between REF case studies, grant applications and the academic literature.

Crossing Science-Policy-Societal Boundaries to Reduce Scientific and Institutional Uncertainty in Small-Scale Fisheries

Science.gov (United States)

Sutton, Abigail M.; Rudd, Murray A.

2016-10-01

The governance of small-scale fisheries (SSF) is challenging due to the uncertainty, complexity, and interconnectedness of social, political, ecological, and economical processes. Conventional SSF management has focused on a centralized and top-down approach. A major criticism of conventional management is the over-reliance on `expert science' to guide decision-making and poor consideration of fishers' contextually rich knowledge. That is thought to exacerbate the already low governance potential of SSF. Integrating scientific knowledge with fishers' knowledge is increasingly popular and is often assumed to help reduce levels of biophysical and institutional uncertainties. Many projects aimed at encouraging knowledge integration have, however, been unsuccessful. Our objective in this research was to assess factors that influence knowledge integration and the uptake of integrated knowledge into policy-making. We report results from 54 semi-structured interviews with SSF researchers and practitioners from around the globe. Our analysis is framed in terms of scientific credibility, societal legitimacy, and policy saliency, and we discuss cases that have been partially or fully successful in reducing uncertainty via push-and-pull-oriented boundary crossing initiatives. Our findings suggest that two important factors affect the science-policy-societal boundary: a lack of consensus among stakeholders about what constitutes credible knowledge and institutional uncertainty resulting from shifting policies and leadership change. A lack of training for scientific leaders and an apparent `shelf-life' for community organizations highlight the importance of ongoing institutional support for knowledge integration projects. Institutional support may be enhanced through such investments, such as capacity building and specialized platforms for knowledge integration.

Crossing Science-Policy-Societal Boundaries to Reduce Scientific and Institutional Uncertainty in Small-Scale Fisheries.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutton, Abigail M; Rudd, Murray A

2016-10-01

The governance of small-scale fisheries (SSF) is challenging due to the uncertainty, complexity, and interconnectedness of social, political, ecological, and economical processes. Conventional SSF management has focused on a centralized and top-down approach. A major criticism of conventional management is the over-reliance on 'expert science' to guide decision-making and poor consideration of fishers' contextually rich knowledge. That is thought to exacerbate the already low governance potential of SSF. Integrating scientific knowledge with fishers' knowledge is increasingly popular and is often assumed to help reduce levels of biophysical and institutional uncertainties. Many projects aimed at encouraging knowledge integration have, however, been unsuccessful. Our objective in this research was to assess factors that influence knowledge integration and the uptake of integrated knowledge into policy-making. We report results from 54 semi-structured interviews with SSF researchers and practitioners from around the globe. Our analysis is framed in terms of scientific credibility, societal legitimacy, and policy saliency, and we discuss cases that have been partially or fully successful in reducing uncertainty via push-and-pull-oriented boundary crossing initiatives. Our findings suggest that two important factors affect the science-policy-societal boundary: a lack of consensus among stakeholders about what constitutes credible knowledge and institutional uncertainty resulting from shifting policies and leadership change. A lack of training for scientific leaders and an apparent 'shelf-life' for community organizations highlight the importance of ongoing institutional support for knowledge integration projects. Institutional support may be enhanced through such investments, such as capacity building and specialized platforms for knowledge integration.

Policy Directions Addressing the Public Health Impact of Climate Change in South Korea: The Climate-change Health Adaptation and Mitigation Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Yong Seung; Ha, Jongsik

2012-01-01

Climate change, caused by global warming, is increasingly recognized as a major threat to mankind's survival. Climate change concurrently has both direct and modifying influences on environmental, social, and public health systems undermining human health as a whole. Environmental health policy-makers need to make use of political and technological alternatives to address these ramifying effects. The objective of this paper is to review public health policy in Korea, as well as internationally, particularly as it relates to climate change health adaptation and mitigation programs (such as C-CHAMP of Korea), in order to assess and elicit directions for a robust environmental health policy that is adaptive to the health impacts of climate change. In Korea, comprehensive measures to prevent or mitigate overall health effects are limited, and the diffusion of responsibility among various government departments makes consistency in policy execution very difficult. This paper proposes integration, synergy, and utilization as the three core principles of policy direction for the assessment and adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. For specific action plans, we suggest policy making based on scientifically integrated health impact assessments and the prioritization of environmental factors in climate change; the development of practical and technological tools that support policy decisions by making their political implementation more efficient; and customized policy development that deals with the vulnerability of local communities.

Policy Directions Addressing the Public Health Impact of Climate Change in South Korea: The Climate-change Health Adaptation and Mitigation Program

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Yong Seung

2012-01-01

Climate change, caused by global warming, is increasingly recognized as a major threat to mankind's survival. Climate change concurrently has both direct and modifying influences on environmental, social, and public health systems undermining human health as a whole. Environmental health policy-makers need to make use of political and technological alternatives to address these ramifying effects. The objective of this paper is to review public health policy in Korea, as well as internationally, particularly as it relates to climate change health adaptation and mitigation programs (such as C-CHAMP of Korea), in order to assess and elicit directions for a robust environmental health policy that is adaptive to the health impacts of climate change. In Korea, comprehensive measures to prevent or mitigate overall health effects are limited, and the diffusion of responsibility among various government departments makes consistency in policy execution very difficult. This paper proposes integration, synergy, and utilization as the three core principles of policy direction for the assessment and adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. For specific action plans, we suggest policy making based on scientifically integrated health impact assessments and the prioritization of environmental factors in climate change; the development of practical and technological tools that support policy decisions by making their political implementation more efficient; and customized policy development that deals with the vulnerability of local communities. PMID:23256088

Modelling Options for Policy Impact Analysis on African Dairy Farms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oghaiki Asaah NDAMBI

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Studies on the priorities for agricultural research in Eastern and CentralAfrica concluded that milk is the most important commodity for research anddevelopment in the region, based on its potential contribution to the agriculturalGDP. It has been presumed that, the right policies, marketing systems and technicalsupport must be sought for dairy development in Africa. In order to determine theright development pattern, appropriate analytical tools must be applied. The TIPICAL(Technology Impact Policy Impact model was used to analyse the impact ofdifferent policies on two typical dairy farming systems in Uganda, which accountfor more than 70% of milk produced in the country. Seven influential policy areaswere also identified: provision of veterinary services, consumption promotion,marketing promotion, input provision, credit access improvement, milk qualityimprovement and genetic improvement. In general, the policy impacts are very littleon farms with local cows but can be magnified up to threefold, if the farms havegraded cows. Policies which improve farmers’ accessibility to markets have thegreatest impacts. The results obtained from this model were compared to thoseusing the EXTRAPOLATE model. This comparison shows that both models couldcomplement each other in analysing policy impacts on African dairy farms.However, differences in results from the models indicate that more focus should bemade on farmers’ willingness to adopt new technology.

Research That Counts: OECD Statistics and "Policy Entrepreneurs" Impacting on Australian Adult Literacy and Numeracy Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Stephen; Yasukawa, Keiko

2016-01-01

This paper analyses research that has impacted on Australia's most recent national policy document on adult literacy and numeracy, the National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS). The paper draws in part on Lingard's 2013 paper, "The impact of research on education policy in an era of evidence-based policy", in which he outlines the…

77 FR 68776 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-16

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public..., Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey, and United Kingdom. Interested parties may submit comments on this transaction by email to economic.impact...

Analyzing Data Citations to Assess the Scientific and Societal Value of Scientific Data

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, R. S.; Downs, R. R.

2012-12-01

the data extensively to identify the potential impact of the data on the scientific fields represented by those journals. Furthermore, an initial analysis was conducted of citations that appeared in non-peer-reviewed publications and the popular media to assess the potential policy and educational impacts of these data. The initial results of these analyses demonstrate the significant challenges that remain for assessing the value of scientific data to both science and society.

Understanding the Impact of an Apprenticeship-Based Scientific Research Program on High School Students' Understanding of Scientific Inquiry

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Aydeniz, Mehmet; Baksa, Kristen; Skinner, Jane

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of an apprenticeship program on high school students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. Data related to seventeen students' understanding of science and scientific inquiry were collected through open-ended questionnaires. Findings suggest that although engagement in authentic…

Is Twitter a forum for disseminating research to health policy makers?

Science.gov (United States)

Kapp, Julie M; Hensel, Brian; Schnoring, Kyle T

2015-12-01

Findings from scientific research largely remain inside the scientific community. Research scientists are being encouraged to use social media, and especially Twitter, for dissemination of evidence. The potential for Twitter to narrow the gap on evidence translated into policy presents new opportunities. We explored the innovative question of the feasibility of Twitter as a tool for the scientific community to disseminate to and engage with health policy makers for research impact. We created a list of federal "health policy makers." In December 2014, we identified members using several data sources, then collected and summarized their Twitter usage data. Nearly all health policy makers had Twitter accounts. Their communication volume varied broadly. Policy makers are more likely to push information via Twitter than engage with constituents, although usage varied broadly. Twitter has the potential to aid the scientific community in dissemination of health-related research to health policy makers, after understanding how to effectively (and selectively) use Twitter. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do Latin American scientific journals follow dual-use review policies?

Science.gov (United States)

Valles, Edith Gladys; Bernacchi, Adriana Silvina

2014-01-01

During the past decade, a number of journals have implemented dual-use policies in order to analyze whether the papers submitted for publication could raise concern because of the potential for misuse of their content. In this context, an analysis was performed on Latin American scientific journals to examine whether they apply formal written dual-use review policies and whether they inform their authors and reviewers about potentially sensitive issues in this area, as other international journals do. Peer-reviewed life sciences journals indexed in Latindex from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile were analyzed. The Guide for Authors and the Instructions to Referees of 216 journals included in the Latindex catalogue (which means that they meet the best quality standards of the Latindex system) were screened for biosecurity-related information using the keywords biosecurity, biological weapons, and dual-use research of concern. Results showed that the screened publications had a total lack of dual-use review policies, even though some of them pointed out ethical behaviors to be followed related to authorship, plagiarism, simultaneous submission, research results misappropriation, ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, guiding principles for the care and use of animals in research, research standard violations, and reviewer bias, among others.

On the Compliance of Women Engineers with a Gendered Scientific System.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gita Ghiasi

Full Text Available There has been considerable effort in the last decade to increase the participation of women in engineering through various policies. However, there has been little empirical research on gender disparities in engineering which help underpin the effective preparation, co-ordination, and implementation of the science and technology (S&T policies. This article aims to present a comprehensive gendered analysis of engineering publications across different specialties and provide a cross-gender analysis of research output and scientific impact of engineering researchers in academic, governmental, and industrial sectors. For this purpose, 679,338 engineering articles published from 2008 to 2013 are extracted from the Web of Science database and 974,837 authorships are analyzed. The structures of co-authorship collaboration networks in different engineering disciplines are examined, highlighting the role of female scientists in the diffusion of knowledge. The findings reveal that men dominate 80% of all the scientific production in engineering. Women engineers publish their papers in journals with higher Impact Factors than their male peers, but their work receives lower recognition (fewer citations from the scientific community. Engineers-regardless of their gender-contribute to the reproduction of the male-dominated scientific structures through forming and repeating their collaborations predominantly with men. The results of this study call for integration of data driven gender-related policies in existing S&T discourse.

On the Compliance of Women Engineers with a Gendered Scientific System.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghiasi, Gita; Larivière, Vincent; Sugimoto, Cassidy R

2015-01-01

There has been considerable effort in the last decade to increase the participation of women in engineering through various policies. However, there has been little empirical research on gender disparities in engineering which help underpin the effective preparation, co-ordination, and implementation of the science and technology (S&T) policies. This article aims to present a comprehensive gendered analysis of engineering publications across different specialties and provide a cross-gender analysis of research output and scientific impact of engineering researchers in academic, governmental, and industrial sectors. For this purpose, 679,338 engineering articles published from 2008 to 2013 are extracted from the Web of Science database and 974,837 authorships are analyzed. The structures of co-authorship collaboration networks in different engineering disciplines are examined, highlighting the role of female scientists in the diffusion of knowledge. The findings reveal that men dominate 80% of all the scientific production in engineering. Women engineers publish their papers in journals with higher Impact Factors than their male peers, but their work receives lower recognition (fewer citations) from the scientific community. Engineers-regardless of their gender-contribute to the reproduction of the male-dominated scientific structures through forming and repeating their collaborations predominantly with men. The results of this study call for integration of data driven gender-related policies in existing S&T discourse.

Health behind bars: can exploring the history of prison health systems impact future policy?

Science.gov (United States)

Weston, Kathryn M; McCarthy, Louella R; Meyering, Isobelle Barrett; Hampton, Stephen; Mackinnon, Tobias

2018-02-01

The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral … it prepares us to live more humanely in the present, and to meet rather than to foretell, the future - Carl Becker. Becker's quote reminds us of the importance of revealing and understanding historical practices in order to influence actions in the future. There are compelling reasons for uncovering this history, in particular to better inform government policy makers and health advocates, and to address the impacts of growing community expectations to 'make the punishment fit the crime'. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 57; US Scientific and Technical Information Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Pinelli, Thomas E.; Barclay, Rebecca O.; Kennedy, John M.

1996-01-01

In fiscal year 1994, the United States government spent about $68 billion for science and technology. Although there is general agreement among policy makers that the results of this expenditure can be used to enhance technological innovation and improve economic competitiveness, there is no coherent scientific and technical information (STI) policy. The absence of a cohesive policy and STI policy framework means that the transfer and utilization of STI goes uncoordinated. This chapter examines the U.S. government's role in funding science and technology, reviews Federal STI activities and involvement in the transfer and use of STI resulting from federally-funded science and technology, presents issues surrounding the use of federally-funded STI, and offers recommendations for improving the transfer and use of STI.

Assessment of environmental impacts following alternative agricultural policy scenarios.

Science.gov (United States)

Bárlund, I; Lehtonen, H; Tattari, S

2005-01-01

Abstract Finnish agriculture is likely to undergo major changes in the near and intermediate future. The ifuture policy context can be examined at a general level by strategic scenario building. Computer-based modelling in combination with agricultural policy scenarios can in turn create a basis for the assessments of changes in environmental quality following possible changes in Finnish agriculture. The analysis of economic consequences is based on the DREMFIA model, which is applied to study effects of various agricultural policies on land use, animal production, and farmers' income. The model is suitable for an impact analysis covering an extended time span--here up to the year 2015. The changes in land use, obtained with the DREMFIA model assuming rational economic behaviour, form the basis when evaluating environmental impacts of different agricultural policies. The environmental impact assessment is performed using the field scale nutrient transport model ICECREAM. The modelled variables are nitrogen and phosphorus losses in surface runoff and percolation. In this paper the modelling strategy will be presented and highlighted using two case study catchments with varying environmental conditions and land use as an example. In addition, the paper identifies issues arising when connecting policy scenarios with impact modelling.

Career on the Move: Geography, Stratification, and Scientific Impact

Science.gov (United States)

Deville, Pierre; Wang, Dashun; Sinatra, Roberta; Song, Chaoming; Blondel, Vincent D.; Barabási, Albert-László

2014-04-01

Changing institutions is an integral part of an academic life. Yet little is known about the mobility patterns of scientists at an institutional level and how these career choices affect scientific outcomes. Here, we examine over 420,000 papers, to track the affiliation information of individual scientists, allowing us to reconstruct their career trajectories over decades. We find that career movements are not only temporally and spatially localized, but also characterized by a high degree of stratification in institutional ranking. When cross-group movement occurs, we find that while going from elite to lower-rank institutions on average associates with modest decrease in scientific performance, transitioning into elite institutions does not result in subsequent performance gain. These results offer empirical evidence on institutional level career choices and movements and have potential implications for science policy.

Impact assessment and policy learning in the European Commission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruddy, Thomas F.; Hilty, Lorenz M.

2008-01-01

Governance for sustainable development requires policy coherence and Environmental Policy Integration, which are being hindered by difficulties coordinating the two separate impact assessment processes being conducted in the European Commission. One of them, the Commission-wide Impact Assessment process, looks primarily at EU-internal impacts, whereas the other one, Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in DG Trade, looks outward to other countries and intergovernmental organizations. Ideally, the two processes should complement one another, especially as the two are set to continue being done in parallel. The paper uses a case study of the reform of the European sugar regime under a World Trade Organization ruling to demonstrate how the two impact assessment processes could better complement one another. Feedback from the experience had with existing trade agreements could then promote policy learning and inform the negotiations on new agreements. The number of new bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements is expected to continue rising, thus increasing the importance of the Commission-wide Impact Assessment process required for them

Healthy Food Procurement Policies and Their Impact

Science.gov (United States)

Niebylski, Mark L.; Lu, Tammy; Campbell, Norm R. C.; Arcand, Joanne; Schermel, Alyssa; Hua, Diane; Yeates, Karen E.; Tobe, Sheldon W.; Twohig, Patrick A.; L’Abbé, Mary R.; Liu, Peter P.

2014-01-01

Unhealthy eating is the leading risk for death and disability globally. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for population health interventions. One of the proposed interventions is to ensure healthy foods are available by implementing healthy food procurement policies. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence base assessing the impact of such policies. A comprehensive review was conducted by searching PubMed and Medline for policies that had been implemented and evaluated the impact of food purchases, food consumption, and behaviors towards healthy foods. Thirty-four studies were identified and found to be effective at increasing the availability and purchases of healthy food and decreasing purchases of unhealthy food. Most policies also had other components such as education, price reductions, and health interventions. The multiple gaps in research identified by this review suggest that additional research and ongoing evaluation of food procurement programs is required. Implementation of healthy food procurement policies in schools, worksites, hospitals, care homes, correctional facilities, government institutions, and remote communities increase markers of healthy eating. Prior or simultaneous implementation of ancillary education about healthy eating, and rationale for the policy may be critical success factors and additional research is needed. PMID:24595213

The impacts of carbon tax and complementary policies on Chinese economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Chuanyi; Tong, Qing; Liu, Xuemei

2010-01-01

Under the pressure of global warming, it is imperative for Chinese government to impose effective policy instruments to promote domestic energy saving and carbon emissions reduction. As one of the most important incentive-based policy instruments, carbon tax has sparked a lively controversy in China. This paper explores the impact of carbon tax on Chinese economy, as well as the cushion effects of the complementary policies, by constructing a dynamic recursive general equilibrium model. The model can describe the new equilibrium for each sequential independent period (e.g. one year) after carbon tax and the complementary policies are imposed, and thus describe the long-term impacts of the policies. The simulation results show that carbon tax is an effective policy tool because it can reduce carbon emissions with a little negative impact on economic growth; reducing indirect tax in the meantime of imposing carbon tax will help to reduce the negative impact of the tax on production and competitiveness; in addition, giving households subsidy in the meantime will help to stimulate household consumptions. Therefore, complementary policies used together with carbon tax will help to cushion the negative impacts of carbon tax on the economy. The dynamic CGE analysis shows the impact of carbon tax policy on the GDP is relatively small, but the reduction of carbon emission is relatively large. (author)

Financing investments in renewable energy: the impacts of policy design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiser, Ryan H.; Pickle, Steven J.

1998-01-01

The costs of electric power projects utilising renewable energy technologies (RETs) are highly sensitive to financing terms. Consequently, as the electricity industry is restructured and new renewables policies are created, it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts of renewables policy design on RET financing. This paper reviews the power plant financing process for renewable energy projects, estimates the impact of financing terms on levelised energy costs, and provides insights to policymakers on the important nexus between renewables policy design and financing. We review five case studies of renewable energy policies, and find that one of the key reasons that RET policies are not more effective is that project development and financing processes are frequently ignored or misunderstood when designing and implementing renewable energy policies. The case studies specifically show that policies that do no provide long-term stability or that have negative secondary impacts on investment decisions will increase financing costs, sometimes dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the program. Within U.S. electricity restructuring proceedings, new renewable energy policies are being created, and restructuring itself is changing the way RETs are financed. As these new policies are created and implemented, it is essential that policymakers acknowledge the financing difficulties faced by renewables developer and pay special attention to the impacts of renewables policy design on financing. As shown in this paper, a renewables policy that is carefully designed can reduce renewable energy costs dramatically by providing revenue certainty that will, in turn, reduce financing risk premiums. (Author)

Framework agreement on climate change: a scientific and policy history

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hecht, A.D.; Tirpak, D.

1995-01-01

This paper is a mixture of journalism and history. It is journalistic in the sense of providing an annotated chronology of key events and publications since 1970 that ultimately led to the signing of the Framework Agreement on Climate Change (herein referred to as the Convention). It is also history in that the authors share their insight on these events and offer their perspective of how science and policy-making interacted. After the signing of the Climate Convention at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (June, 1992), the authors began to think about the many events that led to this historic agreements. When did the process really begin? What were the seminal scientific papers? When did climate change become a policy issue? What lessons do we learn for the future? The authors soon recognized there was no clear beginning to either the science or policy story. Both aspects evolved, with science and policy decisions affecting each other. The resulting history is decidedly a US perspective. While there will no doubt be arguments over the significance of all the events cited as well as the omission of others, the authors have for the first time synthesized the major themes that led to the climate convention. The discussion is organized into three periods of time: 1970-1980 (ending with the first World Climate Conference), 1980-1987 (ending with the US presidential election), and 1988-1992 (signing of the Convention). For each period there is an overall summary and analysis followed by a chronology of selected events. 52 refs

The Impact of Fiscal Policies on the Socioeconomic Determinants of Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Mosquera, Isabel; González-Rábago, Yolanda; Bacigalupe, Amaia; Suhrcke, Marc

2017-04-01

There has been considerable recent debate around the alleged impact of discretionary fiscal policies - especially austerity policies - on health and health inequalities. Assuming that most of the impact will have to run via the effect of fiscal policies on socioeconomic determinants of health (SDH), it is of interest to gain a further understanding of the relationship between fiscal policies and SDH. Therefore, the aim of this article is to review the recent evidence on the impact of discretionary fiscal policies on key SDH, i.e. income, poverty, education, and employment, in high income OECD countries. We find that there are no simple answers as to how fiscal policy affects those determinants of health. The effects of contractionary and expansionary fiscal policies on the analyzed SDH vary considerably across countries and will largely depend on the pre-crisis situation. Contractionary fiscal policies seem to have increased poverty, while their impact on income inequality will be influenced by the composition of the implemented measures. More empirical research trying to directly link fiscal policies to health outcomes, while taking into account of some of the mechanisms encountered here, would be worthwhile.

Economic Impact Assessment of Alternative Climate Policy Strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kemfert, C.

2001-10-01

This paper investigates the world economic implications of climate change policy strategies, especially the evaluation of impacts by an implementation of Clean Development Mechanisms, Joint Implementation and Emissions trading with a world integrated assessment model. Of special interest in this context are the welfare spill over and competitiveness effects that result from diverse climate policy strategies. In particular, this study elaborates and compares multi gas policy strategies and explores the impacts of the inclusion of sinks. Because of the recent decision of an isolated climate policy strategy by the United States of America, we examine the economic impacts of all world regions by a non cooperative and free rider position of the USA. It turns out that Clean Development Mechanisms and Joint Implementation show evidence of improvement in the economic development in the host countries and increase the share of new applied technologies. The decomposition of welfare effects demonstrates that the competitiveness effect including the spill over effects from trade have the strongest importance because of the intense trade relations between countries. Climatic effects have a significant impact within the next 50 years, cause considerable welfare losses to world regions and will intensify if some highly responsible nations like the USA do not reduce their emissions

Experiences and attitudes towards evidence-informed policy-making among research and policy stakeholders in the Canadian agri-food public health sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, I; Gropp, K; Pintar, K; Waddell, L; Marshall, B; Thomas, K; McEwen, S A; Rajić, A

2014-12-01

Policy-makers working at the interface of agri-food and public health often deal with complex and cross-cutting issues that have broad health impacts and socio-economic implications. They have a responsibility to ensure that policy-making based on these issues is accountable and informed by the best available scientific evidence. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study of agri-food public health policy-makers and research and policy analysts in Ontario, Canada, to understand their perspectives on how the policy-making process is currently informed by scientific evidence and how to facilitate this process. Five focus groups of 3-7 participants and five-one-to-one interviews were held in 2012 with participants from federal and provincial government departments and industry organizations in the agri-food public health sector. We conducted a thematic analysis of the focus group and interview transcripts to identify overarching themes. Participants indicated that the following six key principles are necessary to enable and demonstrate evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) in this sector: (i) establish and clarify the policy objectives and context; (ii) support policy-making with credible scientific evidence from different sources; (iii) integrate scientific evidence with other diverse policy inputs (e.g. economics, local applicability and stakeholder interests); (iv) ensure that scientific evidence is communicated by research and policy stakeholders in relevant and user-friendly formats; (V) create and foster interdisciplinary relationships and networks across research and policy communities; and (VI) enhance organizational capacity and individual skills for EIPM. Ongoing and planned efforts in these areas, a supportive culture, and additional education and training in both research and policy realms are important to facilitate evidence-informed policy-making in this sector. Future research should explore these findings further in other countries and contexts. �

Doublethink and scale mismatch polarize policies for an invasive tree

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Caleb P.; Uden, Daniel R.; Allen, Craig R.; Twidwell, Dirac

2018-01-01

Mismatches between invasive species management policies and ecological knowledge can lead to profound societal consequences. For this reason, natural resource agencies have adopted the scientifically-based density-impact invasive species curve to guide invasive species management. We use the density-impact model to evaluate how well management policies for a native invader (Juniperus virginiana) match scientific guidelines. Juniperus virginiana invasion is causing a sub-continental regime shift from grasslands to woodlands in central North America, and its impacts span collapses in endemic diversity, heightened wildfire risk, and crashes in grazing land profitability. We (1) use land cover data to identify the stage of Juniperus virginiana invasion for three ecoregions within Nebraska, USA, (2) determine the range of invasion stages at individual land parcel extents within each ecoregion based on the density-impact model, and (3) determine policy alignment and mismatches relative to the density-impact model in order to assess their potential to meet sustainability targets and avoid societal impacts as Juniperus virginiana abundance increases. We found that nearly all policies evidenced doublethink and policy-ecology mismatches, for instance, promoting spread of Juniperus virginiana regardless of invasion stage while simultaneously managing it as a native invader in the same ecoregion. Like other invasive species, theory and literature for this native invader indicate that the consequences of invasion are unlikely to be prevented if policies fail to prioritize management at incipient invasion stages. Theory suggests a more realistic approach would be to align policy with the stage of invasion at local and ecoregion management scales. There is a need for scientists, policy makers, and ecosystem managers to move past ideologies governing native versus non-native invader classification and toward a framework that accounts for the uniqueness of native species invasions

Doublethink and scale mismatch polarize policies for an invasive tree

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Caleb P.; Uden, Daniel R.; Allen, Craig R.; Twidwell, Dirac

2018-01-01

Mismatches between invasive species management policies and ecological knowledge can lead to profound societal consequences. For this reason, natural resource agencies have adopted the scientifically-based density-impact invasive species curve to guide invasive species management. We use the density-impact model to evaluate how well management policies for a native invader (Juniperus virginiana) match scientific guidelines. Juniperus virginiana invasion is causing a sub-continental regime shift from grasslands to woodlands in central North America, and its impacts span collapses in endemic diversity, heightened wildfire risk, and crashes in grazing land profitability. We (1) use land cover data to identify the stage of Juniperus virginiana invasion for three ecoregions within Nebraska, USA, (2) determine the range of invasion stages at individual land parcel extents within each ecoregion based on the density-impact model, and (3) determine policy alignment and mismatches relative to the density-impact model in order to assess their potential to meet sustainability targets and avoid societal impacts as Juniperus virginiana abundance increases. We found that nearly all policies evidenced doublethink and policy-ecology mismatches, for instance, promoting spread of Juniperus virginiana regardless of invasion stage while simultaneously managing it as a native invader in the same ecoregion. Like other invasive species, theory and literature for this native invader indicate that the consequences of invasion are unlikely to be prevented if policies fail to prioritize management at incipient invasion stages. Theory suggests a more realistic approach would be to align policy with the stage of invasion at local and ecoregion management scales. There is a need for scientists, policy makers, and ecosystem managers to move past ideologies governing native versus non-native invader classification and toward a framework that accounts for the uniqueness of native species

Globalization: Its Impact on Scientific Research in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Ani, Okon E.; Biao, Esohe Patience

2005-01-01

This article reports on a study which investigated the impact of globalization on scientific research in Nigeria. The research data were collected using a questionnaire survey which was administered to academics in science-based disciplines in four Nigerian universities: University of Calabar, University of Uyo, University of Lagos and University…

Ademe's scientific policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clement, D.

2005-01-01

The Ademe, the French agency of environment and energy mastery, is a public institution with industrial and commercial purposes. Its missions are multiple: fighting against climatic change (implementation of the French policy of energy efficiency, energy mastery and development of renewable energy sources); abatement of waste production and rehabilitation of polluted sites; monitoring of air quality and abatement of pollution sources (including noise); implementation of a sustainable development policy. The agency acts as a link between private and public research and follows a four steps strategy: contributing to the improvement of knowledge, technical progress and practices, valorizing the socio-economic aspects of the sustained researches, developing partnerships between public and private actors, and collaborating to the building up of a European research space. Today, in the energy domain, the Ademe is defending 5 technological priorities: hydrogen and fuel cells, CO 2 capture and sequestration, renewable energy sources (photovoltaic and biomass), clean and low energy transportation systems (PREDIT), and buildings without greenhouse effect (PREBAT). (J.S.)

Policy Reform Impact on Food Manufacturing

OpenAIRE

Celikkol, Pinar; Dunn, James W.; Stefanou, Spiro E.

2003-01-01

The impact of agricultural policies and their reform is of major concern when addressing issues of growth, innovation and consolidation in the food manufacturing sector. Growth is one of the forces fueling the globalization of food manufacturing activities. Market- and policy-driven forces present a myriad of opportunities to influence growth and reorientation of patterns at the nexus where food manufacturing links the food system. The productivity and international competitiveness of the foo...

Scientific assessments: Matching the process to the problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert J. Scholes

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The science–policy interface process – known as a ‘scientific assessment’ – has risen to prominence in the past few decades. Complex assessments are appropriate for issues which are both technically complicated, multifaceted and of high societal interest. There is increasing interest from the research community that studies biological invasions to undertake such an assessment. Objectives: Providing the relevant background and context, the article describes key principles and steps for designing, planning, resourcing and executing such a process, as well as providing evidence of high-impact assessments enhancing scientific careers. Method: Experience from international and national assessments, most recently the South African scientific assessment for the Shale Gas Development in the Central Karoo, was used to develop this guiding generic template for practitioners. Analyses of researcher publication performances were undertaken to determine the benefit of being involved in assessments. Results: The key success factors for assessments mostly relate to adherence to ‘process’ and ‘governance’ aspects, for which scientists are sometimes ill-equipped. As regards publication outputs, authors involved in assessment processes demonstrated higher H-indices than their environmental scientist peers. We have suggested causal explanations for this. Conclusion: Effectively designed and managed assessments provide the platform for the ‘co-production of knowledge’ – an iterative and collaborative process involving scientists, stakeholders and policymakers. This increases scientific impact in the society–policy domain. While scientists seem concerned that effort directed towards assessments comes at the detriment of scientific credibility and productivity, we have presented data that suggest the opposite.

State distributed PV policies: Can low cost (to government) policies have a market impact?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krasko, Vitaliy A.; Doris, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

This analysis examines the use of state policy as a tool to support the development of distributed generation photovoltaic (PV) markets. The focus is on low-cost market opening policies instead of various forms of government subsidies aimed at reducing installation costs. The ideas tested in this work are: (1) low-cost market opening policies can be effective in facilitating PV market growth without subsidizing projects, and (2) policies can be made more effective if states and localities stage their enactment in a particular order. The policies selected for evaluation emerge from a policy stacking theory outlined in Doris (2012), NREL/CP-7A30-54801, Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. A cross-section econometric analysis that takes into account the quality of interconnection standards, net metering standards, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), RPS set-asides, and a non-policy determinant (population) explains about 70% of the variation in newly installed PV capacity across states and indicates that all of the selected policies are significant. Nonparametric statistical tests confirm the regression results. Qualitative evidence is also presented indicating that effective policy ordering starts with improving interconnection standards, closely followed by improvements in net metering standards, and eventually strengthened by the enactment of an RPS and set-asides. - Highlights: • Impacts of low cost market opening policies on PV capacity are evaluated. • Impact of a strategic policy enactment sequence is evaluated. • Effective interconnection, net metering, RPS, and set-asides increase PV capacity. • Effective ordering is market preparation, then creation, then expansion policies

IMPACT OF SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEW ON MAN: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Ike Odimegwu

outlines, therefore, the impact of science on man has moved in three stages: Physical .... of appreciation, understanding and action proper to the scientific mind. It refers ...... This has excluded chain reactions of the warheads that will follow not ...

The Greenhouse Effect: Science and Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Stephen H.

1989-01-01

Discusses many of the scientific questions surrounding the greenhouse effect debate and the issue of plausible responses. Discussion includes topics concerning projecting emissions and greenhouse gas concentrations, estimating global climatic response, economic, social, and political impacts, and policy responses. (RT)

Decision Network for Blue Green Solutions to Influence Policy Impact Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Mijic, A.; Theodoropoulos, G.; El Hattab, M. H.; Brown, K.

2017-12-01

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) deliver ecosystems services that can potentially yield multiple benefits to the urban environment. These benefits can be achieved through optimising SUDS' integration with the local environment and water resources, creating so-called Blue Green Solutions (BGS). The BGS paradigm, however, presents several challenges, in particular quantifying the benefits and creating the scientific evidence-base that can persuade high-level decision-makers and stakeholders to implement BGS at large scale. This work presents the development of the easily implemented and tailored-made approach that allows a robust assessment of the BGS co-benefits, and can influence the types of information that are included in policy impact assessments. The Analytic Network Process approach is used to synthesise the available evidence on the co-benefits of the BGS. The approach enables mapping the interactions between individual BGS selection criteria, and creates a platform to assess the synergetic benefits that arise from components interactions. By working with Government departments and other public and private sector stakeholders, this work has produced a simple decision criteria-based network that will enable the co-benefits and trade-offs of BGS to be quantified and integrated into UK policy appraisals.

Modeling the impacts of environmental policies on agricultural imports

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larson, B.A.; Scatasta, S.

2005-01-01

For current policy debates in agricultural and food industries, policy analysts need to evaluate the impacts of how proposed changes in domestic environmental regulations may alter agricultural trade in the future. Given the industry-specific nature of many policies issues, analysts need sector and

Introduction of a Science Policy Course at the University of Oklahoma

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, S.; Parsons, D.

2012-12-01

In modern society, science and policy are two processes that have a symbiotic relationship to each other; wherein policy dictates the direction of science while science shapes the future of policy. Although the policy side is often ignored in scientific environments, the rate of scientific advancement is heavily influenced by policy. Science policy is very different from the conduct of science itself and future scientists need to be aware of the issues and factors that dictate the present and future direction of science. Based on the intricate relationship between science and policy, it is essential to introduce an overview of the policy process to future scientists and decision makers. In the context of climate change, policy implications are extensive and critical owing to their large socio-economic impacts. Hence, knowledge of the policy process is even more relevant to earth scientists. In this regard, the proposal to start an introductory course in science policy is currently being discussed in the department of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. If such a course is approved, an interactive graduate level class will be introduced for students pursuing a career in science. Such a course will be cross- disciplinary and will be offered to a wide audience across the university. Since the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) Summer Policy Colloquium has been a very successful program in educating scientists about the policy process, a format similar to the colloquium may be adopted. The primary topics will include the understanding of policy fundamentals, effective communication, ethics and integrity in the conduct of scientific research, executive leadership in science and the responsibilities of a scientific leader, impact of science on globalization and international diplomacy, etc. The AMS policy program office will be consulted to help design the course curriculum. An overview of the steps involved in introducing the class will be presented at the

Reducing Environmental Allergic Triggers: Policy Issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Abramson, Stuart L

The implementation of policies to reduce environmental allergic triggers can be an important adjunct to optimal patient care for allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Policies at the local level in schools and other public as well as private buildings can make an impact on disease morbidity. Occupational exposures for allergens have not yet been met with the same rigorous policy standards applied for exposures to toxicants by Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Further benefit may be obtained through policies by local, county, state, and national governments, and possibly through international cooperative agreements. The reduction of allergenic exposures can and should be affected by policies with strong scientific, evidence-based derivation. However, a judicious application of the precautionary principle may be needed in circumstances where the health effect of inaction could lead to more serious threats to vulnerable populations with allergic disease. This commentary covers the scientific basis, current implementation, knowledge gaps, and pro/con views on policy issues in reducing environmental allergic triggers. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The impacts of individualization on equity educational policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guadalupe Francia

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The present article has as its aim to illustrate and discuss the impacts of individualization strategies on equity educational policies through the analysis of individualized teaching strategies applied within the framework of educational priority policies in Sweden. The methodology used in our research work includes: (a the study of research literature about the individualization of teaching implemented in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school; and (b the study of research literature about educational priority policies aimed at children from socially and ethnically segregated areas. Comparative research of educational policies considers the individualization of teaching carried out in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school as a relevant explanation for the successful application of equitable educational policies in that country. However, research studies published during the 2000s in Sweden show a more complex perspective regarding the effects of individualized teaching strategies. This contribution reviews European comparative research studies on individualization strategies followed in the context of equity policies. It raises questions about the lack of analyses referring to the impacts of individualization on schools located in socially and ethnically segregated areas. It argues that this ideology tends to reduce the issue of school failure to ethnic segregation and individualized teacher support. This article claims that Individualization strategies based on differentiated curricula for students run the risk of increasing the discrimination of students for reasons of language or ethnic background. Even though the present study focuses on the Swedish experience, it can lead to a better understanding of the impacts caused by individualization strategies on equity in other European countries.

The International Impact of US Unconventional Monetary Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lutz, Chandler

2015-01-01

Using a structural factor-augmented vector autoregression model and a large data set of daily time series, we study the impact of US unconventional monetary policy on British and German financial markets. Our findings indicate that a surprise US unconventional monetary policy easing leads...

A prospective multiple case study of the impact of emerging scientific evidence on established colorectal cancer screening programs: a study protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Geddie, Hannah; Dobrow, Mark J; Hoch, Jeffrey S; Rabeneck, Linda

2012-06-01

Health-policy decision making is a complex and dynamic process, for which strong evidentiary support is required. This includes scientifically produced research, as well as information that relates to the context in which the decision takes place. Unlike scientific evidence, this "contextual evidence" is highly variable and often includes information that is not scientifically produced, drawn from sources such as political judgement, program management experience and knowledge, or public values. As the policy decision-making process is variable and difficult to evaluate, it is often unclear how this heterogeneous evidence is identified and incorporated into "evidence-based policy" decisions. Population-based colorectal cancer screening poses an ideal context in which to examine these issues. In Canada, colorectal cancer screening programs have been established in several provinces over the past five years, based on the fecal occult blood test (FOBT) or the fecal immunochemical test. However, as these programs develop, new scientific evidence for screening continues to emerge. Recently published randomized controlled trials suggest that the use of flexible sigmoidoscopy for population-based screening may pose a greater reduction in mortality than the FOBT. This raises the important question of how policy makers will address this evidence, given that screening programs are being established or are already in place. This study will examine these issues prospectively and will focus on how policy makers monitor emerging scientific evidence and how both scientific and contextual evidence are identified and applied for decisions about health system improvement. This study will employ a prospective multiple case study design, involving participants from Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. In each province, data will be collected via document analysis and key informant interviews. Documents will include policy briefs, reports, meeting minutes, media

Renewable energy investment: Policy and market impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reuter, Wolf Heinrich; Szolgayová, Jana; Fuss, Sabine; Obersteiner, Michael

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Feedback of decisions to the market: large companies can have an impact on prices in the market. ► Multiple uncertainties: analysis of uncertainties emanating from both markets and environment. ► Policy analysis: impact of uncertainty about the durability of feed-in tariffs. -- Abstract: The liberalization of electricity markets in recent years has enhanced competition among power-generating firms facing uncertain decisions of competitors and thus uncertain prices. At the same time, promoting renewable energy has been a key ingredient in energy policy seeking to de-carbonize the energy mix. Public incentives for companies to invest in renewable technologies range from feed-in tariffs, to investment subsidies, tax credits, portfolio requirements and certificate systems. We use a real options model in discrete time with lumpy multiple investments to analyze the decisions of an electricity producer to invest into new power generating capacity, to select the type of technology and to optimize its operation under price uncertainty and with market effects. We account for both the specific characteristics of renewables and the market effects of investment decisions. The prices are determined endogenously by the supply of electricity in the market and by exogenous electricity price uncertainty. The framework is used to analyze energy policy, as well as the reaction of producers to uncertainty in the political and regulatory framework. In this way, we are able to compare different policies to foster investment into renewables and analyze their impacts on the market.

Impact of scientific and technological advances.

Science.gov (United States)

Dragan, I F; Dalessandri, D; Johnson, L A; Tucker, A; Walmsley, A D

2018-03-01

Advancements in research and technology are transforming our world. The dental profession is changing too, in the light of scientific discoveries that are advancing biological technology-from new biomaterials to unravelling the genetic make-up of the human being. As health professionals, we embrace a model of continuous quality improvement and lifelong learning. Our pedagogical approach to incorporating the plethora of scientific-technological advancements calls for us to shift our paradigm from emphasis on skill acquisition to knowledge application. The 2017 ADEE/ADEA workshop provided a forum to explore and discuss strategies to ensure faculty, students and, ultimately, patients are best positioned to exploit the opportunities that arise from integrating new technological advances and research outcomes. Participants discussed methods of incorporating the impact of new technologies and research findings into the education of our dental students. This report serves as a signpost of the way forward and how to promote incorporation of research and technology advances and lifelong learning into the dental education curriculum. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Monetary Policy: Its Impact On The Profitability Of Banks In India

OpenAIRE

Punita Rao

2011-01-01

This purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of monetary policy on the profitability of banks in the context of financial sector reforms in India. We discuss the financial sector reforms and the implication of the banks, the various instruments of monetary policy in India, and the impact of monetary policy on the profitability of banks.

The Regional Impact of Monetary Policy in Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ridhwan, M.M.; de Groot, H.L.F.; Rietveld, P.; Nijkamp, P.

2014-01-01

This paper employs vector autoregressive (VAR) models to measure the impact of monetary policy shocks on regional output in Indonesia. We find substantial cross-regional variation in policy responses in terms of both magnitude as well as timing. Our work adds to the existing literature by providing

Open access versus subscription journals: a comparison of scientific impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Björk, Bo-Christer; Solomon, David

2012-07-17

In the past few years there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the proliferation of open access (OA) publishing would damage the peer review system and put the quality of scientific journal publishing at risk. Our aim was to inform this debate by comparing the scientific impact of OA journals with subscription journals, controlling for journal age, the country of the publisher, discipline and (for OA publishers) their business model. The 2-year impact factors (the average number of citations to the articles in a journal) were used as a proxy for scientific impact. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) was used to identify OA journals as well as their business model. Journal age and discipline were obtained from the Ulrich's periodicals directory. Comparisons were performed on the journal level as well as on the article level where the results were weighted by the number of articles published in a journal. A total of 610 OA journals were compared with 7,609 subscription journals using Web of Science citation data while an overlapping set of 1,327 OA journals were compared with 11,124 subscription journals using Scopus data. Overall, average citation rates, both unweighted and weighted for the number of articles per journal, were about 30% higher for subscription journals. However, after controlling for discipline (medicine and health versus other), age of the journal (three time periods) and the location of the publisher (four largest publishing countries versus other countries) the differences largely disappeared in most subcategories except for journals that had been launched prior to 1996. OA journals that fund publishing with article processing charges (APCs) are on average cited more than other OA journals. In medicine and health, OA journals founded in the last 10 years are receiving about as many citations as subscription journals launched during the same period. Our results indicate that OA journals indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus are

Dietary sodium intake: scientific basis for public policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Whelton, Paul K

2015-01-01

National and international agencies recommend a reduction in dietary sodium intake. However, some have questioned the wisdom of these policies. The goal of this report was to assess the findings and quality of studies that have examined the relationship between dietary sodium and both blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Literature review of the available observational studies and randomized controlled trials, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses. A large body of evidence from observational studies and clinical trials documents a direct relationship between dietary sodium intake and the level of blood pressure, especially in persons with a higher level of blood pressure, African-Americans, and those who are older or have comorbidity, including chronic kidney disease. A majority of the available observational reports support the presence of a direct relationship between dietary sodium intake and cardiovascular disease but the quality of the evidence according to most studies is poor. The limited information available from clinical trials is consistent with a beneficial effect of reduced sodium intake on incidence of cardiovascular disease. The scientific underpinning for policies to reduce the usual intake of dietary sodium is strong. In the United States and many other countries, addition of sodium during food processing has led to a very high average intake of dietary sodium, with almost everyone exceeding the recommended goals. National programs utilizing voluntary and mandatory approaches have resulted in a successful reduction in sodium intake. Even a small reduction in sodium consumption is likely to yield sizable improvement in population health. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

International stem cell collaboration: how disparate policies between the United States and the United Kingdom impact research.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jingyuan; Flynn, Jesse M; Solnick, Rachel E; Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Matthews, Kirstin R W

2011-03-08

As the scientific community globalizes, it is increasingly important to understand the effects of international collaboration on the quality and quantity of research produced. While it is generally assumed that international collaboration enhances the quality of research, this phenomenon is not well examined. Stem cell research is unique in that it is both politically charged and a research area that often generates international collaborations, making it an ideal case through which to examine international collaborations. Furthermore, with promising medical applications, the research area is dynamic and responsive to a globalizing science environment. Thus, studying international collaborations in stem cell research elucidates the role of existing international networks in promoting quality research, as well as the effects that disparate national policies might have on research. This study examined the impact of collaboration on publication significance in the United States and the United Kingdom, world leaders in stem cell research with disparate policies. We reviewed publications by US and UK authors from 2008, along with their citation rates and the political factors that may have contributed to the number of international collaborations. The data demonstrated that international collaborations significantly increased an article's impact for UK and US investigators. While this applied to UK authors whether they were corresponding or secondary, this effect was most significant for US authors who were corresponding authors. While the UK exhibited a higher proportion of international publications than the US, this difference was consistent with overall trends in international scientific collaboration. The findings suggested that national stem cell policy differences and regulatory mechanisms driving international stem cell research in the US and UK did not affect the frequency of international collaborations, or even the countries with which the US and UK most

The Disparate Labor Market Impacts of Monetary Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Seth B.; Rodgers, William M., III

2004-01-01

Employing two widely used approaches to identify the effects of monetary policy, this paper explores the differential impact of policy on the labor market outcomes of teenagers, minorities, out-of-school youth, and less-skilled individuals. Evidence from recursive vector autoregressions and autoregressive distributed lag models that use…

Impact of Attendance Policy on Adult College Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Tracinal S.

2014-01-01

This qualitative evaluation focused on the problem of student attrition at a northern California college, its attendance policy, the policy's impact on previous students' decisions to persist in school, and on administrators' attempts to increase retention. The purpose for this study was to evaluate the participants' perceptions about their…

Ambiente & Água in the context of impact indicators of scientific Brazilian journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Wellausen Dias

2010-08-01

Full Text Available For quite some time the international scientific community has criticized the use of impact indicators based only on few journals registered at commercially subscribed databases such as the ISI Web of Knowledge (producer of Journal Citation Reports - JCR. Several studies focusing on different subject areas have demonstrated the advantages and disadvantages of assessing the impact of an article, or journal, from commercial and open-access databases, such as Google Scholar (Segen, 1997; Gisvold, 1999; DuBois and Reeb, 2000; Whitehouse, 2002; Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003; Cameron, 2005; Ha et al., 2006; Mingers and Harzing, 2007. Most of the studies found that there was a strong correlation between impact indicators measured by a commercial databases (restricted and open-access in certain field areas (Science, Health, Biological and Applied Social, while areas usually with lesser coverage by commercial databases (Environment, Humanities, among others end up having lower impact indicator values based on these commercial databases. Moreover, the number of publications in these last areas has shown a significant expansion recently and, therefore, they end up receiving greater impact scores when evaluated by open-access databases. In these cases the correlation between impact indicators calculated by restricted versus open-access database is significantly lower. In this exercise, developed to obtain impact values of various Brazilian scientific journals in international open-access databases, not only it could be demonstrated the role that the journal Ambiente & Água withholds in the national scientific community (and even international if considered the information published in previous editorials, but also witnesses the degree of efficiency, transparency, and simplicity of the indicators used. The Editorial Board of the journal Ambiente & Água stands in favor of using indicators that are transparent, simple, and free of charge in the process of

Fiscal Policy Impact on the State of Circulating Capital in the Corporate Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paranchuk Stepan V.

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The goal of the article lies in identification of impact of the fiscal policy on the state of circulating capital in the corporate sector in Ukraine and in other countries. The article underlines conceptual approaches to improvement of the state tax policy with consideration of a necessity of formation of own financial resources for formation of circulating capital by subjects of the corporate sector. It justifies scientific and practical measures on reduction of the tax load on the production capital, that is, on that part of the fixed and circulating capital, which regularly and directly participates in creation of the added value. It offers a list of tax privileges for subjects of the corporate sector that direct profit into accumulation of the own capital base, including in the part of increase of the circulating capital. Realisation of the proposed recommendations should facilitate fast accumulation of financial resources for further formation of the circulating capital in the corporate sector, since this is an indispensable condition of high efficiency of corporate finance and economic activity in general.

Nitrates in ground and drinking water: analysis of policies and regulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conrad, J

1986-05-01

On the societal level, risks are the result of collective processes of definition. Accepted risks are mainly the output and secondarily the (scientific) input of these processes. As a consequence, in this paper the question of risk management of the nitrate burden to ground and drinking water is analysed within the framework of comparative policy analysis. Various actors pursue their respective interests in different policy arenas within the given rules of the policy game. The impacts of the policy outputs on the policy addressees, namely farmers and water companies, (substantially) determine the level of actual risk. Different national regulatory styles and traditions towards nitrate regulation shape the policy outputs. Consequently, the assumption or normative postulate of a rational (scientific) risk assessment and risk management appears to be utterly heroic and, in the end, misleading.

The labor impacts of policy change in health care: how federal policy transformed home health organizations and their labor practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Szasz, A

1990-01-01

Health care organizations are highly labor-intensive; policies designed to stimulate organizational change are likely to have labor impacts. This paper examines the labor effects of policy change in home health care. Major federal home care policy trends since 1980 have spurred the evolution of the typical home care provider toward greater organizational and market rationality. Greater managerial sophistication has introduced changes in management/labor relations. Survey data from the 1986 DRG Impact Study are used to show how the pressure of cost-containment policies has pushed agencies to cut labor costs by increasing workloads, managerial supervision, and control of the work process. Research on the effects of recent policy change in health care has to date focused primarily on potential client effects. Labor impacts are rarely examined and are poorly understood at the time that policy is made. Findings in this article suggest that these issues deserve greater, more systematic attention, because unanticipated labor impacts may prove to be significant impediments to the realization of intended policy goals.

Scientific knowledge and environmental policy. Why science needs values. Environmental essay

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carolan, M.S. [Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins (United States)

2006-12-15

While the term 'science' is evoked with immense frequency in the political arena, it continues to be misunderstood. Perhaps the most repeated example of this - particularly when dealing with environmental policy and regulatory issues - is when science is called upon to provide the unattainable: namely, proof. What is scientific knowledge and, more importantly, what is it capable of providing us? These questions must be answered - by policymakers, politicians, the public, and scientists themselves - if we hope to ever resolve today's environmental controversies in a just and equitable way. This paper begins by critically examining the concepts of uncertainty and proof as they apply to science. Discussion then turns to the issue of values in science. This is to speak of the normative decisions that are made routinely in the environmental sciences (but often without them being recognized as such). To conclude, insights are gleaned from the preceding sections to help us understand how science should be utilized and conducted, particularly as it applies to environmental policy.

Scientific literacy and public education about high-level radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyers, F.D.

1991-01-01

The citizens of the United States, and the author would tend to believe of other countries, must be sufficiently science literate to make intelligent, rational decisions regarding energy and mineral resource development policy; the social, economic and environmental impact of the policy; and, the treatment of waste products from these developments. The schools, higher education and community must, through a collaborative effort, establish programs for scientific literacy. This would include developing extensive in-service programs and the development of curriculum and materials to foster state-of-the-art centers for science, math and technology. To make a difference, to achieve scientific literacy, to assist citizens in making difficult, but extremely important, decisions about energy and nuclear waste will take determination, resources, leadership and time

The CRACK programme: a scientific alliance for bridging healthcare research and public health policies in Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Corrao

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Healthcare utilisation databases, and other secondary data sources, have been used with growing frequency to assess health outcomes and healthcare interventions worldwide. Their increased popularity as a research tool is due to their timely availability, the large patient populations covered, low cost, and applicability for studying real-world clinical practice. Despite the need to measure Italian National Health Service performance both at regional and national levels, the wealth of good quality electronic data and the high standards of scientific research in this field, healthcare research and public health policies seem to progress along orthogonal dimensions in Italy. The main barriers to the development of evidence-based public health include the lack of understanding of evidence-based methodologies by policy makers, and of involvement of researchers in the policy process. The CRACK programme was launched by some academics from the Lombardy Region. By extensively using electronically stored data, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, pharmacologists and clinicians applied methods and evidence to several issues of healthcare research. The CRACK programme was based on their intention to remove barriers that thwart the process of bridging methods and findings from scientific journals to public health practice. This paper briefly describes aim, articulation and management of the CRACK programme, and discusses why it might find articulated application in Italy.

NAPAP: A lesson in science, policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, M.

1993-01-01

Perplexing environmental questions, such as acid rain and global warming, cry out for policy solutions based upon solid scientific evidence. Scientists and politicians agree on this but have trouble finding an effective way to do it. Milton Russell of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory describes a major, but only partially successful, effort that he believes contains valuable lessons for scientists and policy makers in the future. It is the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), launched in 1980 to generate the latest scientific evidence to guide national debate on clean-air legislation. The program open-quotes created an unprecedented body of scientific research on an environmental issue of the first order,close quotes Russell says. Yet, he admits, its influence was virtually nil on the legislation that ultimately emerged on the subject. Russell blames this lack of influence on NAPAP's failure to provide adequate assessment of its research findings, its failure to communicate the results on a timely and effective basis, and on open-quotes political forces that sought legislation rather than a full explication of issues.close quotes Out of the experience, Russell finds lessons for the future: open-quotes First, if the scientific finding are to have an impact on policy, assessment must become a priority as important as scientific research. Second, for projects designed to help decision makers, scientific research must be considered a resource, not an end product. Third, timely, lucid communication must be an essential element of the project, not a marginal activity.close quotes NAPAP, Russell concludes, open-quotes proved a long-term scientific success and a short-term policy disappointment.close quotes Then he warns, open-quotes Future science programs ignore the NAPAP experience at their own risk.close quotes

Impact of reserves information on formulating government policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ekelund, M.W.; Anderson, B.; Khan, M.; Hudson, B.

1997-01-01

Policies regarding the development and production of Alberta's mineral resources such as oil, gas, and bitumen, are developed by the Alberta Ministry of Energy. The Ministry is divided into the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) and the Department of Energy. The EUB deals with conservation, production measurement and reporting, environmental issues and some public utility issues. The Department of Energy deals with determining the appropriate fiscal and tenure regimes, market effectiveness issues and collection of Alberta's share of production. Reserve estimates are used for policy development and implementation purposes. The impact of some doubts regarding the reliability of reserves information and its impact on provincial policy recommendations were highlighted. Examples were drawn from bitumen reserves determination in the Athabasca Oil Sands area, enhanced oil recovery programs within the conventional oil sector, and royalty formulation within the conventional oil and gas sectors

The impact of uncertainty on optimal emission policies

Science.gov (United States)

Botta, Nicola; Jansson, Patrik; Ionescu, Cezar

2018-05-01

We apply a computational framework for specifying and solving sequential decision problems to study the impact of three kinds of uncertainties on optimal emission policies in a stylized sequential emission problem.We find that uncertainties about the implementability of decisions on emission reductions (or increases) have a greater impact on optimal policies than uncertainties about the availability of effective emission reduction technologies and uncertainties about the implications of trespassing critical cumulated emission thresholds. The results show that uncertainties about the implementability of decisions on emission reductions (or increases) call for more precautionary policies. In other words, delaying emission reductions to the point in time when effective technologies will become available is suboptimal when these uncertainties are accounted for rigorously. By contrast, uncertainties about the implications of exceeding critical cumulated emission thresholds tend to make early emission reductions less rewarding.

Cumulative Impacts of Energy and Climate Change Policies on Carbon Leakage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Varma, A.; Milnes, R.; Miller, K.; Williams, E. [AEA Technology plc, London (United Kingdom); De Bruyn, S.; Brinke, L. [CE Delft, Delft (Netherlands)

2012-02-15

Carbon leakage occurs when climate change policy aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions in one country leads to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in a country that is not bound by these policies. Given that climate change is a global issue, carbon leakage impacts upon the effectiveness of climate change policies. This independent study examines the cumulative impact of climate change policies on carbon leakage. The report brings together findings and analysis from a wide range of primary literature in this area and where possible, conclusions relevant to the UK are drawn.

Preparing Scientists for Scientific Careers: Broader Impacts from an NSF CAREER Award

Science.gov (United States)

Crosby, Alfred

2008-03-01

The scientific focus of my NSF CAREER Award is the impact of patterns, topographical and surface chemical in design, on the adhesion of soft polymer interfaces. Although this topic has provided a strong foundation for the mentoring and training of graduate students, the primary broader impacts of my award have focused on the development of ``soft'' skills in graduate and post-doctoral researchers in STEM disciplines. I have developed a course on ``Scientific and Engineering Management,'' which provides an open forum for students to explore the skills that, in many ways, define successful careers for many scientists. Topics include: leadership, proposal writing, group management, communication in diverse environments, and ethics. In this presentation, I highlight the primary phases of this program, how it meshes with scientific goals, and general statements about the mission of education outreach within STEM disciplines.

Assessing the impact of natural policy experiments on socioeconomic inequalities in health: how to apply commonly used quantitative analytical methods?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yannan Hu

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The scientific evidence-base for policies to tackle health inequalities is limited. Natural policy experiments (NPE have drawn increasing attention as a means to evaluating the effects of policies on health. Several analytical methods can be used to evaluate the outcomes of NPEs in terms of average population health, but it is unclear whether they can also be used to assess the outcomes of NPEs in terms of health inequalities. The aim of this study therefore was to assess whether, and to demonstrate how, a number of commonly used analytical methods for the evaluation of NPEs can be applied to quantify the effect of policies on health inequalities. Methods We identified seven quantitative analytical methods for the evaluation of NPEs: regression adjustment, propensity score matching, difference-in-differences analysis, fixed effects analysis, instrumental variable analysis, regression discontinuity and interrupted time-series. We assessed whether these methods can be used to quantify the effect of policies on the magnitude of health inequalities either by conducting a stratified analysis or by including an interaction term, and illustrated both approaches in a fictitious numerical example. Results All seven methods can be used to quantify the equity impact of policies on absolute and relative inequalities in health by conducting an analysis stratified by socioeconomic position, and all but one (propensity score matching can be used to quantify equity impacts by inclusion of an interaction term between socioeconomic position and policy exposure. Conclusion Methods commonly used in economics and econometrics for the evaluation of NPEs can also be applied to assess the equity impact of policies, and our illustrations provide guidance on how to do this appropriately. The low external validity of results from instrumental variable analysis and regression discontinuity makes these methods less desirable for assessing policy effects

Assessing the impact of natural policy experiments on socioeconomic inequalities in health: how to apply commonly used quantitative analytical methods?

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yannan; van Lenthe, Frank J; Hoffmann, Rasmus; van Hedel, Karen; Mackenbach, Johan P

2017-04-20

The scientific evidence-base for policies to tackle health inequalities is limited. Natural policy experiments (NPE) have drawn increasing attention as a means to evaluating the effects of policies on health. Several analytical methods can be used to evaluate the outcomes of NPEs in terms of average population health, but it is unclear whether they can also be used to assess the outcomes of NPEs in terms of health inequalities. The aim of this study therefore was to assess whether, and to demonstrate how, a number of commonly used analytical methods for the evaluation of NPEs can be applied to quantify the effect of policies on health inequalities. We identified seven quantitative analytical methods for the evaluation of NPEs: regression adjustment, propensity score matching, difference-in-differences analysis, fixed effects analysis, instrumental variable analysis, regression discontinuity and interrupted time-series. We assessed whether these methods can be used to quantify the effect of policies on the magnitude of health inequalities either by conducting a stratified analysis or by including an interaction term, and illustrated both approaches in a fictitious numerical example. All seven methods can be used to quantify the equity impact of policies on absolute and relative inequalities in health by conducting an analysis stratified by socioeconomic position, and all but one (propensity score matching) can be used to quantify equity impacts by inclusion of an interaction term between socioeconomic position and policy exposure. Methods commonly used in economics and econometrics for the evaluation of NPEs can also be applied to assess the equity impact of policies, and our illustrations provide guidance on how to do this appropriately. The low external validity of results from instrumental variable analysis and regression discontinuity makes these methods less desirable for assessing policy effects on population-level health inequalities. Increased use of the

Position Paper: Applying Machine Learning to Software Analysis to Achieve Trusted, Repeatable Scientific Computing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prowell, Stacy J [ORNL; Symons, Christopher T [ORNL

2015-01-01

Producing trusted results from high-performance codes is essential for policy and has significant economic impact. We propose combining rigorous analytical methods with machine learning techniques to achieve the goal of repeatable, trustworthy scientific computing.

78 FR 6322 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-30

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export..., France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania... comments on this transaction by email to economic[email protected] or by mail to 811 Vermont Avenue NW...

CERN Library - Scientific journal cancellations

CERN Multimedia

2004-01-01

Due to the constant increase of the subscription costs of scientific journals and the current budget restrictions, the Scientific Information Policy Board has mandated the Working Group for Acquisitions (WGA) together with the Library to propose a list of titles to be cancelled at the end of 2004. As a first step, the WGA has identified the scientific journals listed at the web site below as candidates for cancellation. The choice has been guided by the personal experience of the WGA members, consultation of other expert CERN staff for highly specialized titles, and by criteria such as subscription price, impact factor, and - where available - access statistics for electronic journals. The list also accounts for the fact that many titles are subscribed to in 'packages' such that a cancellation of individual titles would not lead to any cost savings. We invite users to carefully check the list on the Library homepage (http://library.cern.ch/). If you find any title that you consider critically important for y...

Estimating the impact of alcohol policies on youth suicides.

Science.gov (United States)

Markowitz, Sara; Chatterji, Pinka; Kaestner, Robert

2003-03-01

Alcohol consumption has been identified as one of the most important risk factors for youth suicide. Previous research has shown a strong, empirical link between alcohol use and suicide. If alcohol use is a contributing factor in determining suicidal behaviors, then policies designed to reduce the alcohol consumption may succeed in reducing youth suicides as well. This paper looks at the role of alcohol-related policies in reducing completed suicides by American youths and young adults. This hypothesis comes from two well established relationships: i) the observed correlation between alcohol consumption and incidents of suicide, and ii) the negative relationship between the full price of alcohol and consumption. The alcohol policies examined are excise taxes on beer, measures of alcohol availability, and drunk driving laws. Data on completed suicides for each state in the United States are analyzed for the period 1976-1999. Negative binomial regressions are used to estimate a reduced form model of youth suicide. Suicides are analyzed by gender and age groups (ages 10-14, 15-19 and 20-24). The results indicate that increases in the excise tax on beer are associated with a reduced number of male suicides. This tax, however, has no impact on female suicides. Suicides by males ages 20-24 are positively related to the availability of alcohol, and negatively related to the presence of a 0.08 BAC (blood alcohol concentration) law and a zero tolerance law for drunk driving. Female suicides are not impacted by the availability of alcohol, although the drunk driving laws may impact suicides by teenage females. Policies designed to reduce alcohol consumption may have the unintended benefit of reducing suicides, particularly among young males. While this research shows that alcohol policies may be successful in reducing male suicides, such policies have little impact on female suicides. Future research should explore other potential types of policies and programs to reduce

Ecological and economic impacts of forest policies: interactions across forestry and agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

R.J. Alig; D.M. Adams; B.A. McCarl

1998-01-01

A linked model of the US forest and agriculture sectors was used to examine the economic and ecological impacts of two forest policies: a minimum harvest age limitation and a reduced public harvest policy. Simulated private responses to both policies indicate that landowners could undertake a range of adjustments to minimize their welfare impacts, but imposition of...

Newsworthiness vs scientific impact: are the most highly cited urology papers the most widely disseminated in the media?

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Eabhann M; Nason, Gregory J; O'Kelly, Fardod; Manecksha, Rustom P; Loeb, Stacy

2017-09-01

To assess whether a correlation exists between newsworthiness (Altmetric score) and scientific impact markers, such as citation analysis, impact factors, and levels of evidence. The top five most cited articles for the year 2014 and 2015 from the top 10 ranking urology journals (Scientific Impact Group) were identified. The top 50 articles each in 2014 and 2015 were identified from Altmetric support based on media activity (Media Impact Group). We determined the number of citations that these articles received in the scientific literature, and calculated correlations between citations with Altmetric scores. In the Scientific Impact Group, the mean number of citations per article was 37.6, and the most highly cited articles were oncology guidelines. The mean Altmetric score in these articles was 14.8. There was a weak positive correlation between citations and Altmetric score (r s = 0.35, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.52, P scientifically rigorous, or that this audience places greater value on different subjects than the scientific community. © 2017 The Authors BJU International © 2017 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluation of the scientific impact of the Ebola epidemic: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Mutters, N T; Malek, V; Agnandji, S T; Günther, F; Tacconelli, E

2017-09-04

The Ebola outbreak prompted an extensive number of scientific publications, but little attention has been paid to the involvement of local scientists, distribution of research funding and related publications. We sought to systematically review publicly available information on the scientific impact of the Ebola epidemic. A systematic review of literature on the Ebola outbreak was performed. Extracted information included origins of the authors, type and distribution of funding, and impact factors (IF) of related publications between 6 December 2013, and 22 December 2015. We identified 460 relevant articles out of 3281 references, which were mostly authored by American (46.6%) and European (28.4%) institutions; only 13.4% of authors were affiliated with African institutions. Most IF can be attributed to the Americas and Europe, with 43% (25 030.8 IF) and 34.5% (20 074.2 IF), respectively, compared with 17.9% (10 436.5 IF) in Africa. Funds were provided mainly by the Americas (31.8% of all funded studies) and Europe (17%). American and European funds were also distributed back, mainly to American (77.8%) and European (85.2%) institutions, respectively. The Ebola outbreak had a significant scientific impact and resulted in numerous publications in high IF journals. The main impact could be measured in the Americas and Europe, and was directly related to funding. African researchers were only marginally involved in the scientific processing (86.6% of all researchers were not African), probably because major research centres are located in America and Europe. Our results suggest the importance of promoting closer cooperation between regions. Copyright © 2017 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing the Impact of Financial Policies on Nigeria's Economic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Assessing the Impact of Financial Policies on Nigeria's Economic Growth. ... Furthermore, it calls for effective implementation and monitoring of financial policies as well as adequate supervision of the financial sector by the relevant authorities to avoid lopsided compliance with financial and monetary guidelines. Keywords: ...

78 FR 30920 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-23

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States has received an application for a $650 million long... Asian Markets including: China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Interested parties may submit comments on this...

78 FR 37539 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-21

... the export of approximately $74 million in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment to a dedicated foundry in China. The U.S. exports will enable the dedicated foundry to increase existing 300mm (non-DRAM... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export...

78 FR 34660 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-10

... guarantee to support the export of approximately $110.4 million worth of aluminum beverage cans and ends manufacturing equipment to China. The U.S. exports will enable the Chinese company to produce approximately 2.8... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export...

The Heterogeneous Impacts of Groundwater Management Policies in the Republican River Basin of Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Hrozencik, R. A.; Manning, D. T.; Suter, J. F.; Goemans, C.; Bailey, R. T.

2017-12-01

Groundwater is a critical input to agricultural production across the globe. Current groundwater pumping rates frequently exceed recharge, often by a substantial amount, leading to groundwater depletion and potential declines in agricultural profits over time. As a result, many regions reliant on irrigated agriculture have proposed policies to manage groundwater use. Even when gains from aquifer management exist, there is little information about how policies affect individual producers sharing the resource. In this paper, we investigate the variability of groundwater management policy impacts across heterogeneous agricultural producers. To measure these impacts, we develop a hydroeconomic model that captures the important role of well capacity, productivity of water, and weather uncertainty. We use the model to simulate the impacts of groundwater management policies on producers in the High Plains aquifer of eastern Colorado and compare outcomes to a no-policy baseline. The management policies considered include a pumping fee, a quantity restriction, and an irrigated acreage fee. We find that well capacity and soil type affect policy impacts but in ways that can qualitatively differ across policy type. Model results have important implications for the distributional impacts and political acceptability of groundwater management policies.

Cross-impacts analysis development and energy policy analysis applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roop, J.M.; Scheer, R.M.; Stacey, G.S.

1986-12-01

Purpose of this report is to describe the cross-impact analysis process and microcomputer software developed for the Office of Policy, Planning, and Analysis (PPA) of DOE. First introduced in 1968, cross-impact analysis is a technique that produces scenarios of future conditions and possibilities. Cross-impact analysis has several unique attributes that make it a tool worth examining, especially in the current climate when the outlook for the economy and several of the key energy markets is uncertain. Cross-impact analysis complements the econometric, engineering, systems dynamics, or trend approaches already in use at DOE. Cross-impact analysis produces self-consistent scenarios in the broadest sense and can include interaction between the economy, technology, society and the environment. Energy policy analyses that couple broad scenarios of the future with detailed forecasting can produce more powerful results than scenario analysis or forecasts can produce alone.

Investigating the impact of agrarian policies on conflict and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2011-07-14

Jul 14, 2011 ... Investigating the impact of agrarian policies on conflict and peacebuilding ... tourism industry, defusing the conflict impact of relative land scarcity. ... the idea — flowing from the increasingly influential "Economic Theory of War" ...

Does health intervention research have real world policy and practice impacts: testing a new impact assessment tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Gillian; Schroeder, Jacqueline; Newson, Robyn; King, Lesley; Rychetnik, Lucie; Milat, Andrew J; Bauman, Adrian E; Redman, Sally; Chapman, Simon

2015-01-01

There is a growing emphasis on the importance of research having demonstrable public benefit. Measurements of the impacts of research are therefore needed. We applied a modified impact assessment process that builds on best practice to 5 years (2003-2007) of intervention research funded by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council to determine if these studies had post-research real-world policy and practice impacts. We used a mixed method sequential methodology whereby chief investigators of eligible intervention studies who completed two surveys and an interview were included in our final sample (n = 50), on which we conducted post-research impact assessments. Data from the surveys and interviews were triangulated with additional information obtained from documentary analysis to develop comprehensive case studies. These case studies were then summarized and the reported impacts were scored by an expert panel using criteria for four impact dimensions: corroboration; attribution, reach, and importance. Nineteen (38%) of the cases in our final sample were found to have had policy and practice impacts, with an even distribution of high, medium, and low impact scores. While the tool facilitated a rigorous and explicit criterion-based assessment of post-research impacts, it was not always possible to obtain evidence using documentary analysis to corroborate the impacts reported in chief investigator interviews. While policy and practice is ideally informed by reviews of evidence, some intervention research can and does have real world impacts that can be attributed to single studies. We recommend impact assessments apply explicit criteria to consider the corroboration, attribution, reach, and importance of reported impacts on policy and practice. Impact assessments should also allow sufficient time between impact data collection and completion of the original research and include mechanisms to obtain end-user input to corroborate claims and reduce biases

75 FR 28021 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-19

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States has received an application for a $400 million long.... New Mexican production of ZSM will be sold in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Interested parties...

76 FR 79679 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-22

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States has received an application for a $74 million long..., locomotives and railcars to Canada. The U.S. exports will enable the Canadian mining company to increase...

77 FR 6563 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2012-02-08

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States has received an application for a $1.74 billion loan... Australia. The U.S. exports will enable the Australian mining company to increase production by about 100...

76 FR 28225 - Economic Impact Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-16

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Economic Impact Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States has received an application for a $47 million long... services to Australia. The U.S. exports will enable the Australian mining company to produce, on average...

The impact of monetary policy on New Zealand business cycles and inflation variability

OpenAIRE

Nathan McLellan; Robert A Buckle; Kunhong Kim

2004-01-01

This paper uses the open economy structural VAR model developed in Buckle, Kim, Kirkham, McLellan and Sharma (2002) to evaluate the impact of monetary policy on New Zealand business cycles and inflation variability and the output/inflation variability trade-off. The model includes a forward-looking Taylor Rule to identify monetary policy and the impact of monetary policy is evaluated by deriving a monetary policy index using a procedure suggested by Dungey and Pagan (2000). Monetary policy ha...

Removing Dams: Project-Level Policy and Scientific Research Needs (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Graber, B.

2010-12-01

More than 800 dams have been removed around the country, mostly “small” dams, under 25 feet in height. The total number of removals, however, is small relative to the number of deteriorating dams and the ecological impacts those structures continue to have on native riverine species and natural river function. The number of dam removal projects is increasing as aging dams continue to deteriorate and riverine species continue to decline. Practitioners and regulators need to find cost-effective project approaches that minimize short-term environmental impacts and maximize long-term benefits while keeping project costs manageable. Dam removals can be a regulatory challenge because they inherently have short-term impacts in order to achieve larger, self-sustaining, long-term benefits. These short-term impacts include sediment movement, construction access roads, and habitat conversion from lacustrine to riverine. Environmental regulations are designed to prevent degradation and have presented challenges for projects designed to benefit the environment. For example, a short-term release of sediment may exceed water quality standards for some period of time, but lead to a long-term beneficial project. Other regulatory challenges include permitting the loss of wetland area for increased native river function, or allowing the release of some level of contaminated sediment when the downstream sediment is similarly contaminated. Dam removal projects raise a range of engineering and scientific questions on effective implementation techniques such as appropriate sediment management approaches, construction equipment access approaches, invasive species management, channel/floodplain reconstruction, and active versus passive habitat rehabilitation. While practitioners have learned and refined implementation approaches over the last decade, more input is needed from researchers to help assess the effectiveness of those techniques, and to provide more effective techniques

The capital structure impact on forming company’s accounting policy

OpenAIRE

Česnavičiūtė, Giedrė

2011-01-01

KEWORDS: Accounting policy, accounting policy choice, disclosure of accounting policies, capital structure, financial leverage, legitimacy theory, agency theory, signal theory, stakeholder theory. The optimal structure of the capital has a huge impact assuring its goals and financial stability. The company’s appropriate situation of financial condition depends on the accounting policies formation as well. In this paper there was made the investigation of correlation of company’s capital struc...

Management of science policy, sociology of science policy and economics of science policy

CERN Document Server

Ruivo, Beatriz

2017-01-01

'Management of science policy, sociology of science policy and economics of science policy' is a theoretical essay on the scientific foundation of science policy (formulation, implementation, instruments and procedures). It can be also used as a textbook.

Strategies towards Evaluation beyond Scientific Impact. Pathways not only for Agricultural Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birge M. Wolf

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Various research fields, like organic agricultural research, are dedicated to solving real-world problems and contributing to sustainable development. Therefore, systems research and the application of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly endorsed. However, research performance depends not only on self-conception, but also on framework conditions of the scientific system, which are not always of benefit to such research fields. Recently, science and its framework conditions have been under increasing scrutiny as regards their ability to serve societal benefit. This provides opportunities for (organic agricultural research to engage in the development of a research system that will serve its needs. This article focuses on possible strategies for facilitating a balanced research evaluation that recognises scientific quality as well as societal relevance and applicability. These strategies are (a to strengthen the general support for evaluation beyond scientific impact, and (b to provide accessible data for such evaluations. Synergies of interest are found between open access movements and research communities focusing on global challenges and sustainability. As both are committed to increasing the societal benefit of science, they may support evaluation criteria such as knowledge production and dissemination tailored to societal needs, and the use of open access. Additional synergies exist between all those who scrutinise current research evaluation systems for their ability to serve scientific quality, which is also a precondition for societal benefit. Here, digital communication technologies provide opportunities to increase effectiveness, transparency, fairness and plurality in the dissemination of scientific results, quality assurance and reputation. Furthermore, funders may support transdisciplinary approaches and open access and improve data availability for evaluation beyond scientific impact. If they begin to

Global Climate Change and Society: Scientific, Policy, and Philosophic Themes

Science.gov (United States)

Frodeman, R.; Bullock, M. A.

2001-12-01

The summer of 2001 saw the inauguration of the Global Climate Change and Society Program (GCCS), an eight week, NSF-funded experiment in undergraduate pedagogy held at the University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Acknowledging from the start that climate change is more than a scientific problem, GCCS began with the simultaneous study of basic atmospheric physics, classical and environmental philosophy, and public policy. In addition to lectures and discussions on these subjects, our twelve undergraduates (majoring in the physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities) also participated in internships with scholars and researchers at NCAR, University of Colorado's Center of the American West, and the Colorado School of Mines, on specific issues in atmospheric science, science policy, and ethics and values. This talk will discuss the outcomes of GCCS: specifically, new insights into interdisciplinary pedagogy and the student creation of an extraordinary "deliverable," a group summary assessment of the global climate change debate. The student assessment called for an integrated discussion of both the science of climate change and the human values related to how we inhabit the world. The problems facing society today cannot be addressed through the single-minded adherence to science and technology; instead, society must develop new means of integrating the humanities and science in a meaningful dialogue about our common future.

Estimating Non-Market Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rothman, D.S.; Amelung, B.; Polome, P.

2003-01-01

A number of studies over the past few decades have attempted to estimate the potential impacts of climate change and climate policy. For reasons related to, inter alia, our incomplete understanding of the workings of many natural and social systems, the tremendous spatial and temporal variability in these systems, and the long time frames over which the issue of climate change will play out, there are large degrees of uncertainty in these estimates. Some of the most rancorous debates, however, have focused on those studies that have attempted to place economic values on these impacts. This should not be surprising as the outcomes of these studies have played an important role in the debates over climate policy. Rightly or wrongly, the estimates presented in these studies are often held up against similar estimates of the costs of mitigating against climate change. The process of economic valuation of environmental and social issues is still relatively young, much less its application to the potential impacts of climate change and climate policy. Issues such as climate change push existing techniques to their limits, and possibly beyond. Among the topics that have raised the most concern are the choice of the proper baseline against which to make comparisons, the treatment of uncertainty in human and natural systems, incomplete accounting, the actual valuation of specific impacts, and the aggregation of impacts over time and across widely differing societies. Some of the more recent studies have tried to address these issues, albeit not always satisfactorily. One aspect that makes the economic valuation of environmental and social issues difficult is that it requires addressing impacts that are not typically associated with economic markets, so called nonmarket impacts. In addition to not being traded in markets, many of these impacts affect goods and services that have the characteristic of being public goods, i.e. it is not possible to restrict their use to a

Measuring co-authorship and networking-adjusted scientific impact.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John P A Ioannidis

Full Text Available Appraisal of the scientific impact of researchers, teams and institutions with productivity and citation metrics has major repercussions. Funding and promotion of individuals and survival of teams and institutions depend on publications and citations. In this competitive environment, the number of authors per paper is increasing and apparently some co-authors don't satisfy authorship criteria. Listing of individual contributions is still sporadic and also open to manipulation. Metrics are needed to measure the networking intensity for a single scientist or group of scientists accounting for patterns of co-authorship. Here, I define I(1 for a single scientist as the number of authors who appear in at least I(1 papers of the specific scientist. For a group of scientists or institution, I(n is defined as the number of authors who appear in at least I(n papers that bear the affiliation of the group or institution. I(1 depends on the number of papers authored N(p. The power exponent R of the relationship between I(1 and N(p categorizes scientists as solitary (R>2.5, nuclear (R = 2.25-2.5, networked (R = 2-2.25, extensively networked (R = 1.75-2 or collaborators (R<1.75. R may be used to adjust for co-authorship networking the citation impact of a scientist. I(n similarly provides a simple measure of the effective networking size to adjust the citation impact of groups or institutions. Empirical data are provided for single scientists and institutions for the proposed metrics. Cautious adoption of adjustments for co-authorship and networking in scientific appraisals may offer incentives for more accountable co-authorship behaviour in published articles.

The Mass Media Influence on the Impact of Health Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cătălin BABA

2007-02-01

Full Text Available The theme of this study is a distinct examination of the issues regarding health policy, social representations and mass media. The analysis of the mass media influence on the impact of health policy leads to a portrayal of the related programs and the way they are received by citizens through mass media. Owing to the mass media quality to be an indicator of democracy it is very important to study its role in setting people daily agenda considering how it is able to maintain and create trends merely through recurrent messages. The issues frequently conveyed by media industry influences citizens’ interest with regard to community, producing effects on public policy. We must bear in mind that the more persistent in media they are, the more relevant for community this issues will be. The authors of the study put forward a method through which diverse programmes can be analysed. A comparative analysis of mass media and citizens’ social representations and its findings provide information about the influence between them. According to agenda setting theory and many international studies on health policy the authors conclude that mass media institution highly influence the impact of the health policy in health. Moreover, it is important to mention that the impact refers to all the stages of a policy-making: beginning with the problem identification and ending with the evaluation of the implementation process.

Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Hillary S.; Wood, Chelsea L.; Kilpatrick, A. Marm; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Nunn, Charles L.; Vincent, Jeffrey R.

2017-01-01

Habitat destruction and infectious disease are dual threats to nature and people. The potential to simultaneously advance conservation and human health has attracted considerable scientific and popular interest; in particular, many authors have justified conservation action by pointing out potential public health benefits . One major focus of this debate—that biodiversity conservation often decreases infectious disease transmission via the dilution effect—remains contentious. Studies that test for a dilution effect often find a negative association between a diversity metric and a disease risk metric, but how such associations should inform conservation policy remains unclear for several reasons. For one, diversity and infection risk have many definitions, making it possible to identify measures that conform to expectations. Furthermore, the premise that habitat destruction consistently reduces biodiversity is in question, and disturbance or conservation can affect disease in many ways other than through biodiversity change. To date, few studies have examined the broader set of mechanisms by which anthropogenic disturbance or conservation might increase or decrease infectious disease risk to human populations. Due to interconnections between biodiversity change, economics and human behaviour, moving from ecological theory to policy action requires understanding how social and economic factors affect conservation.This Theme Issue arose from a meeting aimed at synthesizing current theory and data on ‘biodiversity, conservation and infectious disease’ (4–6 May 2015). Ecologists, evolutionary biologists, economists, epidemiologists, veterinary scientists, public health professionals, and conservation biologists from around the world discussed the latest research on the ecological and socio-economic links between conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease, and the open questions and controversies in these areas. By combining ecological understanding

Growth, productivity, and scientific impact of sources of HIV/AIDS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study uses an informetric approach to examine the growth, productivity and scientific impact of these sources, during the period 1980 to 2005, and especially to measure performance in the publication and dissemination of HIV/AIDS research about or from eastern or southern Africa. Data were collected from MEDLINE, ...

Transport policy and health inequalities: a health impact assessment of Edinburgh's transport policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorman, D; Douglas, M J; Conway, L; Noble, P; Hanlon, P

2003-01-01

Health impact assessment (HIA) can be used to examine the relationships between inequalities and health. This HIA of Edinburgh's transport policy demonstrates how HIA can examine how different transport policies can affect different population groupings to varying degrees. In this case, Edinburgh's economy is based on tourism, financial services and Government bodies. These need a good transport infrastructure, which maintains a vibrant city centre. A transport policy that promotes walking, cycling and public transport supports this and is also good for health. The HIA suggested that greater spend on public transport and supporting sustainable modes of transport was beneficial to health, and offered scope to reduce inequalities. This message was understood by the City Council and influenced the development of the city's transport and land-use strategies. The paper discusses how HIA can influence public policy.

Clean Energy Policy Analysis: Impact Analysis of Potential Clean Energy Policy Options for the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Busche, S.; Doris, E.; Braccio, R.; Lippert, D.; Finch, P.; O' Toole, D.; Fetter, J.

2010-04-01

This report provides detailed analyses of 21 clean energy policy options considered by the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative working groups for recommendation to the 2010 Hawaii State Legislature. The report considers the impact each policy may have on ratepayers, businesses, and the state in terms of energy saved, clean energy generated, and the financial costs and benefits. The analyses provide insight into the possible impacts, both qualitative and quantitative, that these policies may have in Hawaii based on the experience with these policies elsewhere. As much as possible, the analyses incorporate Hawaii-specific context to reflect the many unique aspects of energy use in the State of Hawaii.

Obesity prevention advocacy in Australia: an analysis of policy impact on autonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, Emily; Hughes, Roger; Reidlinger, Dianne P

2017-06-01

To explore obesity policy options recommended by stakeholders and identify their impact on individual autotomy. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. A content analysis of submissions to the Australian Government's Inquiry into Obesity was conducted. Each recommendation was categorised by its impact on autonomy, according to existing frameworks. Chi-square test for independence was used to explore the association between autonomy and stakeholder support defined as frequency of recommendation. The extent of support for a policy option was significantly associated with impact on autonomy (pautonomy were least frequently recommended in every setting; but more likely in schools (27%) than other settings (autonomy were most widely recommended (46%). Stakeholders advocated policy options that enhance individual autonomy to a greater extent than those that diminish autonomy. Implications for public health: Targeting obesity policy options that enhance rather than diminish autonomy may be more politically acceptable across most settings, with the exception of schools where more restrictive policy options are appropriate. Re-framing options accordingly may improve leadership by government in obesity policy. © 2017 The Authors.

Renewable heating: Perspectives and the impact of policy instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kranzl, Lukas; Hummel, Marcus; Müller, Andreas; Steinbach, Jan

2013-01-01

In the light of the EU directive for renewable energy (2009/28/EC) this paper deals with the question how various policy instruments could impact the development of renewable heating technologies. The paper applies the simulation model Invert/EE-Lab for the building related heat demand in selected European countries (Austria, Lithuania and United Kingdom). The resulting scenarios up to 2030 are compared to RES-Heat targets from literature, stakeholder consultation processes and the targets in the national renewable energy action plans submitted by EU Member States in 2010. The results demonstrate that use obligations for renewable heating can be effective in achieving RES-Heat market growth. However, in order to attain a balanced technology mix and more ambitious targets, policy packages are required combining use obligations with economic incentives and accompanying measures. Technology specific conclusions are derived. Moreover, conclusions indicate that the action plans are not always consistent with policy measures in place or under discussion. - Highlights: • Modeling of RES-Heat policies in the building sector. • Application of the model Invert/EE-Lab for the cases of AT, LT, UK. • RES-Heat use obligations are effective but should be integrated in policy packages. • The design of use obligations has substantial impact on the RES-H technology mix. • National renewable energy action plans are not always consistent with policies

Misconduct Policies in High-Impact Biomedical Journals

Science.gov (United States)

Bosch, Xavier; Hernández, Cristina; Pericas, Juan M.; Doti, Pamela; Marušić, Ana

2012-01-01

Background It is not clear which research misconduct policies are adopted by biomedical journals. This study assessed the prevalence and content policies of the most influential biomedical journals on misconduct and procedures for handling and responding to allegations of misconduct. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of misconduct policies of 399 high-impact biomedical journals in 27 biomedical categories of the Journal Citation Reports in December 2011. Journal websites were reviewed for information relevant to misconduct policies. Results Of 399 journals, 140 (35.1%) provided explicit definitions of misconduct. Falsification was explicitly mentioned by 113 (28.3%) journals, fabrication by 104 (26.1%), plagiarism by 224 (56.1%), duplication by 242 (60.7%) and image manipulation by 154 (38.6%). Procedures for responding to misconduct were described in 179 (44.9%) websites, including retraction, (30.8%) and expression of concern (16.3%). Plagiarism-checking services were used by 112 (28.1%) journals. The prevalences of all types of misconduct policies were higher in journals that endorsed any policy from editors’ associations, Office of Research Integrity or professional societies compared to those that did not state adherence to these policy-producing bodies. Elsevier and Wiley-Blackwell had the most journals included (22.6% and 14.8%, respectively), with Wiley journals having greater a prevalence of misconduct definition and policies on falsification, fabrication and expression of concern and Elsevier of plagiarism-checking services. Conclusions Only a third of top-ranking peer-reviewed journals had publicly-available definitions of misconduct and less than a half described procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. As endorsement of international policies from policy-producing bodies was positively associated with implementation of policies and procedures, journals and their publishers should standardize their policies globally in order to

Misconduct policies in high-impact biomedical journals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xavier Bosch

Full Text Available It is not clear which research misconduct policies are adopted by biomedical journals. This study assessed the prevalence and content policies of the most influential biomedical journals on misconduct and procedures for handling and responding to allegations of misconduct.We conducted a cross-sectional study of misconduct policies of 399 high-impact biomedical journals in 27 biomedical categories of the Journal Citation Reports in December 2011. Journal websites were reviewed for information relevant to misconduct policies.Of 399 journals, 140 (35.1% provided explicit definitions of misconduct. Falsification was explicitly mentioned by 113 (28.3% journals, fabrication by 104 (26.1%, plagiarism by 224 (56.1%, duplication by 242 (60.7% and image manipulation by 154 (38.6%. Procedures for responding to misconduct were described in 179 (44.9% websites, including retraction, (30.8% and expression of concern (16.3%. Plagiarism-checking services were used by 112 (28.1% journals. The prevalences of all types of misconduct policies were higher in journals that endorsed any policy from editors' associations, Office of Research Integrity or professional societies compared to those that did not state adherence to these policy-producing bodies. Elsevier and Wiley-Blackwell had the most journals included (22.6% and 14.8%, respectively, with Wiley journals having greater a prevalence of misconduct definition and policies on falsification, fabrication and expression of concern and Elsevier of plagiarism-checking services.Only a third of top-ranking peer-reviewed journals had publicly-available definitions of misconduct and less than a half described procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. As endorsement of international policies from policy-producing bodies was positively associated with implementation of policies and procedures, journals and their publishers should standardize their policies globally in order to increase public trust in the

Evaluating the impacts of packaging policy in The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rouw, M.; Worrell, E.

2011-01-01

Packaging materials are one of the largest contributors to municipal solid waste production. This paper evaluates the material impacts packaging policy in The Netherlands in the period 1986–2007. Five different voluntary agreements were implemented over this period to reduce the environmental impact

Impact assessment of land use policies: Introduction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bezlepkina, I.; Brouwer, F.M.; Reidsma, P.

2014-01-01

This special issue is built around a series of impact assessments of land use policies and sustainable development in developing countries, carried out in the EU-funded project LUPIS (Sixth framework programme, Global Change and Ecosystems, Contract 36955). The project targeted at the development

Conceptual framework for describing selected urban and community impacts of federal energy policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morris, F.A,; Marcus, A.A.; Keller, D.

1980-06-01

A conceptual framework is presented for describing selected urban and community impacts of Federal energy policies. The framework depends on a simple causal model. The outputs of the model are impacts, changes in the state of the world of particular interest to policymakers. At any given time, a set of determinants account for the state of the world with respect to an impact category. Application of the model to a particular impact category requires: establishing a definition and measure for the impact category and identifying the determinants of these impacts. Analysis of the impact of a particular policy requires the following: identifying the policy and its effects (as estimated by others), isolating any effects that themselves constitute an urban and community impact, identifying any effects that change the value of determinants, and describing the impact with reference to the new values of determinants. This report provides a framework for these steps. Three impacts addressed are: neighborhood stability, housing availability, and quality and availability of public services. In each chapter, a definition and measure for the impact are specified; its principal determinants are identified; how the causal model can be used to estimate impacts by applying it to three illustrative Federal policies (domestic oil price decontrol, building energy performance standards, and increased Federal aid for mass transit) is demonstrated. (MCW)

Universal Basic Education Policy: Impact on Enrolment and Retention

Science.gov (United States)

Iddrisu, Issah

2016-01-01

The universal basic education policy enshrined in the constitution of Ghana is aimed at making education accessible and affordable for all Ghanaian citizens. This paper sought to assess whether the universal basic education policy really have an impact on access at the basic level. The study was carried out on the premise that the universal basic…

Tackling the Co-epidemic of Diabetes and Tuberculosis: From Evidence to Policy and Practice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukhtar, F.; Butt, Z. A.

2016-01-01

With the global increase in the diabetic population there is a resurgence of interest in the dual epidemic of diabetes mellitus (DM) and tuberculosis (TB), which have a bidirectional detrimental relationship with negative consequences for co-infected patients. Pakistan is feared to be hit the hardest, occupying fifth position amidst the 22 high burden TB countries, and ranking seventh in the global diabetic burden. The diabetes tuberculosis treatment outcome (DITTO) study was undertaken to determine the impact of diabetes on tuberculosis treatment outcome in Pakistan. The generation of such scientific evidence is useless if it is not utilized for policy making and practice, especially in a developing country like ours with a dearth of resources. In this paper, we have developed a framework for the transfer of scientific evidence regarding the impact of diabetes on TB treatment outcomes into policy and practice. The framework is divided into three components namely; generation of scientific evidence harnessing international and national efforts, informing health policy and practice and addressing other concerns such as social protection, health education and future research. (author)

Decoupling among CSR policies, programs, and impacts : An empirical study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Graafland, Johan; Smid, Hugo

2016-01-01

There are relatively few empirical studies on the impacts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and programs. This article addresses the research gap by analyzing the incidence of, and the conditions that affect, decoupling (defined as divergence) among CSR policies, implementation of

Impact of monetary policy changes on the Chinese monetary and stock markets

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Yong; Luo, Yong; Xiong, Jie; Zhao, Fei; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2013-10-01

The impact of monetary policy changes on the monetary market and stock market in China is investigated in this study. The changes of two major monetary policies, the interest rate and required reserve ratio, are analyzed in a study period covering seven years on the interbank monetary market and Shanghai stock market. We find that the monetary market is related to the macro economy trend and we also find that the monetary change surprises both of lowering and raising bring significant impacts to the two markets and the two markets respond to the changes differently. The results suggest that the impact of fluctuations is much larger for raising policy changes than lowering changes in the monetary market on policy announcing and effective dates. This is consistent with the “sign effect”, i.e. bad news brings a greater impact than good news. By studying the event window of each policy change, we also find that the “sign effect” still exists before and after each change in the monetary market. A relatively larger fluctuation is observed before the event date, which indicates that the monetary market might have a certain ability to predict a potential monetary change, while it is kept secret by the central bank before official announcement. In the stock market, we investigate how the returns and spreads of the Shanghai stock market index respond to the monetary changes. Evidences suggest the stock market is influenced but in a different way than the monetary market. The climbing of returns after the event dates for the lowering policy agrees with the theory that lowering changes can provide a monetary supply to boost the market and drive the stock returns higher but with a delay of 2 to 3 trading days on average. While in the bear market, the lowering policy brings larger volatility to the market on average than the raising ones. These empirical findings are useful for policymakers to understand how monetary policy changes impact the monetary and stock markets

Impacts of imports, government policy and technology on future natural gas supply

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allison, E.

2009-01-01

This presentation discussed the impacts of imports, government policy and technology on future natural gas supply. Specifically, it discussed projections of natural gas supply and demand; the potential impact of imports on United States natural gas supply; the potential impacts of government policy on natural gas supply and demand; and the impact of technological innovations on natural gas supply such as coalbed methane and methane hydrate. Specific government policies that were examined included the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009; and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009. It was concluded that the United States demand for natural gas will expand and that the impact of pending clean energy legislation is unclear. In addition, each potential future resource will face constraints and new resources may come on line in the next 20 years. figs.

Can policy ameliorate socioeconomic inequities in obesity and obesity-related behaviours? A systematic review of the impact of universal policies on adults and children.

Science.gov (United States)

Olstad, D L; Teychenne, M; Minaker, L M; Taber, D R; Raine, K D; Nykiforuk, C I J; Ball, K

2016-12-01

This systematic review examined the impact of universal policies on socioeconomic inequities in obesity, dietary and physical activity behaviours among adults and children. PRISMA-Equity guidelines were followed. Database searches spanned from 2004 to August 2015. Eligible studies assessed the impact of universal policies on anthropometric, dietary or physical activity-related outcomes in adults or children according to socioeconomic position. Thirty-six studies were included. Policies were classified as agentic, agento-structural or structural, and their impact on inequities was rated as positive, neutral, negative or mixed according to the dominant associations observed. Most policies had neutral impacts on obesity-related inequities regardless of whether they were agentic (60% neutral), agento-structural (68% neutral) or structural (67% neutral). The proportion of positive impacts was similar across policy types (10% agentic, 18% agento-structural and 11% structural), with some differences for negative impacts (30% agentic, 14% agento-structural and 22% structural). The majority of associations remained neutral when stratified by participant population, implementation level and socioeconomic position measures and by anthropometric and behavioural outcomes. Fiscal measures had consistently neutral or positive impacts on inequities. Findings suggest an important role for policy in addressing obesity in an equitable manner and strengthen the case for implementing a broad complement of policies spanning the agency-structure continuum. © 2016 World Obesity Federation.

I Like, I Cite? Do Facebook Likes Predict the Impact of Scientific Work?

Science.gov (United States)

Ringelhan, Stefanie; Wollersheim, Jutta; Welpe, Isabell M.

2015-01-01

Due to the increasing amount of scientific work and the typical delays in publication, promptly assessing the impact of scholarly work is a huge challenge. To meet this challenge, one solution may be to create and discover innovative indicators. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether Facebook likes for unpublished manuscripts that are uploaded to the Internet could be used as an early indicator of the future impact of the scientific work. To address our research question, we compared Facebook likes for manuscripts uploaded to the Harvard Business School website (Study 1) and the bioRxiv website (Study 2) with traditional impact indicators (journal article citations, Impact Factor, Immediacy Index) for those manuscripts that have been published as a journal article. Although based on our full sample of Study 1 (N = 170), Facebook likes do not predict traditional impact indicators, for manuscripts with one or more Facebook likes (n = 95), our results indicate that the more Facebook likes a manuscript receives, the more journal article citations the manuscript receives. In additional analyses (for which we categorized the manuscripts as psychological and non-psychological manuscripts), we found that the significant prediction of citations stems from the psychological and not the non-psychological manuscripts. In Study 2, we observed that Facebook likes (N = 270) and non-zero Facebook likes (n = 84) do not predict traditional impact indicators. Taken together, our findings indicate an interdisciplinary difference in the predictive value of Facebook likes, according to which Facebook likes only predict citations in the psychological area but not in the non-psychological area of business or in the field of life sciences. Our paper contributes to understanding the possibilities and limits of the use of social media indicators as potential early indicators of the impact of scientific work. PMID:26244779

I Like, I Cite? Do Facebook Likes Predict the Impact of Scientific Work?

Science.gov (United States)

Ringelhan, Stefanie; Wollersheim, Jutta; Welpe, Isabell M

2015-01-01

Due to the increasing amount of scientific work and the typical delays in publication, promptly assessing the impact of scholarly work is a huge challenge. To meet this challenge, one solution may be to create and discover innovative indicators. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether Facebook likes for unpublished manuscripts that are uploaded to the Internet could be used as an early indicator of the future impact of the scientific work. To address our research question, we compared Facebook likes for manuscripts uploaded to the Harvard Business School website (Study 1) and the bioRxiv website (Study 2) with traditional impact indicators (journal article citations, Impact Factor, Immediacy Index) for those manuscripts that have been published as a journal article. Although based on our full sample of Study 1 (N = 170), Facebook likes do not predict traditional impact indicators, for manuscripts with one or more Facebook likes (n = 95), our results indicate that the more Facebook likes a manuscript receives, the more journal article citations the manuscript receives. In additional analyses (for which we categorized the manuscripts as psychological and non-psychological manuscripts), we found that the significant prediction of citations stems from the psychological and not the non-psychological manuscripts. In Study 2, we observed that Facebook likes (N = 270) and non-zero Facebook likes (n = 84) do not predict traditional impact indicators. Taken together, our findings indicate an interdisciplinary difference in the predictive value of Facebook likes, according to which Facebook likes only predict citations in the psychological area but not in the non-psychological area of business or in the field of life sciences. Our paper contributes to understanding the possibilities and limits of the use of social media indicators as potential early indicators of the impact of scientific work.

Doing peer review and receiving feedback: impact on scientific literacy and writing skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Geithner, Christina A; Pollastro, Alexandria N

2016-03-01

Doing peer review has been effectively implemented to help students develop critical reading and writing skills; however, its application in Human Physiology programs is limited. The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of peer review on Human Physiology majors' perceptions of their scientific literacy and writing skills. Students enrolled in the Scientific Writing course completed multiple writing assignments, including three revisions after receiving peer and instructor feedback. Students self-assessed their knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to science and writing in pre- and postcourse surveys (n = 26 with complete data). Seven survey items related to scientific literacy and writing skills impacted by peer review were selected for analysis. Scores on these survey items were summed to form a composite self-rating score. Responses to two questions regarding the most useful learning activities were submitted to frequency analysis. Mean postcourse scores for individual survey items and composite self-rating scores were significantly higher than precourse means (P writing skills. In conclusion, peer review is an effective teaching/learning approach for improving undergraduate Human Physiology majors' knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding science and scientific writing. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

The impact of new member states on EU environmental policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Skou

1996-01-01

The fourth enlargement of the EU, with Sweden, Finland and Austria, which took effect on 1 January 1995, is by many expected to have a positive impact on the environmental policy dimension of the Union, which has been under strain since the Rio Summit in 1992.......The fourth enlargement of the EU, with Sweden, Finland and Austria, which took effect on 1 January 1995, is by many expected to have a positive impact on the environmental policy dimension of the Union, which has been under strain since the Rio Summit in 1992....

Children, Families and Poverty: Definitions, Trends, Emerging Science and Implications for Policy. Social Policy Report. Volume 26, Number 3

Science.gov (United States)

Aber, Lawrence; Morris, Pamela; Raver, Cybele

2012-01-01

Now, more than ever, it is crucial to address the topic of children and poverty in the U.S., given current scientific knowledge about poverty's influence on children and effective strategies to mitigate its negative impact. In this report, we summarize the best available information on definitions and trends in child poverty, policy responses to…

Scientific integrity in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Lins, Liliane; Carvalho, Fernando Martins

2014-09-01

This article focuses on scientific integrity and the identification of predisposing factors to scientific misconduct in Brazil. Brazilian scientific production has increased in the last ten years, but the quality of the articles has decreased. Pressure on researchers and students for increasing scientific production may contribute to scientific misconduct. Cases of misconduct in science have been recently denounced in the country. Brazil has important institutions for controlling ethical and safety aspects of human research, but there is a lack of specific offices to investigate suspected cases of misconduct and policies to deal with scientific dishonesty.

Impact of entrepreneurship policies on opportunity to startup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Davari

2017-09-01

Full Text Available During the previous decades, policy makers have formulated policies for developing entrepreneurship in different countries in order to decrease unemployment and poverty toward sustainable development. Some of these policies include encouraging people to be an entrepreneur, opportunity creation, educating new skills to entrepreneurs and so on. In recent years an appropriate context has been formed for entrepreneurship development in Iran and some programs have been executed. Therefore, formulating appropriate frameworks to guide Iranian government in this way is a necessity. This paper evaluates the impact of entrepreneurship policies on opportunity to startup in Iran. The results of path analysis indicate that supportive financial and non-financial actions influence positively on opportunity to startup. In addition, education and culture also influence positively on opportunity to startup. Finally, legislation also positively influences on opportunity to startup.

Financial impacts of UK's energy and climate change policies on commercial and industrial businesses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ang, Chye Peng; Toper, Bruce; Gambhir, Ajay

2016-01-01

This study provides a detailed case study assessment of two business sites in the UK, to understand the policy drivers of increases to their energy costs and energy bills, considering all current UK energy and climate change policies. We compare our findings to more generalised, theoretical calculations of the policy cost impact on energy costs and bills – we have found no other studies as comprehensive as ours in terms of policy coverage. We find that for one site the government has over-estimated the likely energy savings due to energy efficiency options. Such differences in estimates should be taken into account when considering the efficacy of climate change policies on future energy savings. The overall impact of energy and climate change policies on costs will be of the order 0.4% of total business costs by 2020. This provides an important metric for the near-term cost of mitigation to meet longer-term climate change goals. - Highlights: •Cumulative impacts of policies on energy prices and bills were studied. •Projected bills for one site are higher than those projected by the UK government. •Results of existing theoretical studies may not be fully representative. •Impact of policies is not considered significant with respect to competitiveness.

Preferential treatment and exemption policy impacts energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doelle, R.R.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on the preferential treatment and exemption policy of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for State and State Agencies which creates an anticompetitive and restraint of trade attitude in California against the development of alternative energy resources by the private sector when such development competes directly with state owned power generation under the State Water and Central Valley Water Projects, particularly in the area of water and power supply. The existing state water policy fails to address the effects of global warming and the adverse potential of the greenhouse effect in California, i.e. rising tides can seriously impact sea water intrusion problems of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Area by not only flooding agricultural lands in the Delta and Central Valley, but impacting the supply of water to large population areas in Southern and Northern California, especially when coupled with drought conditions. The California investigative research results herein reported demonstrates the fallacy of a preferential treatment and exemption policy in a free market economy, especially when such policy creates the potential for excessive state budget burdens upon the public in the face of questionable subsidies to special interest, i.e., allowing the resulting windfall profits to be passed onto major utilities and commingled at the expense of public interest so as to undermine the financial means for development of alternative energy resources. The cited Congressional and State Legislative Laws which provide the ways and means to resolve any energy or water resource problems are only as good as the enforcement and the commitment by the executive branch of government and the lawmakers to up-hold existing laws

Using scientific evidence to inform public policy on the long distance transportation of animals: role of the European Food Safety Authority

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oriol Ribò

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The authors review the work of the previous Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare and the current European Food Safety Authority (EFSA in providing scientific advice on the welfare aspects of animal transport and the impact of this advice on the European Union (EU regulatory framework. Through its Protocol on the Protection and Welfare of Animals, the Treaty of Amsterdam obliges European institutions to pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals when formulating and implementing EU legislation. Regulation 1/2005 states that EU legislation should be amended to take into account new scientific evidence. Provisions for poultry, cats and dogs take into account the recommendations included in EFSA's Scientific Opinion which considers different species (poultry, deer, rabbits, dogs and cats, fish and exotic animals. Examples of the effect of the scientifically based conclusions and recommendations from the Scientific Opinion on the measures in Regulation 1/2005 are summarised and show the impact of scientific evidence on EU legislation.

Using scientific evidence to inform public policy on the long distance transportation of animals: role of the European Food Safety Authority.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribò, Oriol; Candiani, Denise; Aiassa, Elisa; Correia, Sandra; Afonso, Ana; De Massis, Fabrizio; Serratosa, Jordi

2008-01-01

The authors review the work of the previous Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare and the current European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in providing scientific advice on the welfare aspects of animal transport and the impact of this advice on the European Union (EU) regulatory framework. Through its Protocol on the Protection and Welfare of Animals, the Treaty of Amsterdam obliges European institutions to pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals when formulating and implementing EU legislation. Regulation 1/2005 states that EU legislation should be amended to take into account new scientific evidence. Provisions for poultry, cats and dogs take into account the recommendations included in EFSA's Scientific Opinion which considers different species (poultry, deer, rabbits, dogs and cats, fish and exotic animals). Examples of the effect of the scientifically based conclusions and recommendations from the Scientific Opinion on the measures in Regulation 1/2005 are summarised and show the impact of scientific evidence on EU legislation.

Interaction of the EU ETS and national climate policy instruments – Impact on biomass use

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kautto, N.; Arasto, A.; Sijm, J.; Peck, P.

2012-01-01

Policy-makers apply multiple policy instruments simultaneously in the climate and energy policy field at both EU and Member State levels. This creates interactions between instruments that can be complementary and synergistic but also conflicting. This article focuses on the interactions of climate policy instruments and their impact on biomass use. The objectives are to examine interactions of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) with the main national climate policy instruments and to identify the influence of these on biomass use. The work draws experiences from seven EU countries (Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom), with a special focus on Finland and Sweden. The analysis explores the effects of policy interactions and is based on an examination of literature, and interviews with biomass experts in research, industry and policy spheres. Results indicate that the combined effects of climate policy instruments have a tangible impact on biomass use, whereas the causal links to the EU ETS are difficult to assess separately. Policy impacts found include increased competition for biomass resources, changes in fuel mixes and a contribution to upward pressure on wood prices. Differences in these effects are linked to differing national policy mixes and energy-carrier portfolios – an example being the relative differences in the importance of peat to the energy mix in Finland and Sweden. Analysis and comparison of the effects in the selected countries can yield insight on how to improve the design of policy interventions that impact biomass use. This study confirms the importance of identifying interactions between policy instruments so as to recognise – and manage – synergies and conflicts. The development of more synergistic and coordinated policy instrument mixes would also be beneficial for the bioenergy field. -- Highlights: ► Combined effects of climate policy instruments have a tangible impact on biomass

Evidence based policy making in the European Union. The role of the scientific community

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Majcen, Spela [Euro-Mediterranean Univ. (EMUNI), Portoroz (Slovenia)

2017-03-15

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

Evidence based policy making in the European Union: the role of the scientific community.

Science.gov (United States)

Majcen, Špela

2017-03-01

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

Evidence based policy making in the European Union. The role of the scientific community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majcen, Spela

2017-01-01

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

A shifting mosaic of scholarly publishing, scientific delivery, and future impact changing the face of learned societies

Science.gov (United States)

Leslie, David M.

2007-01-01

Nonprofit scientific societies hope that their activities advance their particular mission and impact their profession and, in the broadest sense, humanity in positive ways. The digital age has provided unprecedented mechanisms to enhance the delivery of science to the world. The marketplace of scientific publishing is a rapidly shifting mosaic of challenges and opportunities, and the responses of nonprofit and commercial publishers vary widely, but their outcomes are still uncertain. The response of the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) provides an example of how a relatively small society has altered its scientific delivery to enhance member benefits while attempting to sustain its economic viability. Since 2000, ASM has moved from a self-publishing, break-even, print-only model to a copublishing agreement with a commercial publisher (Alliance Communications Group, a division of Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas), which now offers members various print and electronic options and generates a shared royalty. Although it is too early to gauge the economic impact of these changes, the ASM leadership clearly attempted to signal its desire for members to view their society as a package of opportunities for edification and involvement rather than just a provider of serial subscriptions. Future challenges facing nonprofit scientific societies include open access, fiscal realities, archiving of publications, and scientific and societal impact; future opportunities include a strengthening of member responsibilities and professionalism, development of data registries to enhance scientific progress, and bundling of like societies. The manner in which nonprofit scientific societies respond to these challenges and opportunities will no doubt affect their sustainability and future impact. ?? 2007 American Society of Mammalogists.

Engineering women re-visioning women's scientific achievements and impacts

CERN Document Server

Tietjen, Jill S

2017-01-01

Packed with fascinating biographical sketches of female engineers, this chronological history of engineering brightens previously shadowy corners of our increasingly engineered world’s recent past. In addition to a detailed description of the diverse arenas encompassed by the word ‘engineering’ and a nuanced overview of the development of the field, the book includes numerous statistics and thought provoking facts about women’s roles in the achievement of thrilling scientific innovations. This text is a unique resource for students launching research projects in engineering and related fields, professionals interested in gaining a broader understanding of how engineering as a discipline has been impacted by events of global significance, and scholars of women’s immense, often obscured, contributions to scientific progress. Illuminates the many significant contributions of women in engineering Educates readers about the evolution of the field of engineering over the last century Demonstrates how key ...

Final environmental impact statement: US Spent Fuel Policy. Executive summary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-05-01

The analysis of the environmental impacts for storage of domestic fuel shows that the impacts for the full range of alternatives considered are relatively small compared with available resources or background exposure of the population from natural radiation sources. The differences in impacts of storage of domestic fuel are attributed to the amount of fuel stored in Independent Spent Fuel Storage (ISFS) facilities, the storage time, and, to a lesser degree, the differences in spent fuel transportation. The differences between comparable alternatives of implementing the policy or not implementing the policy are small. The difference in impacts of storage of foreign fuel are attributed to the amount of fuel received under the policy and to the disposition mode analyzed. The impact of storage of foreign fuel (a small fraction of the amount of domestic fuel considered) is also small. As a result of the small differences in environmental impacts of all cases considered for foreign fuel, environmental impacts probably will not strongly influence the selection of the case that best meets US nonproliferation goals. Proliferation benefits of the various cases analyzed vary significantly. The structure and level of fee charged for storage of spent fuel will affect the degree of participation in the spent fuel storage program by utilities. However, the range of participation is within the range of alternatives analyzed in the draft EISs on storage of US and foreign fuels, for which the environmental effects were found to be relatively small. The fee computed on the basis of full recovery of government costs should not significantly affect the cost of generating nuclear power

The Impact of Funding Policies on Higher Education in Jamaica

Science.gov (United States)

Nkrumah-Young, Kofi K.; Huisman, Jeroen; Powell, Philip

2008-01-01

This paper analyses the changes in the higher education funding policies and resource allocation models of the Jamaican government in the period 1962-2003. Throughout these four decades, four different systems were in force. This paper focuses particularly on the arguments for the funding policies and models and the impact of the models on the…

Beyond Sputnik U.S. science policy in the twenty-first century

CERN Document Server

Neal, Homer A; McCormick, Jennifer

2008-01-01

Science and technology are responsible for almost every advance in our modern quality of life. Yet science isn't just about laboratories, telescopes and particle accelerators. Public policy exerts a huge impact on how the scientific community conducts its work. Beyond Sputnik is a comprehensive survey of the field for use as an introductory textbook in courses and a reference guide for legislators, scientists, journalists, and advocates seeking to understand the science policy-making process. Detailed case studies---on topics from cloning and stem cell research to homeland security and science education---offer readers the opportunity to study real instances of policymaking at work. Authors and experts Homer A. Neal, Tobin L. Smith, and Jennifer B. McCormick propose practical ways to implement sound public policy in science and technology and highlight how these policies will guide the results of scientific discovery for years to come.

Anticipating the uncertain: economic modeling and climate change policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jensen, Svenn

2012-11-01

With this thesis I wish to contribute to the understanding of how uncertainty and the anticipation of future events by economic actors affect climate policies. The thesis consists of four papers. Two papers are analytical models which explicitly consider that emissions are caused by extracting scarce fossil fuels which in the future must be replaced by clean technologies. The other two are so called numerical integrated assessment models. Such models represent the world economy, the climate system and the interactions between those two quantitatively, complementing more abstract theoretical work. Should policy makers discriminate between subsidizing renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power, and technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS)? Focusing only on the dynamic supply of fossil fuels and hence Co{sub 2}, we find here that cheaper future renewables cause extraction to speed up, lower costs of CCS may delay it. CCS hence may dampen the dynamic inefficiency caused by the absence of comprehensive climate policies today. Does it matter whether uncertainty about future damage assessment is due to scientific complexities or stems from the political process? In paper two, I find that political and scientific uncertainties have opposing effects on the incentives to investment in renewables and the extraction of fossil fuels: The prospect of scientific learning about the climate system increases investment incentives and, ceteris paribus, slows extraction down; uncertainty about future political constellations does the opposite. The optimal carbon tax under scientific uncertainty equals expected marginal damages, whereas political uncertainty demands a tax below marginal damages that decreases over time. Does uncertainty about economic growth impact optimal climate policy today? Here we are the first to consistently analyze how uncertainty about future economic growth affects optimal emission reductions and the optimal social cost of carbon. We

Scholarly literature and the press: scientific impact and social perception of physics computing

CERN Document Server

Pia, Maria Grazia; Bell, Zane W; Dressendorfer, Paul V

2014-01-01

The broad coverage of the search for the Higgs boson in the mainstream media is a relative novelty for high energy physics (HEP) research, whose achievements have traditionally been limited to scholarly literature. This paper illustrates the results of a scientometric analysis of HEP computing in scientific literature, institutional media and the press, and a comparative overview of similar metrics concerning representative particle physics measurements. The picture emerging from these scientometric data documents the scientific impact and social perception of HEP computing. The results of this analysis suggest that improved communication of the scientific and social role of HEP computing would be beneficial to the high energy physics community.

On the Impact of Policy Uncertainty on Oil Prices: An Asymmetry Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Previous research has assessed the impact of policy uncertainty on a few macro variables. In this paper, we consider its impact on oil prices. Oil prices are usually determined in global markets by the law of demand and supply. Our concern in this paper is to determine which country’s policy uncertainty measure has an impact on oil prices. Using both the linear and the nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL methods, we find that while policy uncertainty measures of Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the U.S. have short-run effects, short-run effects last into the long-run asymmetric effects only in the case of China. This may reflect the importance and recent surge in China’s engagement in world trade.

How do we define the policy impact of public health research? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Alla, Kristel; Hall, Wayne D; Whiteford, Harvey A; Head, Brian W; Meurk, Carla S

2017-10-02

In order to understand and measure the policy impact of research we need a definition of research impact that is suited to the task. This article systematically reviewed both peer-reviewed and grey literature for definitions of research impact to develop a definition of research impact that can be used to investigate how public health research influences policy. Keyword searches of the electronic databases Web of Science, ProQuest, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Informit, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Google Scholar were conducted between August 2015 and April 2016. Keywords included 'definition' and 'policy' and 'research impact' or 'research evidence'. The search terms 'health', public health' or 'mental health' and 'knowledge transfer' or 'research translation' were used to focus the search on relevant health discipline approaches. Studies included in the review described processes, theories or frameworks associated with public health, health services or mental health policy. We identified 108 definitions in 83 publications. The key findings were that literature on research impact is growing, but only 23% of peer-reviewed publications on the topic explicitly defined the term and that the majority (76%) of definitions were derived from research organisations and funding institutions. We identified four main types of definition, namely (1) definitions that conceptualise research impacts in terms of positive changes or effects that evidence can bring about when transferred into policies (example Research Excellence Framework definition), (2) definitions that interpret research impacts as measurable outcomes (Research Councils UK), and (3) bibliometric and (4) use-based definitions. We identified four constructs underpinning these definitions that related to concepts of contribution, change, avenues and levels of impact. The dominance of bureaucratic definitions, the tendency to discuss but not define the concept of research impact, and the

Economic impacts of EU climate policy until 2020; EU:n ilmastopolitiikan talousvaikutukset vuoteen 2020

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rantala, O. E-mail: olavi.rantala@etla.fi

2012-07-01

The study evaluates the impacts of EU climate policy on the emission allowance price, electricity prices, the competitiveness of industry and macroeconomic developments in the third EU emission trading period 2013-2020. The economic impacts of climate policy on Finland are compared to the impacts on the entire EU area. It turns out that due to its cold climate and heating energy demand, higher export intensity of the economy and higher energy intensity of the industry Finland pays a higher price for EU climate policy in terms of output and employment losses than the EU on average. The study examines the macroeconomic effects of climate policy also in the more distant future, assuming that climate policy is tightened further in the 2020s. Climate policy implemented by emission trading means that the long-term economic growth in the EU area depends essentially on emission-free electricity production, and no longer on other growth factors, such as the labour supply and productivity growth. (orig.)

[Modern directions of scientific and practical research of the policy of active and healthy longevity: experience and perspectives].

Science.gov (United States)

Golubeva, E Yu

Modern terminology on active and healthy aging used in scientific and project activities is discussed. There have been analyzed the WHO conception on active aging, which has no precise universally agreed definition, its main determinants. The directions of scientific expertise in the major European projects INNOVAGE - assessment of potentially profitable social innovations relating to the welfare and quality of life and health in old age; MOPACT - the interference between the demographic development and the main dimensions of economic and social contribution of older persons is defined. The approach to implement the policy of active and healthy longevity as a valuable asset of the modern society is underlined.

Evolutions in food marketing, quantifying the impact, and policy implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Cairns, Georgina

2013-03-01

A case study on interactive digital marketing examined the adequacy of extant policy controls and their underpinning paradigms to constrain the effects of this rapidly emerging practice. Findings were interactive digital marketing is expanding the strategies available to promote products, brands and consumer behaviours. It facilitates relational marketing; the collection of personal data for marketing; integration of the marketing mix, and provides a platform for consumers to engage in the co-creation of marketing communications. The paradigmatic logic of current policies to constrain youth-oriented food marketing does not address the interactive nature of digital marketing. The evidence base on the effects of HFSS marketing and policy interventions is based on conceptualizations of marketing as a force promoting transactions rather than interactions. Digital technologies are generating rich consumer data. Interactive digital technologies increase the complexity of the task of quantifying the impact of marketing. The rapidity of its uptake also increases urgency of need to identify appropriate effects measures. Independent analysis of commercial consumer data (appropriately transformed to protect commercial confidentiality and personal privacy) would provide evidence sources for policy on the impacts of commercial food and beverage marketing and policy controls. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimizing Resources for Trustworthiness and Scientific Impact of Domain Repositories

Science.gov (United States)

Lehnert, K.

2017-12-01

Domain repositories, i.e. data archives tied to specific scientific communities, are widely recognized and trusted by their user communities for ensuring a high level of data quality, enhancing data value, access, and reuse through a unique combination of disciplinary and digital curation expertise. Their data services are guided by the practices and values of the specific community they serve and designed to support the advancement of their science. Domain repositories need to meet user expectations for scientific utility in order to be successful, but they also need to fulfill the requirements for trustworthy repository services to be acknowledged by scientists, funders, and publishers as a reliable facility that curates and preserves data following international standards. Domain repositories therefore need to carefully plan and balance investments to optimize the scientific impact of their data services and user satisfaction on the one hand, while maintaining a reliable and robust operation of the repository infrastructure on the other hand. Staying abreast of evolving repository standards to certify as a trustworthy repository and conducting a regular self-assessment and certification alone requires resources that compete with the demands for improving data holdings or usability of systems. The Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA), a data facility funded by the US National Science Foundation, operates repositories for geochemical, marine Geoscience, and Antarctic research data, while also maintaining data products (global syntheses) and data visualization and analysis tools that are of high value for the science community and have demonstrated considerable scientific impact. Balancing the investments in the growth and utility of the syntheses with resources required for certifcation of IEDA's repository services has been challenging, and a major self-assessment effort has been difficult to accommodate. IEDA is exploring a partnership model to share

Equity impact of interventions and policies to reduce smoking in youth: systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Tamara; Platt, Stephen; Amos, Amanda

2014-11-01

A systematic review to assess the equity impact of interventions/policies on youth smoking. Biosis, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Embase, Eric, Medline, Psycinfo, Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and tobacco control experts. Published January 1995 to October 2013. Primary studies of interventions/policies reporting smoking-related outcomes in youth (11-25 years) of lower compared to higher socioeconomic status (SES). References were screened and independently checked. Studies were quality assessed; characteristics and outcomes were extracted. A narrative synthesis by intervention/policy type. Equity impact was assessed as: positive (reduced inequity), neutral (no difference by SES), negative (increased inequity), mixed (equity impact varied) or unclear.Thirty-eight studies of 40 interventions/policies were included: smokefree (12); price/tax (7); mass media campaigns (1); advertising controls (4); access controls (5); school-based programmes (5); multiple policies (3), individual-level cessation support (2), individual-level support for smokefree homes (1). The distribution of equity effects was: 7 positive, 16 neutral, 12 negative, 4 mixed, 1 unclear. All 7 positive equity studies were US-based: price/tax (4), age-of-sales laws (2) and text-messaging cessation support (1). A British school-based intervention (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST)) showed mixed equity effects (neutral and positive). Most neutral equity studies benefited all SES groups. Very few studies have assessed the equity impact of tobacco control interventions/policies on young people. Price/tax increases had the most consistent positive equity impact. There is a need to strengthen the evidence base for the equity impact of youth tobacco control interventions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Greenhouse effect: Evolution of scientific message and its transfer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braicovich, L.; Amman, F.; Pavia Univ.

1991-01-01

The greenhouse effect, not anymore confined to scientific journals, is becoming a policy issue and, possibly, a nightmare in public opinion. In this analysis of the evolution of the scientific message and its transfer to policy makers and public opinion, the paper first considers, in general terms, the more recent trends in related research activity and in the transfer processes of the results. Then, a more detailed examination is made of the progress achieved in the years 1989-1990 through scientific research in various aspects of the greenhouse effect. It is confirmed that, for the time being, the scientific results leave many important points unresolved; policy decisions on the matter cannot therefore rely on present scientific knowledge as if it were firmly established

Challenges facing the marketing of scientific and research institutes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bogdan Sojkin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents the challenges that scientific research institutions face in terms of their marketing, which have been divided into two groups of those associated with internal marketing and those linked to external marketing. The most significant and important determinants that constitute challenges to both internal and external marketing were described. The key aspects of each of the identified challenges were indicated, as was their impact on the implementation of the marketing policy at institutions.

Scientific Discoveries: What Is Required for Lasting Impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Lømo, Terje

2016-01-01

I have been involved in two scientific discoveries of some impact. One is the discovery of long-term potentiation (LTP), the phenomenon that brief, high-frequency impulse activity at synapses in the brain can lead to long-lasting increases in their efficiency of transmission. This finding demonstrated that synapses are plastic, a property thought to be necessary for learning and memory. The other discovery is that nerve-evoked muscle impulse activity, rather than putative trophic factors, controls the properties of muscle fibers. Here I describe how these two discoveries were made, the unexpected difficulties of reproducing the first discovery, and the controversies that followed the second discovery. I discuss why the first discovery took many years to become generally recognized, whereas the second caused an immediate sensation and entered textbooks and major reviews but is now largely forgotten. In the long run, discovering a new phenomenon has greater impact than falsifying a popular hypothesis.

The Development of a Multisource and a Systematized Database for Economic and Policy Impact Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ec. Filippo Oropallo

2007-02-01

Full Text Available ISTAT is involved in various EU projects with the objective of "supporting the Lisbon objectives, EU governance and the process of national policy coverage with the best EU-wide and national policy impact and evaluation analyses". Existing knowledge on policy impact analyses is approximate. The "facts" on the impact of policies are charted only at the aggregate level and with a high degree of approximation. Macro indicators have well-known pitfalls and drawbacks. Understanding how policies affect economic performance and developing better indicators to gauge their effects is central to endow the EU with a set of efficient and fair policies. The gap in European knowledge and capacity for Policy Impact Analysis is patent. The DIECOFIS EU-FP5 project has taken up the challenge of reducing this gap in the field of taxation. Results have been quite encouraging and have open new vistas for future work. Particularly notable has been the development of a system of micro-founded indicators, based on factuals and counterfactuals, estimated through micro-simulation models. This has led to the current utilization of such a tool in the ex-ante microsimulation of the effects of several reforms of corporate taxation

Strategic Sequencing for State Distributed PV Policies: A Quantitative Analysis of Policy Impacts and Interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doris, E.; Krasko, V.A.

2012-10-01

State and local policymakers show increasing interest in spurring the development of customer-sited distributed generation (DG), in particular solar photovoltaic (PV) markets. Prompted by that interest, this analysis examines the use of state policy as a tool to support the development of a robust private investment market. This analysis builds on previous studies that focus on government subsidies to reduce installation costs of individual projects and provides an evaluation of the impacts of policies on stimulating private market development.

Distributional impacts of state-level energy efficiency policies in regional electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahraei-Ardakani, Mostafa; Blumsack, Seth; Kleit, Andrew

2012-01-01

A number of U.S. states have passed legislation targeting energy efficiency and peak demand reduction. We study one such state, Pennsylvania, within the context of PJM, a regional electricity market covering numerous different states. Our focus is on the distributive impacts of this policy—specifically how the policy is likely to impact electricity prices in different areas of Pennsylvania and in the PJM market more generally. Such spatial differences in policy impacts are difficult to model and the transmission system is often ignored in policy studies. Our model estimates supply curves on a “zonal” basis within regional electricity markets and yields information on price and fuel utilization within each zone. We use the zonal supply curves estimated by our model to study regional impacts of energy-efficiency legislation on utilities both inside and outside of Pennsylvania. For most utilities in Pennsylvania, it would reduce the influence of natural gas on electricity price formation and increase the influence of coal. It would also save 2.1 to 2.8 percent of total energy cost in Pennsylvania in a year similar to 2009. The savings are lower than 0.5 percent in other PJM states and the prices may slightly increase in Washington, DC area. - Highlights: ► We model distributional impacts of energy efficiency and conservation policies. ► We use our model to study the impacts of Pennsylvania act 129. ► We estimate $235 million in annual savings for PA and $275 million for PJM. ► The prices decrease in most of the zones but the impacts are not uniform. ► The influence of coal on electricity prices increases relative to natural gas.

Policy Considerations for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Freshwater Reservoirs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirsi Mäkinen

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Emerging concern over greenhouse gas (GHG emissions from wetlands has prompted calls to address the climate impact of dams in climate policy frameworks. Existing studies indicate that reservoirs can be significant sources of emissions, particularly in tropical areas. However, knowledge on the role of dams in overall national emission levels and abatement targets is limited, which is often cited as a key reason for political inaction and delays in formulating appropriate policies. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the current role of reservoir emissions in existing climate policy frameworks. The distance between a global impact on climate and a need for local mitigation measures creates a challenge for designing appropriate mechanisms to combat reservoir emissions. This paper presents a range of possible policy interventions at different scales that could help address the climate impact of reservoirs. Reservoir emissions need to be treated like other anthropogenic greenhouse gases. A rational treatment of the issue requires applying commonly accepted climate change policy principles as well as promoting participatory water management plans through integrated water resource management frameworks. An independent global body such as the UN system may be called upon to assess scientific information and develop GHG emissions policy at appropriate levels.

Models for policy-making in sustainable development. The state of the art and perspectives for research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boulanger, Paul-Marie; Brechet, Thierry

2005-01-01

More and more frequently policy-makers are urged to assess the impact of their strategies and policies in terms of sustainable development. This necessitates the use of applied scientific models as tools for identifying and evaluating the likely environmental, economic and social impacts of alternative policies. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to help decision-makers choose the most appropriate-or the most appropriate mix-of models, by assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses. The paper also allows potential improvements in modeling techniques to be identified. Six modeling paradigms are assessed, both on a general basis and with respect to two specific policy contexts (energy policy, and land use and transport planning)

Parameter uncertainty in CGE Modeling of the environmental impacts of economic policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abler, D.G.; Shortle, J.S.; Rodriguez, A.G.

1999-01-01

This study explores the role of parameter uncertainty in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling of the environmental impacts of macroeconomic and sectoral policies, using Costa Rica as a case for study. A CGE model is constructed which includes eight environmental indicators covering deforestation, pesticides, overfishing, hazardous wastes, inorganic wastes, organic wastes, greenhouse gases, and air pollution. The parameters are treated as random variables drawn from prespecified distributions. Evaluation of each policy option consists of a Monte Carlo experiment. The impacts of the policy options on the environmental indicators are relatively robust to different parameter values, in spite of the wide range of parameter values employed. 33 refs

Parameter uncertainty in CGE Modeling of the environmental impacts of economic policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abler, D.G.; Shortle, J.S. [Agricultural Economics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Rodriguez, A.G. [University of Costa Rica, San Jose (Costa Rica)

1999-07-01

This study explores the role of parameter uncertainty in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling of the environmental impacts of macroeconomic and sectoral policies, using Costa Rica as a case for study. A CGE model is constructed which includes eight environmental indicators covering deforestation, pesticides, overfishing, hazardous wastes, inorganic wastes, organic wastes, greenhouse gases, and air pollution. The parameters are treated as random variables drawn from prespecified distributions. Evaluation of each policy option consists of a Monte Carlo experiment. The impacts of the policy options on the environmental indicators are relatively robust to different parameter values, in spite of the wide range of parameter values employed. 33 refs.

The impact of Border policy effect on cross-border ethnic areas

Science.gov (United States)

Bie, Q. L.; Zhou, S. Y.; Li, C. S.

2013-11-01

Boundary effect analysis is related to border policy making in the cross-border ethnic area. The border effect literatures show that geographic boundaries have obvious impacts on economic, social and cultural relations in both sides of a nation border. Particularly in cross-border ethnic areas, each ethnic group has strong internal spatial structure relevance, and the boundary effect is more obvious. However, most of China's border areas are cross-border ethnic areas, each of border issues is unique. Under this perspective, we analyze the border effects of various boundaries can provide basis for formulating border management policies. For small scale of cross-border ethnic minority areas, how to formulate the boundary management policy is a good question to explore. This paper is demonstrated by a study of the impact of border management policies in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province at the border area to Burma. The comparative method is used to analysis the border management policies in past 50 decades for the border area of Yunnan Province .This research aims to define trends within border policy and its influences to national security. This paper also examines Wendy Brown's liberal theory of border management policy. We found that it is not suitable for Sino-Burma border area. The conclusion is that the changes or instability of international economic and political situation has more influence to this cross-border ethnic area, and only innovative policy will be effective in cross-border ethnic area. So the border management policies should reflect the change of international context.

The Impact of Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policy on Investor Sentiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lutz, Chandler

2015-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between monetary policy and investor sentiment across conventional and unconventional monetary policy regimes. During conventional times, we find that a surprise decrease in the fed funds rate leads to a large increase in investor sentiment. Similarly, when...... the fed funds rate is at its zero lower bound, research results indicate that expansionary unconventional monetary policy shocks also have a large and positive impact on investor mood. Together, our findings highlight the importance of both conventional and unconventional monetary policy...... in the determination of investor sentiment....

Impact of Climate Change. Policy Uncertainty in Power Investment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blyth, W.; Yang, M.

2006-10-01

Climate change policies are being introduced or actively considered in all IEA member countries, changing the investment conditions and technology choices in the energy sector. Many of these policies are at a formative stage, and policy uncertainty is currently high. The objective of this paper is to quantify the impacts of climate change policy on power investment. We use Real Options Analysis approach in the study and model uncertain carbon price and fuel price with stochastic variables. The analysis compares the effects of climate policy uncertainty with fuel price uncertainty, showing the relative importance of these sources of risk for different technologies. This paper considers views on the importance of climate policy risk, how it is managed, and how it might affect investment behaviour. The implications for policymakers are analyzed, allowing the key messages to be transferred into policy design decisions. We found that in many cases, the dominant risks facing base-load generation investment decisions will be market risks associated with electricity and fuel prices. However, under certain conditions and for some technologies, climate policy uncertainty can be an important risk factor, creating an incentive to delay investment and raising investment thresholds. This paper concludes that government climate change policies to promote investment in low-carbon technologies should aim to overcome this incentive to delay by sending long-term investment signals backed up by strengthened international policy action to enhance domestic policy credibility

Impact of Fishery Policy on Fishery Manufacture Output, Economy and Welfare in Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Firmansyah; Oktavilia, Shanty; Sugiyanto, F. X.; Hamzah, Ibnu N.

2018-02-01

The fisheries sector and fish manufacturing industry are the bright prospect sectors of Indonesia, due to its huge potency, which has not been worked out optimally. In facts, these sectors can generate a large amount of foreign exchange. The Government has paid significant attention to the development of these sectors. This study simulates the impact of fishery policies on the production of fish manufacturing industry, national economic and welfare in Indonesia. By employing the Input-Output Analysis approach, impacts of various government policy scenarios are developed, covering fisheries technical policy, as well as infrastructure development policies in the fisheries sector. This study indicates that the policies in the fisheries sector increase the output of fishery, the production of fish manufacturing industry, the sectoral and national outputs, as well as the level of national income.

Retrieval and impact of scientific production in google era: a comparative analysis between google scholar and web of science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogério Mugnaini

2008-04-01

Full Text Available The changes caused by the development of the information technologies, with respect to the visibility of scientific publications and to the production of impact indicators are discussed. Questions related to the use of citation data and the ISI-Thomsom Scientific Impact Factor are first considered and next the resources offered by Google Scholar to measure the relevance of the scientific works are analysed. It concludes with considerations on the importance of the studies on the application of bibliometric and webometric indicators for analysis of scientific production as form of stablishing an evaluation system adapted to diverse contexts.

Science and the economic crisis impact on science, lessons from science

CERN Document Server

Sylos Labini, Francesco

2016-01-01

This book not only explores the ways in which the economic crisis and associated austerity policies have adversely impacted the physical and human infrastructure and conduct of scientific research, but also considers how science can help us to understand the crisis and provide original solutions. Starting with a detailed but accessible analysis of the scientific method and the nature of scientific prediction, the book proceeds to address the failure to forecast the economic crisis and the origins of the continuing inertia in economic policy and theory. Attention is drawn in particular to the shortcomings of neoclassical economics in terms of its description of the economic system as being mechanical in nature and characterized by equilibrium. This perspective mirrors the limitations and outdated ideas of nineteenth century physics, which the book contrasts with the insights offered by modern physics. The impact of neoliberal ideologies on scientific research is also discussed in detail, highlighting their sti...

Impact of Scheduling Policies on Control System Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schiøler, Henrik; Ravn, Anders Peter; Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard

2003-01-01

It is well known that jitter has an impact on control system performance, and this is often used as an argument for static scheduling policies, e.g. a time triggered architecture. However, it is only completion jitter that seriously disturbs standard linear control algorithms in a way similar to ...

Data sharing policy design for consortia: challenges for sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaye, Jane; Hawkins, Naomi

2014-01-01

The field of human genomics has led advances in the sharing of data with a view to facilitating translation of research into innovations for human health. This change in scientific practice has been implemented through new policy developed by many principal investigators, project managers and funders, which has ultimately led to new forms of practice and innovative governance models for data sharing. Here, we examine the development of the governance of data sharing in genomics, and explore some of the key challenges associated with the design and implementation of these policies. We examine how the incremental nature of policy design, the perennial problem of consent, the gridlock caused by multiple and overlapping access systems, the administrative burden and the problems with incentives and acknowledgment all have an impact on the potential for data sharing to be maximized. We conclude by proposing ways in which the scientific community can address these problems, to improve the sustainability of data sharing into the future.

Chemical regulation on fire: rapid policy advances on flame retardants.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordner, Alissa; Mulcahy, Margaret; Brown, Phil

2013-07-02

Chemicals that are widely used in consumer products offer challenges to product manufacturers, risk managers, environmental regulators, environmental scientists, and the interested public. However, the factors that cause specific chemicals to rise to the level of regulatory, scientific, and social movement concern and scrutiny are not well documented, and scientists are frequently unclear about exactly how their research impacts policy. Through a case study of advocacy around flame retardant chemicals, this paper traces the pathways through which scientific evidence and concern is marshaled by both advocacy groups and media sources to affect policy change. We focus our analysis around a broad coalition of environmental and public health advocacy organizations and an investigative journalism series published in 2012 in the Chicago Tribune. We demonstrate that the Tribune series both brought the issue to a wider public audience and precipitated government action, including state policy revisions and federal Senate hearings. We also show how a broad and successful flame retardant coalition developed, leveraged a media event, and influenced policy at multiple institutional levels. The analysis draws on over 110 in-depth interviews, literature and Web site reviews, and observations at a flame retardant manufacturing company, government offices, and scientific and advocacy conferences.

The Impact of Active Labour Market Policy on Post-Unemployment Outcomes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blasco, Sylvie; Rosholm, Michael

While job search theory predicts that active labour market policies (ALMPs) can affect post-unemployment outcomes, empirical evaluations investigating transition rates have mostly focused on the impact of ALMPs on exit rates from the current unemployment spell. We use a social experiment, which w......, the positive impact of the treatment becomes smaller but remains significant. 80% of the global impact of intensification acts through the direct channel for men.......While job search theory predicts that active labour market policies (ALMPs) can affect post-unemployment outcomes, empirical evaluations investigating transition rates have mostly focused on the impact of ALMPs on exit rates from the current unemployment spell. We use a social experiment, which...... was conducted in Denmark in 2005-6, to investigate the effects of a dramatic intensification of ALMPs on reemployment stability. We investigate the nature of this impact. We estimate a duration model with lagged duration dependence to separately identify "indirect" (via shorter unemployment duration...

Assessing the Impact of the ECB's Monetary Policy on the Stock Markets: A Sectoral View

OpenAIRE

Konstantin Kholodilin; Alberto Montagnoli; Oreste Napolitano; Boriss Siliverstovs

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the response of the European stock markets to the monetary policy shocks by the European Central Bank using the heteroskedasticity based approach of Rigobon (2003). We find that monetary policy tightening has a heterogeneous impact on the Euro Area sectors on the day the monetary policy is publicly announced. Furthermore, we provide statistical evidence against the use of the popular event study approach when assessing the impact of monetary policy shocks on the stock mark...

The impact of donor policies in Europe: a steady increase, but not everywhere.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coppen, R.; Friele, R.D.; Gevers, J.K.M.; Blok, G.A.; Zee, J. van der

2008-01-01

Background: Transplantable organs are scarce everywhere. Therefore, countries have developed policies to support the efficient use of potential donors. Nevertheless, the shortage of organs remains. Were these policies in vain? The aim of this study is to assess the impact of donor policies on donor

Climate change impacts on urban wildfire and flooding policy in Idaho: a comparative policy network perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Lindquist, E.; Pierce, J. L.

2013-12-01

Numerous frameworks and models exist for understanding the dynamics of the public policy process. A policy network approach considers how and why stakeholders and interests pay attention to and engage in policy problems, such as flood control or developing resilient and fire resistant landscapes. Variables considered in this approach include what the relationships are between these stakeholders, how they influence the process and outcomes, communication patterns within and between policy networks, and how networks change as a result of new information, science, or public interest and involvement with the problem. This approach is useful in understanding the creation of natural hazards policy as new information or situations, such as projected climate change impacts, influence and disrupt the policy process and networks. Two significant natural hazard policy networks exist in the semi-arid Treasure Valley region of Southwest Idaho, which includes the capitol city of Boise and the surrounding metropolitan area. Boise is situated along the Boise River and adjacent to steep foothills; this physiographic setting makes Boise vulnerable to both wildfires at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and flooding. Both of these natural hazards have devastated the community in the past and floods and fires are projected to occur with more frequency in the future as a result of projected climate change impacts in the region. While both hazards are fairly well defined problems, there are stark differences lending themselves to comparisons across their respective networks. The WUI wildfire network is large and well developed, includes stakeholders from all levels of government, the private sector and property owner organizations, has well defined objectives, and conducts promotional and educational activities as part of its interaction with the public in order to increase awareness and garner support for its policies. The flood control policy network, however, is less defined

The Impact of Fiscal Policy on Poverty in Ethiopia: A Computable ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Ethiopia has implemented various fiscal policy reforms in the past decade. Most of these reforms center on indirect taxes and pro-poor expenditure patterns. This study investigates the economy-wide impacts of these fiscal policy changes on poverty. To this effect, the study used a static computable general equilibrium ...

PhD Students' Excellence Scholarships and Their Relationship with Research Productivity, Scientific Impact, and Degree Completion

Science.gov (United States)

Lariviere, Vincent

2013-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between excellence scholarships and research productivity, scientific impact, and degree completion. Drawing on the entire population of doctoral students in the province of Quebec, this pa- per analyzes three distinct sources of data: students, excellence scholarships, and scientific publications. It shows…

The Impact of Monetary Policy on Bank Credit During Economic Crisis: Indonesia's Experience

OpenAIRE

Mongid, Abdul

2008-01-01

The monetary policy mechanism by which monetary policy was transmitted to thereal economy had emerged as the pivotal discussion topic recently. This paper tried to discussthe impact of Bank Indonesia’s monetary policy on loan bank. By using simple loan bankframework we concluded that monetary policies were able to influence loan bank. Themonetary variables such as discount rate policy, base money and exchange rate policy werevery important in determining the banking credit. As the credit was ...

Defining a safe genetically modified organism: Boundaries of scientific risk assessment

OpenAIRE

Katherine Barrett; Elisabeth Abergel

2002-01-01

The development and commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops continues despite persisting uncertainties regarding environmental impacts. Canada is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of GM crops. Regulators have claimed that existing federal policies for assessing environmental hazards are ‘science-based’ and sufficiently precautionary. We challenge this by examining the scientific data used to approve one variety of GM canola for environmental release. We argue tha...

On the development and use of farm models for policy impact assessment in the European Union – A review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reidsma, Pytrik; Janssen, Sander; Jansen, Jacques; Ittersum, van Martin K.

2018-01-01

Farm models are potentially relevant tools for policy impact assessment. Governments and international organizations use impact assessment (IA) as an ex-ante policy process and procedure to evaluate impacts of policy options as part of the introduction of new policies. IA is increasingly used. This

Economic, welfare and environmental impact of feed-in tariff policy: A case study in Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tabatabaei, Sharareh Majdzadeh; Hadian, Ebrahim; Marzban, Hossein; Zibaei, Mansour

2017-01-01

Following a particular attention given to environmental issues over the last few decades, establishing proper developmental policies to increase electricity production from renewable energy (RE) has not only been an important issue but also a challenge for many countries. Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Policy is one of the tools that is being used to facilitate the development of RE. This research evaluated the economic, welfare and environmental impact of this policy on Iran's economy. Therefore, after developing an Economic-Energy-Environmental (E3) type of Hybrid General Equilibrium model, the effect of FIT policy was examined under different scenarios in order to find an optimal condition in which 10% of electrical energy could be produced from renewable resources. The comparison between the results showed that the application of subsidies to RE and the way the government finances these subsidies can affect the results of FIT policy. Meanwhile, regardless of the role considered for the impact of environmental factors, our policies under the scenario of technology neutral is the most efficient, as it has less impact on the decline of GDP of different sectors and also has less financial cost for government. - Highlights: • E3 type of Hybrid CGE model is used under two different financing policies. • Technology neutral and technology specific scenarios are applied to these policies. • Results show the effect of our policies and scenarios on the efficiency of FIT policy. • This efficiency comes from the impact on GDP balance and government's financial cost. • The results show that, the scenario of technology neutral is the most efficient.

National Language Policy and Its Impacts on Second Language Reading Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Azmi, Mohd Nazri Latiff

2013-01-01

This research concentrates on Malaysian language policy and its impacts on the development of English language (regarded as a second language in Malaysia) specifically on reading culture. The main objectives of this research are to investigate the weaknesses and strengths of the policy and also to come out with recommendations to improve the…

ROLE OF DEPOSIT POLICY FOR UKRAINIAN BANKING INSTITUTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadezhda Bova

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to define and demonstrate the role of deposit policy for banking institutions, summarize and highlight the problems and its solutions in deposit policy of Ukraine that provides economic downturn and recovery. Appropriate selection and implementation of the deposit policy objectives, its operational structure and tools determines the degree of development of financial inclusion, which generate developed financial market, ensures public confidence to the deposit services, and increases the level of savings that positively affects the banking system financial stability and economy in the country in whole. It is because of availability and security deposit services, commercial banks of Ukraine have the opportunity to increase its resource base due to savings of the population. Methodology. The paper is based on a synthesis of data to explore the bank deposit policy situation. The paper considers the scientific and theoretical approaches for the developing the deposit policy management. It contains the analysis of the dynamics and current situation and conditions of the resource potential of banking institutions in Ukraine. Results of the article shows direct dependency between savings, consumption and deposit policy, therefore every banking institution includes the mechanism of banking management of the development and implementation of deposit policy. Also, this management defines the deposit policy directions according to the conditions of bank resources mobilization and its applying in active operations. The obtained results confirm that the term “deposit policy” is too complex, but it is investigated in interaction with banking activity. It is explained how deposit policy influences banking system and has impact on economic growth in general. Practical implications. The research creates methodological approaches to the measurement of effectiveness of deposit policy. Also, it studies the existing ones. It provides

IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON MACROECONOMIC POLICY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clementina IVAN-UNGUREANU

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Globalization – the growing integration of economies and societies around the world – has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in international economics over the past few years. Rapid growth and poverty reduction in some countries that were poor 20 years ago have been positive aspects of globalization. But globalization has also generated significant international opposition to concerns about increased inequality and environmental degradation. There are many definitions of globalization. One of them could be: globalization is an ecosystem in which economic potential is no longer defined or contained by political and geographic boundaries. Economic activity has no bounds in a globalized economy. A globalized world is one where goods, services, financial capital, machinery, money, workers and ideas migrate to wherever they are most valued and can work together most efficiently, flexibly and securely. Where does economic policy come into play in this world? This paper presents some aspects of globalization and the impact on the new strategy of macroeconomics policy.

How many scientific papers are mentioned in policy-related documents? An empirical investigation using Web of Science and Altmetric data.

Science.gov (United States)

Haunschild, Robin; Bornmann, Lutz

2017-01-01

In this short communication, we provide an overview of a relatively newly provided source of altmetrics data which could possibly be used for societal impact measurements in scientometrics. Recently, Altmetric-a start-up providing publication level metrics-started to make data for publications available which have been mentioned in policy-related documents. Using data from Altmetric, we study how many papers indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) are mentioned in policy-related documents. We find that less than 0.5% of the papers published in different subject categories are mentioned at least once in policy-related documents. Based on our results, we recommend that the analysis of (WoS) publications with at least one policy-related mention is repeated regularly (annually) in order to check the usefulness of the data. Mentions in policy-related documents should not be used for impact measurement until new policy-related sites are tracked.

Scholarly literature and the press: scientific impact and social perception of physics computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pia, M G; Basaglia, T; Bell, Z W; Dressendorfer, P V

2014-01-01

The broad coverage of the search for the Higgs boson in the mainstream media is a relative novelty for high energy physics (HEP) research, whose achievements have traditionally been limited to scholarly literature. This paper illustrates the results of a scientometric analysis of HEP computing in scientific literature, institutional media and the press, and a comparative overview of similar metrics concerning representative particle physics measurements. The picture emerging from these scientometric data documents the relationship between the scientific impact and the social perception of HEP physics research versus that of HEP computing. The results of this analysis suggest that improved communication of the scientific and social role of HEP computing via press releases from the major HEP laboratories would be beneficial to the high energy physics community.

The Effect of Mitigation Policy on Regional Climate Impacts on the U.S. Electric Sector

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, S. M.; Sun, Y.; Strzepek, K.; McFarland, J.; Boehlert, B.; Fant, C.

2017-12-01

Climate change can influence the U.S. electricity sector in many ways, the nature of which can be shaped by energy and environmental policy choices. Changing temperatures affect electricity demand largely through heating and cooling needs, and temperatures also affect generation and transmission system performance. Altered precipitation patterns affect the regional and seasonal distribution of surface water runoff, which changes hydropower operation and thermal cooling water availability. The extent to which these stimuli influence U.S. power sector operation and planning will depend to some extent on whether or not proactive policies are enacted to mitigate these impacts. Mitigation policies such as CO2 emissions limits or technology restrictions can change the makeup of the electricity system while reducing the extent of climate change itself. We use the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), a U.S. electric sector capacity expansion model, to explore electric sector evolution through 2050 under alternative climate and policy assumptions. The model endogenously represents climate impacts on load, power system performance, cooling water availability, and hydropower, allowing internally consistent system responses to climate change along with projected technology, market, and policy conditions. We compare climate impacts across 5 global circulation models for a 8.5 W/m2 representative concentration pathway (RCP) without a climate mitigation policy and a 4.5 W/m2 RCP with climate mitigation. Climate drivers affect the capacity and generation mix at the national and regional levels, with relative growth of wind, solar, and natural gas-based technologies depending on local electricity system characteristics. These differences affect regional economic impacts, measured here as changes to electricity price and system costs. Mitigation policy reduces the economic and system impacts of climate change largely by moderating

The Impact of the FOMC's Monetary Policy Actions on the growth of Credit Risk: the Monetary Policy - Liquidity Paradox

OpenAIRE

Kwamie Dunbar

2008-01-01

Credit risk is influenced by interest rates and market liquidity. This paper examines the direct and indirect impacts of unexpected monetary policy shifts on the growth of corporate credit risk, with the aim of quantifying the size and direction of the response. The results surprisingly indicate that monetary policy and liquidity impulses move counter to each other in their effects on credit risk ("The monetary policy-liquidity paradox"). The analysis indicates that while contractionary monet...

Uncertainty as Information: Narrowing the Science-policy Gap

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. A. Bradshaw

2000-07-01

Full Text Available Conflict and indecision are hallmarks of environmental policy formulation. Some argue that the requisite information and certainty fall short of scientific standards for decision making; others argue that science is not the issue and that indecisiveness reflects a lack of political willpower. One of the most difficult aspects of translating science into policy is scientific uncertainty. Whereas scientists are familiar with uncertainty and complexity, the public and policy makers often seek certainty and deterministic solutions. We assert that environmental policy is most effective if scientific uncertainty is incorporated into a rigorous decision-theoretic framework as knowledge, not ignorance. The policies that best utilize scientific findings are defined here as those that accommodate the full scope of scientifically based predictions.

The uneven impact of the European Employment Strategy on member states' employment policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Mikkel Mailand

2008-01-01

policies to varying degrees, but that the impact, generally speaking, has been limited. In the article, the author examines the impact of the strategy as a result of peer pressure and key actors' strategic use of the strategy and shows how these mechanisms work. Factors that can explain why greater impact......In the mid-1990s, EU member states decided to coordinate their national employment policies through a common European Employment Strategy (EES). Building on a systematic comparative study of four member states, the author argues that the strategy has influenced the member states' employment...

[NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 18:] Scientific and Technical Information (STI) policy and the competitive position of the US aerospace industry

Science.gov (United States)

Hernon, Peter; Pinelli, Thomas E.

1992-01-01

With its contribution to trade, its coupling with national security, and its symbolism of U.S. technological strength, the U.S. aerospace industry holds a unique position in the Nation's industrial structure. Federal science and technology policy and Federal scientific and technical information (STI) policy loom important as strategic contributions to the U.S. aerospace industry's leading competitive position. However, three fundamental policy problems exist. First, the United States lacks a coherent STI policy and a unified approach to the development of such a policy. Second, policymakers fail to understand the relationship of STI to science and technology policy. Third, STI is treated as a part of general information policy, without any recognition of its uniqueness. This paper provides an overview of the Federal information policy structure as it relates to STI and frames the policy issues that require resolution.

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 18: Scientific and Technical Information (STI) policy and the competitive position of the US aerospace industry

Science.gov (United States)

Hernon, Peter; Pinelli, Thomas E.

1992-01-01

With its contribution to trade, its coupling with national security, and its symbolism of U.S. technological strength, the U.S. aerospace industry holds a unique position in the Nation's industrial structure. Federal science and technology policy and Federal scientific and technical information (STI) policy loom important as strategic contributions to the U.S. aerospace industry's leading competitive position. However, three fundamental policy problems exist. First, the United States lacks a coherent STI policy and a unified approach to the development of such a policy. Second, policymakers fail to understand the relationship of STI to science and technology policy. Third, STI is treated as a part of general information policy, without any recognition of its uniqueness. This paper provides an overview of the Federal information policy structure as it relates to STI and frames the policy issues that require resolution.

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua.

1992-01-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua

1992-09-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions.

Global environmental security: Research and policy strategies for the 1990s

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazaro, M.A.; Wang, Hua.

1992-01-01

The subject of global environmental change is emerging as one of the most hotly debated international issues for the 1990s. In fact, our earth system has undergone a nature-induced gradual change in climate on both a temporal scale that spans over millions of years and a spatial scale ranging from regional to transcontinental. Pollutant emissions associated with population growth and industrial activities manifest the anthropogenic climatic forcing that has been superimposed on the background of natural climate fluctuations. Our incomplete understanding of the global impacts of environmental pollution on the earth systems (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere), however, make the prediction of the timing, magnitude, and patterns of future global change uncertain. This paper examines the science and policy background of global environmental change. The major scientific uncertainties and policy issues confronting decision makers are identified; and the scientific framework, as well as current national and international research programs aimed at resolving the scientific uncertainties, are discussed. A coherent, stable, and flexible policy is needed to provide a foundation for coordinated international-interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and international negotiation toward a policy consensus concerning global environmental security. On the basis of what is currently known about global change, recommendations are presented on both near-term and long-term policy option decisions.

Impacts of Changing Marijuana Policies on Alcohol Use in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Guttmannova, Katarina; Lee, Christine M.; Kilmer, Jason R.; Fleming, Charles B.; Rhew, Isaac C.; Kosterman, Rick; Larimer, Mary E.

2015-01-01

Background Marijuana policies are rapidly evolving. In the United States, recreational use of marijuana is now legal in four states and medical marijuana is legal in 23 states. Research evaluating such policies has focused primarily on how policies affect issues of price, access to, use, and consequences of marijuana. Due to potential spillover effects, researchers also need to examine how marijuana policies may impact use and consequences of alcohol. Methods The current paper is a critical review of articles evaluating alcohol outcomes associated with marijuana decriminalization, medical marijuana legalization, and non-medical or recreational marijuana legalization. We identified articles and reports through (1) online searches of EBSCO host database including Academic search premier, Econlit, Legal collection, Medline, Psych articles, and PsycINFO, as well as PubMed and Google Scholar databases; (2) review of additional articles cited in papers identified through electronic searches; and (3) targeted searches of state and local government records regarding marijuana law implementation. We reviewed studies with respect to their data sources and sample characteristics, methodology, and the margin of alcohol and marijuana use, timing of policy change, and the aspects of laws examined. Results The extant literature provides some evidence for both substitution (i.e., more liberal marijuana policies related to less alcohol use as marijuana becomes a substitute) and complementary (i.e., more liberal marijuana policies related to increases in both marijuana and alcohol use) relationships in the context of liberalization of marijuana policies in the United States. Conclusions Impact of more liberal marijuana policies on alcohol use is complex, and likely depends on specific aspects of policy implementation, including how long the policy has been in place. Further, evaluation of marijuana policy effects on alcohol use may be sensitive to the age group studied and the

Impact of stakeholders' interests on financial accounting policy-making : the case of Lithuania

OpenAIRE

Rudžionienė, Kristina

2006-01-01

This paper analyses the expectations of particular stakeholder groups’ impact on corporate financial accounting policy-making in Lithuanian enterprises from Stakeholder theory perspective. Companies should seek to present a true and fair view of their financial performance and results while making financial accounting policy because stakeholders need informative and truthful accounting data for making right decisions. On the basis of empirical results it could be stated that the impact of dif...

[Health-related scientific and technological capabilities and university-industry research collaboration].

Science.gov (United States)

Britto, Jorge; Vargas, Marco Antônio; Gadelha, Carlos Augusto Grabois; Costa, Laís Silveira

2012-12-01

To examine recent developments in health-related scientific capabilities, the impact of lines of incentives on reducing regional scientific imbalances, and university-industry research collaboration in Brazil. Data were obtained from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) databases for the years 2000 to 2010. There were assessed indicators of resource mobilization, research network structuring, and knowledge transfer between science and industry initiatives. Based on the regional distribution map of health-related scientific and technological capabilities there were identified patterns of scientific capabilities and science-industry collaboration. There was relative spatial deconcentration of health research groups and more than 6% of them worked in six areas of knowledge areas: medicine, collective health, dentistry, veterinary medicine, ecology and physical education. Lines of incentives that were adopted from 2000 to 2009 contributed to reducing regional scientific imbalances and improving preexisting capabilities or, alternatively, encouraging spatial decentralization of these capabilities. Health-related scientific and technological capabilities remain highly spatially concentrated in Brazil and incentive policies have contributed to reduce to some extent these imbalances.

Ebola policies that hinder epidemic response by limiting scientific discourse.

Science.gov (United States)

Asgary, Ramin; Pavlin, Julie A; Ripp, Jonathan A; Reithinger, Richard; Polyak, Christina S

2015-02-01

There is an unprecedented epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in west Africa. There has been a strong response from dedicated health professionals. However, there have also been irrational and fear-based responses that have contributed to misallocation of resources, stigma, and deincentivizing volunteers to combat Ebola at its source. Recently, the State of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals issued a ban on those coming from affected countries wishing to attend the annual meetings of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the American Public Health Association, both of which were held in New Orleans. We argue against such policies, question evidence and motivations, and discuss their practical and ethical implications in hampering effective responses to EVD by the scientific community. We aim to shed light on this issue and its implications for the future of public health interventions, reflect on the responsibility of health providers and professional societies as advocates for patients and the public health, and call for health professionals and societies to work to challenge inappropriate political responses to public health crises. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

The Impact of Trade Policy on Industry Concentration in Switzerland

OpenAIRE

Burghardt, Dirk

2013-01-01

This paper studies the impact of trade policy on industry concentration. Based on the Swiss Business Census, concentration levels for all four-digit manufacturing industries in Switzerland are calculated. Then the effect of a bilateral reduction in technical barriers to trade with the European Union is estimated. Adopting a difference-in-differences approach, it turns out that concentration in affected industries with low R&D intensity increased significantly following the policy change. This...

The Superconducting Supercollider and US Science Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Marburger, John H.

2014-06-01

Reasons for the Superconducting Supercollider's (SSC's) termination include significant changes in the attitude of the government towards large scientific projects originating with management reforms introduced decades earlier. In the 1980s, the government insisted on inclusion of elements of these reforms in the SSC's management contract, including increased demands for accountability, additional liability for contractors, and sanctions for infractions. The SSC's planners could not have opted out of the reforms, which were by then becoming part of all large publicly funded projects. Once these reforms were in place, management mistakes in the SSC's planning and construction became highly visible, leading to termination of the machine. This episode contains two key lessons about science policy. One is that the momentum of the government's management reforms was unstoppable, and its impact on large scientific facilities and projects could not be reversed. The other is that specific measures such as cost and schedule-tracking systems to provide measures of program performance and impact were also inevitable; large scientific projects needed new parameters of accountability and transparency in what can be called the Principle of Assurance.

Impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi Accident on Nuclear Development Policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vance, Robert; Henderson, David; ); Moore, Laurie

2017-01-01

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident has had an impact on the development of nuclear power around the world. While the accident was followed by thorough technical assessments of the safety of all operating nuclear power plants, and a general increase in safety requirements has been observed worldwide, national policy responses have been more varied. These responses have ranged from countries phasing out or accelerating decisions to phase out nuclear energy to countries reducing their reliance on nuclear power or on the contrary continuing to pursue or expand their nuclear power programs. This study examines changes to policies, and plans and attempts to distinguish the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi accident from other factors that have affected policy-making in relation to nuclear energy, in particular electricity market economics, financing challenges and competition from other sources (gas, coal and renewables). It also examines changes over time to long-term, quantitative country projections, which reveal interesting trends on the possible role of nuclear energy in future energy systems. (authors)

A knowledge brokerage approach for assessing the impacts of the setting up young farmers policy measure in Greece

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bournaris, Th.; Moulogianni, Ch.; Arampatzis, S.; Kiomourtzi, F.; Wascher, D.M.; Manos, B.

2016-01-01

This study explores Knowledge Brokerage (KB) aspects of an ex-post Impact Assessment (IA) for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) measure of setting up young farmers, under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), at the regional level in Northern Greece. The measure supports the entry of young farmers in agriculture by moving land from older to younger farmers. The aim of the study was to test a set of KB tools for improving the interaction between researchers and policy makers. Our analysis mainly focused on a suite of IA Support Modules to guide practitioners, and on a technical tool kit, a web-based contextualisation platform, to support the IA of the specific test case. Offering a structured approach towards IA, both the Support Modules and LIAISE-KIT allow framing the context, organisation, scheduling and method selection in the light of KB objectives. The evaluation of how IA Support Modules influence the Science Policy Interface (SPI), in the case of the ex-post assessment, demonstrated the high relevance of KB activities for facilitating the interaction between researchers and regional policy makers. The assessment bridges the gap between knowledge producers developing scientific output to be applied in a specific context, and knowledge users, who want clear messages regarding the policy challenges they face. Other conclusions include the need for specific guidelines and training for knowledge users, especially with regard to the use of tools. According to our findings, a consequent application of KB activities is a crucial pre-condition for successfully implementing IAs in future RDP measures.

A knowledge brokerage approach for assessing the impacts of the setting up young farmers policy measure in Greece

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bournaris, Th.; Moulogianni, Ch.; Arampatzis, S.; Kiomourtzi, F. [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece); Wascher, D.M. [Alterra Wageningen UR (Netherlands); Manos, B., E-mail: manosb@agro.auth.gr [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)

2016-02-15

This study explores Knowledge Brokerage (KB) aspects of an ex-post Impact Assessment (IA) for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) measure of setting up young farmers, under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), at the regional level in Northern Greece. The measure supports the entry of young farmers in agriculture by moving land from older to younger farmers. The aim of the study was to test a set of KB tools for improving the interaction between researchers and policy makers. Our analysis mainly focused on a suite of IA Support Modules to guide practitioners, and on a technical tool kit, a web-based contextualisation platform, to support the IA of the specific test case. Offering a structured approach towards IA, both the Support Modules and LIAISE-KIT allow framing the context, organisation, scheduling and method selection in the light of KB objectives. The evaluation of how IA Support Modules influence the Science Policy Interface (SPI), in the case of the ex-post assessment, demonstrated the high relevance of KB activities for facilitating the interaction between researchers and regional policy makers. The assessment bridges the gap between knowledge producers developing scientific output to be applied in a specific context, and knowledge users, who want clear messages regarding the policy challenges they face. Other conclusions include the need for specific guidelines and training for knowledge users, especially with regard to the use of tools. According to our findings, a consequent application of KB activities is a crucial pre-condition for successfully implementing IAs in future RDP measures.

Impact of monetary policy on the volatility of stock market in pakistan

OpenAIRE

Abdul Qayyum; Saba Anwa

2010-01-01

This paper addresses the linkages between the monetary policy and the stock market in Pakistan. The estimation technique employed includes Engle Granger two step procedure and the bivariate EGARCH method. The results indicate that any change in the monetary policy stance have a significant impact on the volatility of the stock market. Thus contributing to the ongoing debate in the monetary policy rule literature regarding the proactive and reactive approach.

Multidimensional journal evaluation analyzing scientific periodicals beyond the impact factor

CERN Document Server

Haustein, Stefanie

2012-01-01

Scientific communication depends primarily on publishing in journals. The most important indicator to determine the influence of a journal is the Impact Factor. Since this factor only measures the average number of citations per article in a certain time window, it can be argued that it does not reflect the actual value of a periodical. This book defines five dimensions, which build a framework for a multidimensional method of journal evaluation. The author is winner of the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Scholarship 2011.

The Impact of Privatization and Commercialization Policy on the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study examined the impact of privatization and commercialization policy on the attainment of millennium development goals in the Nigerian economy. To achieve this objective, an econometric analysis of ordinary least squares regression method was used. The results showed that the privatization and ...

Influencing policy through impact evaluation in Latin America and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

IDRC's Supporting Inclusive Growth (SIG) program supports the strengthening of research capacity, to generate and use evidence that contributes to informed public dialogue and policymaking. Impact Evaluation for Policy Making: A Close Look at Latin American Countries with Weaker Research Capacities, the fourth title ...

Impact of US biofuel policy on US corn and gasoline price variability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McPhail, Lihong Lu; Babcock, Bruce A.

2012-01-01

Despite a large number of studies that examine the influence of biofuels and biofuel policy on commodity prices, the impact of biofuel policy on commodity price variability is poorly understood. A good understanding of biofuel policy’s impact on price variability is important for mitigating food insecurity and assisting policy formation. We examine how U.S. ethanol policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates and the blend wall affect the price variability of corn and gasoline. We first present an analytical and graphical framework to identify the effect and then use stochastic partial equilibrium simulation to measure the magnitude of the impacts. We show that RFS mandates and the blend wall both reduce the price elasticity of demand for corn and gasoline and therefore increase the price variability when supply shocks occur to the markets. This has important implications for policy actions with respect to maintaining or changing the current RFS mandates and/or blend wall in the US. -- Highlights: ► The RFS is found to lead to less elastic demand for corn and gasoline. ► Thus the RFS is also found to lead to more volatile corn and gasoline prices when supply shocks occur. ► The ethanol blend wall is found to lead to less elastic corn and gasoline demand. ► Thus the blend wall is also found to lead to more volatile corn and gasoline prices.

Impacts of a United States' biofuel policy on New Zealand's agricultural sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saunders, Caroline; Kaye-Blake, William; Marshall, Liz; Greenhalgh, Suzie; De Aragao Pereira, Mariana

2009-01-01

The rise in oil prices has spurred interest in biofuels. Policies in the United States like the renewable fuel standard (RFS) have led to an expansion of ethanol production, while the New Zealand government has mandated a minimum level of biofuel sales. The research used a partial equilibrium model of international trade to quantify the price and farmgate income effects of the US RFS policy. The goal was to examine the competition between food and biofuel production and to quantify the impact of the policy on the agricultural sector in New Zealand. The RFS policy has a significant impact on corn prices, but a small effect on livestock prices and production. There thus appears to be little conflict between food and fuel uses for corn at the level of the RFS mandate. New Zealand's pasture-based livestock sector benefits from the use of corn for ethanol production: it receives better prices for its products, but does not face the same input cost increases as competitors. The results suggest that New Zealand faces an interesting decision: it could support investment in biofuels research, or benefit from the biofuels boom through the indirect impacts on demand and prices for meat and milk. (author)

PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC ECONOMIC POLICIES OF MOLDOVA ASSOCIATION TO THE EU: METHODOLOGY, PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gheorghe RUSU

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Economic policies and decisions on EU association starting with the begginig of 90’s were pseudo-scientific, contradictory, incoherent because those policies have not based themselves on modern and current economic theories elaborated and promoted by the EU. Actuality. The topic is actual from the perspective of the factors’ analysis which were conducting to delay the association process of Moldova to the EU. At the same time, those were increasing instability, disequilibrium in the national economy and raise of social vulnerability and constraint levels which ultimately increased the gap between the national and EU economic development levels. During the period of 2000-2015, the socio-economic policy of the Republic of Moldova is described more as small and fragmented steps on conceiving economic and financial instruments for the integration into the EU which were reflected in the Neighbourhood Partnership and Association Agreement with the EU. These processes conducted for the state incapacity to define its own objectives and social-economic priorities for the association as well as legitimated a continuous stage of transition to the market economy. The scope of the present article is to propose a real change of the development and social-economic association policies for achieving final objective on integration to EU. The proposals would consist in emphasizing and implementation of the EU economic principles reflected in the neoclassic synthesis and neo-conservative theories; the elaboration and implementation of a new Strategy on economic supervision, coordination and anticipation of the economic disequilibrium; achieve economic stability for diminishing the negative effects of the global and regional crisis on national economy and adaptation of the development policies to the national socio-economic conditions. The methods used for the elaboration and achieving the expected results of the study were analysis and synthesis of the

Detection and attribution of observed impacts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cramer, W.; Yohe, G.W.; Auffhammer, M.; Huggel, C.; Molau, U.; Dias, M.A.F.S.; Leemans, R.

2014-01-01

This chapter synthesizes the scientific literature on the detection and attribution of observed changes in natural and human systems in response to observed recent climate change. For policy makers and the public, detection and attribution of observed impacts will be a key element to determine the

Improving energy decisions towards better scientific policy advice for a safe and secure future energy system

CERN Document Server

Droste-Franke, Bert; Kaiser, M; Schreurs, Miranda; Weber, Christoph; Ziesemer, Thomas

2015-01-01

Managing a successful transition of the current energy supply system to less carbon emitting options, ensuring a safe and secure supply during the whole process and in the long term, is one of the largest challenges of our time. Various approaches and first implementations show that it is not only technological issue, but also a matter of societal acceptance and acceptability, considering basic ethic values of the society. The main foci of the book are, thus, to develop an understanding about the specific challenges of the scientific policy advice in the area, to explore typical current approaches for the analysis of future energy systems and to develop criteria for the quality assessment and guidelines for the improvement of such studies. The book provides assistance to the interpretation of existing studies and guidelines for setting up and carrying out new analyses as well as for communicating and applying the results. Thereby, it aims to support the involved actors such as the respective scientific expert...

Impact of school peanut-free policies on epinephrine administration.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartnikas, Lisa M; Huffaker, Michelle F; Sheehan, William J; Kanchongkittiphon, Watcharoot; Petty, Carter R; Leibowitz, Robert; Hauptman, Marissa; Young, Michael C; Phipatanakul, Wanda

2017-08-01

Children with food allergies spend a large proportion of time in school but characteristics of allergic reactions in schools are not well studied. Some schools self-designate as peanut-free or have peanut-free areas, but the impact of policies on clinical outcomes has not been evaluated. We sought to determine the effect of peanut-free policies on rates of epinephrine administration for allergic reactions in Massachusetts public schools. In this retrospective study, we analyzed (1) rates of epinephrine administration in all Massachusetts public schools and (2) Massachusetts public school nurse survey reports of school peanut-free policies from 2006 to 2011 and whether schools self-designated as "peanut-free" based on policies. Rates of epinephrine administration were compared for schools with or without peanut-restrictive policies. The percentage of schools with peanut-restrictive policies did not change significantly in the study time frame. There was variability in policies used by schools self-designated as peanut-free. No policy was associated with complete absence of allergic reactions. Both self-designated peanut-free schools and schools banning peanuts from being served in school or brought from home reported allergic reactions to nuts. Policies restricting peanuts from home, served in schools, or having peanut-free classrooms did not affect epinephrine administration rates. Schools with peanut-free tables, compared to without, had lower rates of epinephrine administration (incidence rate per 10,000 students 0.2 and 0.6, respectively, P = .009). These data provide a basis for evidence-based school policies for children with food allergies. Further studies are required before decisions can be made regarding peanut-free policies in schools. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact Of Monetary Policy On Financial Asset Returns: An Analysis ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Impact Of Monetary Policy On Financial Asset Returns: An Analysis Of Selected Stocks From The Nigerian Capital Market. ... Journal of Research in National Development. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current ...

The Impact of Assessment Policy on Learning: Replacement Exams or Grade Dropping

Science.gov (United States)

MacDermott, Raymond J.

2013-01-01

Instructors often debate the merits of alternate grading policies such as dropping the lowest exam or offering an additional exam to replace the lowest score. To date, there has been little research conducted on the impact of these policies on performance. In this study, the author investigates student performance in intermediate macroeconomics…

Mobility and International Collaboration: Case of the Mexican Scientific Diaspora.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Marmolejo-Leyva

Full Text Available We use a data set of Mexican researchers working abroad that are included in the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNI. Our diaspora sample includes 479 researchers, most of them holding postdoctoral positions in mainly seven countries: USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Canada and Brazil. Their research output and impact is explored in order to determine their patterns of production, mobility and scientific collaboration as compared with previous studies of the SNI researchers in the periods 1991-2001 and 2003-2009. Our findings confirm that mobility has a strong impact on their international scientific collaboration. We found no substantial influence among the researchers that got their PhD degrees abroad from those trained in Mexican universities. There are significant differences among the areas of knowledge studied: biological sciences, physics and engineering have better production and impact rates than mathematics, geosciences, medicine, agrosciences, chemistry, social sciences and humanities. We found a slight gender difference in research production but Mexican female scientists are underrepresented in our diaspora sample. These findings would have policy implications for the recently established program that will open new academic positions for young Mexican scientists.

Mobility and International Collaboration: Case of the Mexican Scientific Diaspora.

Science.gov (United States)

Marmolejo-Leyva, Rafael; Perez-Angon, Miguel Angel; Russell, Jane M

2015-01-01

We use a data set of Mexican researchers working abroad that are included in the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNI). Our diaspora sample includes 479 researchers, most of them holding postdoctoral positions in mainly seven countries: USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Canada and Brazil. Their research output and impact is explored in order to determine their patterns of production, mobility and scientific collaboration as compared with previous studies of the SNI researchers in the periods 1991-2001 and 2003-2009. Our findings confirm that mobility has a strong impact on their international scientific collaboration. We found no substantial influence among the researchers that got their PhD degrees abroad from those trained in Mexican universities. There are significant differences among the areas of knowledge studied: biological sciences, physics and engineering have better production and impact rates than mathematics, geosciences, medicine, agrosciences, chemistry, social sciences and humanities. We found a slight gender difference in research production but Mexican female scientists are underrepresented in our diaspora sample. These findings would have policy implications for the recently established program that will open new academic positions for young Mexican scientists.

Equity impact of population-level interventions and policies to reduce smoking in adults: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Tamara; Platt, Stephen; Amos, Amanda

2014-05-01

There is strong evidence about which tobacco control policies reduce smoking. However, their equity impact is uncertain. The aim was to assess the effectiveness of population-level interventions/policies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in adult smoking. Systematic review of studies of population-level interventions/policies reporting smoking-related outcomes in adults of lower compared to higher socioeconomic status (SES). References were screened and independently checked. Studies were quality assessed. Results are presented in a narrative synthesis. Equity impact was assessed as: positive (reduced inequality), neutral (no difference by SES), negative (increased inequality), mixed (equity impact varied) or unclear. 117 studies of 130 interventions/policies were included: smokefree (44); price/tax (27); mass media campaigns (30); advertising controls (9); cessation support (9); settings-based interventions (7); multiple policies (4). The distribution of equity effects was: 33 positive, 36 neutral, 38 negative, 6 mixed, 17 unclear. Most neutral equity studies benefited all SES groups. Fourteen price/tax studies were equity positive. Voluntary, regional and partial smokefree policies were more likely to be equity negative than national, comprehensive smokefree policies. Mass media campaigns had inconsistent equity effects. Cigarette marketing controls were equity positive or neutral. Targeted national smoking cessation services can be equity positive by achieving higher reach among low SES, compensating for lower quit rates. Few studies have assessed the equity impact of tobacco control policy/interventions. Price/tax increases had the most consistent positive equity impact. More research is needed to strengthen the evidence-base for reducing smoking inequalities and to develop effective equity-orientated tobacco control strategies. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Addressing Unconscious Bias: Steps toward an Inclusive Scientific Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Abigail

2011-01-01

In this talk I will outline the nature of unconscious bias, as it operates to exclude or marginalize some participants in the scientific community. I will show how bias results from non-conscious expectations about certain groups of people, including scientists and astronomers. I will outline scientific research in psychology, sociology and economics that has identified the impact these expectations have on interpersonal judgments that are at the heart of assessment of individuals' qualifications. This research helps us understand not only how bias operates within a single instance of evaluation, but how evaluation bias can accumulate over a career if not checked, creating an appearance of confirmation of biased expectations. Some research has focused on how best to interrupt and mitigate unconscious bias, and many institutions--including the University of Michigan--have identified strategic interventions at key points of institutional decision-making (particularly hiring, annual review, and promotion) that can make a difference. The NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program encouraged institutions to draw on the social science literature to create experimental approaches to addressing unconscious bias. I will outline four approaches to intervention that have arisen through the ADVANCE program: (1) systematic education that increases awareness among decisionmakers of how evaluation bias operates; (2) development of practices that mitigate the operation of bias even when it is out of conscious awareness; (3) creation of institutional policies that routinize and sanction these practices; and (4) holding leaders accountable for these implementation of these new practices and policies. Although I will focus on ways to address unconscious bias within scientific institutions (colleges and universities, laboratories and research centers, etc.), I will close by considering how scientific organizations can address unconscious bias and contribute to creating an

Impact Analysis of Air Pollutant Emission Policies on Thermal Coal Supply Chain Enterprises in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaopeng Guo

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Spurred by the increasingly serious air pollution problem, the Chinese government has launched a series of policies to put forward specific measures of power structure adjustment and the control objectives of air pollution and coal consumption. Other policies pointed out that the coal resources regional blockades will be broken by improving transportation networks and constructing new logistics nodes. Thermal power takes the largest part of China’s total installed power generation capacity, so these policies will undoubtedly impact thermal coal supply chain member enterprises. Based on the actual situation in China, this paper figures out how the member enterprises adjust their business decisions to satisfy the requirements of air pollution prevention and control policies by establishing system dynamic models of policy impact transfer. These dynamic analyses can help coal enterprises and thermal power enterprises do strategic environmental assessments and find directions of sustainable development. Furthermore, the policy simulated results of this paper provide the Chinese government with suggestions for policy-making to make sure that the energy conservation and emission reduction policies and sustainable energy policies can work more efficiently.

The impact of tobacco control policies in Albania.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaloshnja, Eduard; Ross, Hana; Levy, David T

2010-12-01

To assess the impact of a tobacco control law adopted in Albania in 2007 and to estimate the share of illicit cigarettes on the market. Comparative analysis of two waves of a nationally representative household survey, one conducted before the new law went into effect and the other after 2 years. Official sales data were contrasted with the consumption estimate based on the survey. Smoking prevalence, quit attempts, exposure to cigarette advertising, exposure to second-hand smoke, total cigarette consumption, share of illicit packs among packs possessed by smokers. Despite the adoption of strong smoke-free policies and adverting restrictions, smoking prevalence in Albania has risen. The increase in prevalence has been driven by higher smoking rates among females (18.9% in 2007 vs 29.3% in 2009) and young adults (23.2% in 2007 vs 38.5% in 2009 among 18-19 year olds). Self-reported exposure to second-hand smoke and cigarette advertising have been reduced since 2007. The majority of respondents are still exposed to second-hand smoke and more than half are exposed to tobacco advertising. Nevertheless, there are signs that the consumption of illicit cigarettes is declining. The impacts of smoke-free policies and an advertising ban have been limited due to lack of enforcement and failure to adopt a comprehensive set of tobacco control measures. These measures should include sizeable and regular tobacco tax increases in excess of the general level of inflation and income growth. The decline in the share of illicit cigarettes should improve the effectiveness of the cigarette tax policy.

Education Policy in Poland: The Impact of PISA (and Other International Studies)

Science.gov (United States)

Bialecki, Ireneusz; Jakubowski, Maciej; Wisniewski, Jerzy

2017-01-01

The impact of the PISA study on Polish education policy has been significant, but probably different from any other country. Poland has not experienced the so-called "PISA shock," but its education system has been benefiting considerably from PISA. For experts and policy makers, it has been a useful and reliable instrument that has made…

Building a model based on scientific consensus for Life Cycle Impact Assessment of chemicals:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Huijbregts, Mark; Jolliet, Olivier

2008-01-01

Achieving consensus among scientists is often a challenge - particularly in model development. In this article we describe a recent scientific consensus-building process for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) models applied to chemical emissions - including the strategy, execution, and results...

Influencing policy through impact evaluation in Latin America and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

And there are growing concerns about the ethics of implementing some types of IE. This paper explores recent IE practice in Latin America and reviews more than 300 impact evaluations in 21 countries. It examines the policy issues covered and methodologies used; the research actors and implementing agencies involved; ...

Unbalanced international collaboration affects adversely the usefulness of countries' scientific output as well as their technological and social impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Zanotto, Sonia R; Haeffner, Cristina; Guimarães, Jorge A

The unbalanced international scientific collaboration as cause of misleading information on the country's contribution to the scientific world output was analyzed. ESI Data Base (Thomson Reuters' InCites), covering the scientific production of 217 active countries in the period 2010-2014 was used. International collaboration implicates in a high percentage (33.1 %) of double-counted world articles, thus impacting qualitative data as citations, impact and impact relative to word. The countries were divided into three groups, according to their individual contribution to the world publications: Group I (24 countries, at least 1 %) representing 83.9 % of the total double-counted world articles. Group II (40 countries, 0.1-0.99 % each). Group III, 153 countries (70.5 %) with international collaboration were: Group I, 43.0 %; Group II, 55.8 % and Group III, 85.2 %. We concluded that very high and unbalanced international collaboration, as presented by many countries, misrepresent the importance of their scientific production, technological and social outputs. Furthermore, it jeopardizes qualitative outputs of the countries themselves, artificially increasing their scientific impact, affecting all fields and therefore, the whole world. The data confirm that when dealing with the qualitative contribution of countries, it is necessary to take in consideration the level of international cooperation because, as seen here, it can and in fact it does create false impression of the real contribution of countries.

Community Health Workers Promote Civic Engagement and Organizational Capacity to Impact Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabo, Samantha; Flores, Melissa; Wennerstrom, Ashley; Bell, Melanie L; Verdugo, Lorena; Carvajal, Scott; Ingram, Maia

2017-12-01

Community health workers (CHW) have historically served to link structurally vulnerable populations to broad support systems. Emerging evidence suggests that CHWs engage in various forms of advocacy to promote policy and systems change. We assessed the impact of CHW community advocacy on community change, defined as civic engagement, organizational capacity and policy and systems change. Data are drawn from the 2014 National Community Health Worker Advocacy Survey (N = 1776) aimed to identify the state of the CHW profession, and their impact on health disparities through community advocacy and policy engagement. Our primary analysis used multiple linear regression to assess the association between CHW advocacy and community change. As predicted, there was a significant, positive association between CHW advocacy and change in community conditions. Additionally, both adjusted and sensitivity models had similar standardized beta estimates for advocacy, and adjusted R 2 statistics. CHW advocacy predicts positive change in community conditions and further advances the CHW Community Advocacy Framework designed to support and monitor CHW community advocacy to reduce health disparities through advocacy and policy change.

From GRID to gridlock: the relationship between scientific biomedical breakthroughs and HIV/AIDS policy in the US Congress

OpenAIRE

Platt, Matthew B; Platt, Manu O

2013-01-01

Introduction: From the travel ban on people living with HIV (PLHIV) to resistance to needle exchange programmes, there are many examples where policy responses to HIV/AIDS in the United States seem divorced from behavioural, public health and sociological evidence. At its root, however, the unknowns about HIV/AIDS lie at biomedical science, and scientific researchers have made tremendous progress over the past 30 years of the epidemic by using antiretroviral therapy to increase the life expec...

EU climate policy impact in 2020. With a focus on the effectiveness of emissions trading policy in an economic recession scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graus, W.; Sreenivasamurthy, U.; Wesselink, B.

2009-06-01

PBL's Environmental Balance 2009 provides information on the current status and trends of environmental and climate policies. Ecofys contributes to the climate policy section of the report by developing the following three indicators: (1) ex-post and ex-ante policy impacts until 2020 at EU level (wedge diagram); (2) business-as-usual emissions of EU ETS sectors until 2020, revised for the current economic recession; (3) a latest literature review of EUA (EU emission allowances) price band expected until 2020. Based on the latter two analyses, a brief note on the impact of the current economic recession on the effectiveness of the EU emission trading scheme until 2020 is presented.An economic recession of two years or longer will considerably decrease the effectiveness of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in stimulating low-carbon technologies. In order to meet EU climate targets in the longer term, new governmental policies will be needed to compensate for this.

Impact of the joint-stock reform of commercial banks on the effectiveness of monetary policy in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fang Xianming

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Over the past decade, the Chinese government has conducted the joint-stock reform of state-owned commercial banks. The joint-stock reform improves the marketization level of the ownership structure of commercial banks and consequently leads to impacts on the effectiveness of monetary policy. This paper first presents the impacting mechanisms of the joint-stock reform of commercial banks on the effectiveness of monetary policy and then constructs an empirical model to test those impacts. The empirical results show that the increasing degree of joint-stock reform of commercial banks enhances the effectiveness of expansionary monetary policy but weakens the effectiveness of contractionary monetary policy in China.

Virtue and Responsibility in Policy Research and Advice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tholen, J.H.M.M.

2017-01-01

This book argues that ethical judgment by individual scientific policy advisors is more important than is often acknowledged. While many scientific policy advisors routinely present themselves as neutral or value free scientists, here is demonstrated that the ideal of scientific integrity as

Neophilia Ranking of Scientific Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Packalen, Mikko; Bhattacharya, Jay

2017-01-01

The ranking of scientific journals is important because of the signal it sends to scientists about what is considered most vital for scientific progress. Existing ranking systems focus on measuring the influence of a scientific paper (citations)-these rankings do not reward journals for publishing innovative work that builds on new ideas. We propose an alternative ranking based on the proclivity of journals to publish papers that build on new ideas, and we implement this ranking via a text-based analysis of all published biomedical papers dating back to 1946. In addition, we compare our neophilia ranking to citation-based (impact factor) rankings; this comparison shows that the two ranking approaches are distinct. Prior theoretical work suggests an active role for our neophilia index in science policy. Absent an explicit incentive to pursue novel science, scientists underinvest in innovative work because of a coordination problem: for work on a new idea to flourish, many scientists must decide to adopt it in their work. Rankings that are based purely on influence thus do not provide sufficient incentives for publishing innovative work. By contrast, adoption of the neophilia index as part of journal-ranking procedures by funding agencies and university administrators would provide an explicit incentive for journals to publish innovative work and thus help solve the coordination problem by increasing scientists' incentives to pursue innovative work.

The impact of foresight on environmental science and technology policy in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Meulen, Barend

1999-01-01

Globalisation, high tech development and environmental issues have made policy makers aware again of the possibilities of future studies for policy making. However, the lack of systematic knowledge about their impact is a major obstruction to a proper use of future studies. Especially since future

Economic impact analysis for global warming: Sensitivity analysis for cost and benefit estimates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ierland, E.C. van; Derksen, L.

1994-01-01

Proper policies for the prevention or mitigation of the effects of global warming require profound analysis of the costs and benefits of alternative policy strategies. Given the uncertainty about the scientific aspects of the process of global warming, in this paper a sensitivity analysis for the impact of various estimates of costs and benefits of greenhouse gas reduction strategies is carried out to analyze the potential social and economic impacts of climate change

Scientific Productivity of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farahnaz Vatankhah

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Nowadays the scientific research outputs indexed in international databases are used in the bibliometric rankings of researchers, departments and universities. Measuring the impact and value of scientific publications is used by policy makers to distribute the research funds in way that support high quality research projects. Materials and Methods: In this scientometric study, SCOPUS citation database was used to evaluate the scientific research productivity of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS over the period of 1976-2011. We retrieved the number of publications and citations of researchers, academic groups, and university and calculated their h-index scores. The affiliation varieties were used by researchers to address the university and different spellings of authors names were determind.Results: The results showed that scientific productivity of ZAUMS has been improved so that it’s h-index increased from 1 in 2000 to 19 over the period of the study.Conclusion: Total number of 504 publications were indexed in SCOPUS in the forms of original article, review article, conference paper, letter, editorial, and note. Most of the publications were in the form of research article (91.2%. There was a significant coorelation between the number of publications, citation rates and h-index scores. Departments of biochemistry and infectious disease ranked first on the basis of producing the most scientific output of the university.

General outline of scientific programme for 1971

CERN Multimedia

1971-01-01

A description of the 1971 scientific and technical programme at CERN was prepared for the Scientific Policy Committee and was used to accompany the budget document. The opening chapter is reproduced here with a few minor modifications.

Health impact assessment as an agent of policy change: improving the health impacts of the mayor of London's draft transport strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mindell, J; Sheridan, L; Joffe, M; Samson-Barry, H; Atkinson, S

2004-03-01

To increase the positive and mitigate the negative health impacts of the mayor's draft transport strategy for London. A rapid prospective health impact assessment (HIA) of the penultimate draft of the strategy, using a review commissioned by the regional director of public health; an appraisal of congestion charging; and a participatory workshop. Two audits of changes were performed to assess the impact on policy of the HIA process. Regional government policy development. Recommendations from the rapid HIA were fed back into the drafting process. Changes (a) between the penultimate draft and the draft for public consultation and (b) between that and the final mayoral strategy. The draft transport strategy published for consultation differed in a number of respects from the previous version. Almost all the recommendations from the HIA were incorporated into the final strategy. Significant changes included promoting sustainable travel plans for workplaces and schools; giving priority to infrastructure and services that benefit London's deprived communities; increased emphasis on promoting walking and cycling and reducing reliance on private cars; and a commitment to track the health impacts of the final strategy and its implementation. Specific additions included re-allocating road space. HIA was successful in influencing the transport strategy for London, resulting in several improvements from a health viewpoint. HIA is an effective method both for bringing about significant change in policy proposals and in increasing policy makers' understanding of determinants of health and hence in changing attitudes of policy makers.

Residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and attitudes towards tourism policies.

OpenAIRE

Brida, J.G.; Disegna, Marta; Osti, L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and how they affect attitudes towards local tourism policies. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of community attachment and employment sector of residents. This study presents the results of a quantitative survey among residing families of a small mountain community located in the North-East of Italy. The findings reveal that residents perceptions on economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts ...

Doing Peer Review and Receiving Feedback: Impact on Scientific Literacy and Writing Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Geithner, Christina A.; Pollastro, Alexandria N.

2016-01-01

Doing peer review has been effectively implemented to help students develop critical reading and writing skills; however, its application in Human Physiology programs is limited. The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of peer review on Human Physiology majors' perceptions of their scientific literacy and writing skills.…

Beyond the lab: observations on the process by which science successfully informs management and policy decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Flores, S.

2012-12-01

Scientific findings inform management decisions and policy products through various ways, these include: synthesis reports, white papers, in-person and web-based seminars (webinars), communication from specialized staff, and seminal peer-reviewed journal articles. Scientists are often told that if they want their science to inform management decisions and policy products that they must: clearly and simply articulate discreet pieces of scientific information and avoid attaching advocacy messages to the science; however, solely relying on these tenants does not ensure that scientific products will infuse the realms of management and policy. The process by which science successfully informs management decisions and policy products rarely begins at the time the results come out of the lab, but rather, before the research is carried out. Having an understanding of the political climate, management needs, agency research agendas, and funding limitations, as well as developing a working relationship with the intended managers and policy makers are key elements to developing the kind of science results and products that often make an impact in the management and policy world. In my presentation I will provide case-studies from California (USA) to highlight the type of coastal, ocean and climate science that has been successful in informing management decisions and policy documents, as well as provide a state-level agency perspective on the process by which this occurs.

Policy Impact on the Chinese Stock Market: From the 1994 Bailout Policies to the 2015 Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang-Chao Wang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available From the 1994 bailout policies to the 2015 Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the policy impact on the Chinese stock market has changed over time. By May 2015, global investors can directly invest in a more legalized and normalized Chinese stock market, whereas they are still concerned about the policy-oriented market and its attendant risks. In this study, we employ the family of GARCH models to investigate the structural changes in risks with the implementation of a series of policies. Our results show that although many policies improve or stabilize the stock market, certain policies lead to substantial volatility. Among them, macro-control policies and transaction cost adjustments are a double-edged sword, which should be used with caution. Furthermore, with opening-up policies being launched recently, the Chinese stock market has entered a new stage in which it affects international capital markets. However, the increased risks, which may result in a sharp turnaround, cause worry.

Integrating Indigenous Traditional, Local and Scientific Knowledge for Improved Management, Policy and Decision-Making in Reindeer Husbandry in the Russian Arctic

Science.gov (United States)

Maynard, Nancy G.; Yurchak, Boris; Turi, Johan Mathis; Mathiesen, Svein D.; Aissi-Wespi, Rita L.

2004-01-01

As scientists and policy-makers from both indigenous and non-indigenous communities begin to build closer partnerships to address common sustainability issues such as the health impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities, it becomes increasingly important to create shared information management systems which integrate all relevant factors for optimal information sharing and decision-making. This paper describes a new GIs-based system being designed to bring local and indigenous traditional knowledge together with scientific data and information, remote sensing, and information technologies to address health-related environment, weather, climate, pollution and land use change issues for improved decision/policy-making for reindeer husbandry. The system is building an easily-accessible archive of relevant current and historical, traditional, local and remotely-sensed and other data and observations for shared analysis, measuring, and monitoring parameters of interest. Protection of indigenous culturally sensitive information will be respected through appropriate data protocols. A mechanism which enables easy information sharing among all participants, which is real time and geo-referenced and which allows interconnectivity with remote sites is also being designed into the system for maximum communication among partners. A preliminary version of our system will be described for a Russian reindeer test site, which will include a combination of indigenous knowledge about local conditions and issues, remote sensing and ground-based data on such parameters as the vegetation state and distribution, snow cover, temperature, ice condition, and infrastructure.

The Near-Term Impacts of Carbon Mitigation Policies on Manufacturing Industries

OpenAIRE

Morgenstern, Richard; Shih, Jhih-Shyang; Ho, Mun; Zhang, Xuehua

2002-01-01

Who will pay for new policies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the United States? This paper considers a slice of the question by examining the near-term impact on domestic manufacturing industries of both upstream (economy-wide) and downstream (electric power industry only) carbon mitigation policies. Detailed Census data on the electricity use of four-digit manufacturing industries is combined with input-output information on interindustry purchases to paint a ...

In science "there is no bad publicity": papers criticized in comments have high scientific impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Radicchi, Filippo

2012-01-01

Comments are special types of publications whose aim is to correct or criticize previously published papers. For this reason, comments are believed to make commented papers less worthy or trusty to the eyes of the scientific community, and thus predestined to have low scientific impact. Here, we show that such belief is not supported by empirical evidence. We consider thirteen major publication outlets in science, and perform systematic comparisons between the citations accumulated by commented and non commented articles. We find that (i) commented papers are, on average, much more cited than non commented papers, and (ii) commented papers are more likely to be among the most cited papers of a journal. Since comments are published soon after criticized papers, comments should be viewed as early indicators of the future impact of criticized papers.

The impact of fiscal policy on government bond spreads in emerging markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ante Žigman

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Spreads on government bonds are a collective expression of differences in the level of development, risk, expected returns and other essential characteristics of states or regions the bond yields of which we wish to compare. At issue here is a collective expression of factors that work on the bond supply and demand side. These are for example the political environment (or political risks, expected return, economic risks, expected inflation, expected change in the exchange rate, solvency, way in which the bonds of a given state fi t into the portfolios of the major investors and so on. The paper identifies the influence of fiscal and non-fiscal factors on movements in spreads on government bonds in emerging markets. The possibility of isolating fiscal from non-fiscal influences on spreads and the identification of the nature of fiscal impacts can be of great importance for the conduct of fiscal policy. The results obtained can be used for an optimisation of fiscal policy so as to avoid negative impacts on yields (i.e. a growth in yields, that is, a growth in the costs of government borrowing. This paper enlarges the line of research by querying whether the structure of deficit financing (domestic or foreign has an impact on bond yields in emerging markets, and how this impact is reflected on the other determinants of fiscal policy.

The impact of the member states on EU environmental policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Skou

1996-01-01

This paper explores the impact of the fourth enlargement (with Sweden, Austria and Finland) on the European Union's environmental policy. This is done by comparing the priorities and strategies of the newcomers with those of the former environmental pioneers (Germany, Netherlands and Denmark)....

A methodology for evaluating environmental impacts of railway freight transportation policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lopez, Ignacio; Rodriguez, Javier; Buron, Jose Manuel; Garcia, Alberto

2009-01-01

Railway freight transportation presents a degree of complexity which frequently makes impossible to model it with sufficient precision. Currently, energetic and environmental impacts of freight transportation are usually modelled following average data, which do not reflect the characteristics of specific lines. These models allow qualitative approximations which may be used as criteria for designing high-level transportation policies: road-train modal shift, regional energetic planning or environmental policies. This paper proposes a methodology for estimating railway consumption associated to a specific railway line which yields a new degree of precision. It is based on estimating different contributions to railway consumption by a collection of factors, mobility, operation, or infrastructure-related. This procedure also allows applying the methodology for designing transportation policies in detail: evaluating impact of modal shift, consumption and pollutant emissions on a specific line, as well as the effect of building tunnels, reducing slopes, improving traffic control, etc. A comparison of the estimations given by the conventional approach and the proposed methodology is offered, as well as further comments on the results.

The National Environmental Policy Act and DOE's programmatic environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wisenbaker, W.E.

1991-01-01

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 requires that all agencies of the federal government prepare a detailed statement on any action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. Such a statement must include the environmental impact of the proposed action, any adverse environmental effects that cannot be avoided should the proposed action be implemented, and alternatives to the proposed action. In requiring environmental statements, NEPA encourages viewing related actions collectively and looking at cumulative impacts. A programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) is a broad environmental analysis of a program or policy prepared when actions are connected and may have cumulative environmental impacts. The PEIS benefits include providing input into an agency's planning and decision making, assessing potential environmental consequences of a wide range of alternatives before options have been foreclosed, and allowing consideration of systemwide impacts of various alternatives early in the decision-making process. The US Department of Energy (DOE) will prepare its PEIS on Environmental Restoration and Waste Management program. The PEIS will consider programmatic issues and integrated approaches to the program; address national, program-wide alternatives rather than site-specific actions; and provide for subsequent NEPA documents of narrower scope to be prepared to address site-specific or project-specific actions

Climate policy impacts on the competitiveness of energy-intensive manufacturing sectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bassi, Andrea M. [Millennium Institute, 2111 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201 (United States); University of Bergen, Postboks 7800, 5020 Bergen (Norway); Yudken, Joel S. [High Road Strategies, LLC, 104 N. Columbus Street, Arlington, VA 22203 (United States); Ruth, Matthias [University of Maryland, 3139 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

2009-08-15

This study examines the impacts of energy price changes resulting from different carbon-pricing policies on the competitiveness of selected US energy-intensive industries. It further examines possible industry responses, and identifies and provides a preliminary evaluation of potential opportunities to mitigate these impacts. The industry sectors investigated - steel, aluminum, chemicals and paper - are among the largest industrial users of fossil fuels in the US economy. The results of this examination show that climate policies that put a price on carbon could have substantial impacts on the competitiveness of US energy-intensive manufacturing sectors over the next two decades, if climate regulations are applied only in the United States, and no action is taken to invest in advanced low- and no-carbon technologies. The extent of these impacts will vary across industries, depending on their energy intensities, the mix of energy sources they rely on and how energy is used in production activities (heat and power, feedstock). Of relevance is also the speed and rigor with which industries adopt new technologies and retire (or replace) old ones. Other factors affecting these impacts include an industry's vulnerability to foreign imports and its ability to pass through cost increases to its customers in the face of international market competition. (author)

Climate policy impacts on the competitiveness of energy-intensive manufacturing sectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bassi, Andrea M.; Yudken, Joel S.; Ruth, Matthias

2009-01-01

This study examines the impacts of energy price changes resulting from different carbon-pricing policies on the competitiveness of selected US energy-intensive industries. It further examines possible industry responses, and identifies and provides a preliminary evaluation of potential opportunities to mitigate these impacts. The industry sectors investigated - steel, aluminum, chemicals and paper - are among the largest industrial users of fossil fuels in the US economy. The results of this examination show that climate policies that put a price on carbon could have substantial impacts on the competitiveness of US energy-intensive manufacturing sectors over the next two decades, if climate regulations are applied only in the United States, and no action is taken to invest in advanced low- and no-carbon technologies. The extent of these impacts will vary across industries, depending on their energy intensities, the mix of energy sources they rely on and how energy is used in production activities (heat and power, feedstock). Of relevance is also the speed and rigor with which industries adopt new technologies and retire (or replace) old ones. Other factors affecting these impacts include an industry's vulnerability to foreign imports and its ability to pass through cost increases to its customers in the face of international market competition.

Evaluation of Health Equity Impact of Structural Policies: Overview of Research Methods Used in the SOPHIE Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunst, Anton E

2017-07-01

This article briefly assesses the research methods that were applied in the SOPHIE project to evaluate the impact of structural policies on population health and health inequalities. The evaluation of structural policies is one of the key methodological challenges in today's public health. The experience in the SOPHIE project was that mixed methods are essential to identify, understand, and predict the health impact of structural policies. On the one hand, quantitative studies that included spatial comparisons or time trend analyses, preferably in a quasi-experimental design, showed that some structural policies were associated with improved population health and smaller health inequalities. On the other hand, qualitative studies, often inspired by realist approaches, were important to understand how these policies could have achieved the observed impact and why they would succeed in some settings but fail in others. This review ends with five recommendations for future studies that aim to evaluate, understand, and predict how health inequalities can be reduced through structural policies.

Climate change: Moving from scientific to institutional and policy questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitchell, B.

1990-01-01

The issue of how societies, through their policies and institutional arrangements, can most effectively respond to climate change, is discussed. Four characteristics contributing to the continued failure to resolve the issue are an enormous uncertainty in every part of the problem; the long time scale of effects, ensuring that a modest amount of discounting reduces the present day cost of any future environmental impact that is less than catastrophic to minor proportions; a belief that trying to avert climate change will be very expensive no matter how it is done; and the global nature of the issues calls for an unprecedented amount of international cooperation. Strategies to deal with climate change may be grouped into three categories: preventative, curative and adaptive. The preventative or adjustment strategy involves the restriction or reduction of activities that contribute to carbon dioxide emissions. Under this approach there would be no new fossil fuel plants constructed, and some existing plants might be closed. The curative strategy focuses on addressing the carbon dioxide concentrations being produced and concentrates on neutralizing them. The adaptive or adaptation strategy assumes that carbon dioxide concentrations will continue to build and that society will eventually develop means to cope with the climatic alteration. To assist policy makers, those conducting research need to devote more effort to examining the interrelationships among climate change and other societal concerns, the aspects of uncertainty and surprise, and the range of strategies. 21 refs

Impacts of low-carbon power policy on carbon mitigation in Guangdong Province, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng, Beibei; Dai, Hancheng; Wang, Peng; Xie, Yang; Chen, Li; Zhao, Daiqing; Masui, Toshihiko

2016-01-01

This paper analyzes the impacts of the low-carbon policy in the power sector of Guangdong Province in China on its energy and carbon emission targets by 2020, as well as their costs and co-benefits, using a regional CGE model with seven scenarios: business as usual (BaU), renewable energy (RE), renewable energy and natural gas (RE–NG), CAP only (CAP), CAP and RE–NG (CAP–RE–NG), carbon emission trading (ETS), and ETS with RE–NG (ETS–RE–NG). Analysis results reveal that provincial energy and carbon intensity targets can be achieved in the assumed carbon mitigation scenarios with carbon cap, ETS, and clean energy development policies. While the carbon constraint exerts negative impacts on the economy, GDP loss could be lowered by the ETS and RE policies. The RE scenario is more economically efficient than the ETS scenario, and coupling the RE and ETS scenarios appears to be the most economically efficient scenario to achieve the desired carbon and energy intensity targets. One of the benefits of the low-carbon policy is its improvement of the energy security of Guangdong in terms of reduced reliance on external coal and oil; in particular, Guangdong coal consumption could peak in 2017–2019. - Highlights: • This study analyzes the low carbon policy in the power sector in Guangdong of China. • The role of power sector in achieving carbon and energy intensity target is shown. • Renewable energy and natural gas are very important for Guangdong Province. • Additional efforts in other sectors are needed to achieve the intensity targets. • The mitigation cost and economic impacts are assessed under various policy settings.

Kaleidoscope: Scientific Quality Committee - final report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Lone; Laurillard, Diana

To shape a body of reference at a scientific level for the European TEL research communities. To make recommendations (i) to support a policy for the enhancement of research in Europe in this field, (ii) to survey the development of the field, and (iii) to build scientific collaboration on top of...

Use and Impacts of Campbell Systematic Reviews on Policy, Practice, and Research

Science.gov (United States)

Maynard, Brandy R.; Dell, Nathaniel A.

2018-01-01

Aim: This study examines use and impacts of systematic reviews produced by the Campbell Collaboration's Social Welfare Coordinating Group (SWCG) on practice, policy, and research. Methods: A mixed-method research design was used to examine impacts of 52 systematic reviews published by the SWCG. We conducted author surveys and retrieved multiple…

Open Science: Dimensions to a new scientific practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana Carla Silva de Oliveira

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction:The practices of e-science and the use and reuse of scientific data have constituted a new scientific work that leads to the reflection on new regulatory, legal, institutional and technological frameworks for open science. Objective: This study shows the following research question: which dimensions provide sustainability for the formulation of a policy geared to open science and its practices in the Brazilian context? The aim of this study is to discuss the dimensions that support transversely the formulation of a policy for open science and its scientific practices. Methodology:Theoretically, the study is guided by the fourth scientific paradigm grounded in the e-Science. The methodology is supported by Bufrem’s studies (2013, which propose an alternative and multidimensional model for analysis and discussion of scientific research. Technically, the literature review and documentary survey were the methods used on the Data Lifecycle scientific model, laws and international agreements.For this study purpose, five dimensions were proposed, namely: epistemological, political, ethical-legal-cultural, morphological, and technological. Results: This studyunderstands that these dimensions substantiate an information policy or the development of minimum guidelines for the open science agenda in Brazil. Conclusions: The dimensions put away the reductionist perspective on survey data and they conducted the study for the multi-dimensional and multi-relational vision of open science.

Impacts of subsidy policies on vaccination decisions in contact networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hai-Feng; Wu, Zhi-Xi; Xu, Xiao-Ke; Small, Michael; Wang, Lin; Wang, Bing-Hong

2013-07-01

To motivate more people to participate in vaccination campaigns, various subsidy policies are often supplied by government and the health sectors. However, these external incentives may also alter the vaccination decisions of the broader public, and hence the choice of incentive needs to be carefully considered. Since human behavior and the networking-constrained interactions among individuals significantly impact the evolution of an epidemic, here we consider the voluntary vaccination on human contact networks. To this end, two categories of typical subsidy policies are considered: (1) under the free subsidy policy, the total amount of subsidy is distributed to a certain fraction of individual and who are vaccinated without personal cost, and (2) under the partial-offset subsidy policy, each vaccinated person is offset by a certain amount of subsidy. A vaccination decision model based on evolutionary game theory is established to study the effects of these different subsidy policies on disease control. Simulations suggest that, because the partial-offset subsidy policy encourages more people to take vaccination, its performance is significantly better than that of the free subsidy policy. However, an interesting phenomenon emerges in the partial-offset scenario: with limited amount of total subsidy, a moderate subsidy rate for each vaccinated individual can guarantee the group-optimal vaccination, leading to the maximal social benefits, while such an optimal phenomenon is not evident for the free subsidy scenario.

Impact, regulation and health policy implications of physician migration in OECD countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simoens Steven

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the face of rising demand for medical services due to ageing populations, physician migration flows are increasingly affecting the supply of physicians in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development (OECD countries. This paper offers an integrated perspective on the impact of physician migration on home and host countries and discusses international regulation and policy approaches governing physician migration. Methods Information about migration flows, international regulation and policies governing physician migration were derived from two questionnaires sent to OECD countries, a secondary analysis of EUROSTAT Labour Force Surveys, a literature review and official policy documents of OECD countries. Results OECD countries increasingly perceive immigration of foreign physicians as a way of sustaining their physician workforce. As a result, countries have entered into international agreements regulating physician migration, although their success has been limited due to the imposition of licensing requirements and the protection of vested interests by domestic physicians. OECD countries have therefore adopted specific policies designed to stimulate the immigration of foreign physicians, whilst minimising its negative impact on the home country. Measures promoting immigration have included international recruitment campaigns, less strict immigration requirements and arrangements that foster shared learning between health care systems. Policies restricting the societal costs of physician emigration from developing countries such as good practice guidelines and taxes on host countries have not yet produced their expected effect or in some cases have not been established at all. Conclusions Although OECD countries generally favour long-term policies of national self-sufficiency to sustain their physician workforce, such policies usually co-exist with short-term or medium-term policies to attract foreign physicians

Likely social impacts of proposed national-level policy initiatives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Piernot, C.A.; Rothweiler, M.A.; Levine, A.; Crews, R.

1981-03-01

The results are described of an investigation of likely social effects of enacting nine proposed national-level policy initiatives to accelerate development and use of solar energy. This study is part of the Technology Assessment of Solar Energy Systems (TASE) project supported by the US Department of Energy. The report presents general social impact information about the variety of ways in which the American people could be affected by enactment of these initiatives. It identifies the effects of each initiative on individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and society as a whole. In addition, it provides a framework for organizing a myriad of impact information into a set of conceptually exclusive impact categories. It illustrates that social impacts means effects on people as individuals, groups, organizations, and communities as well as on the infrastructure of society. Finally, it demonstrates the importance of specifying an audience of impact with a case example from the residential rental market.

The impact of possible climate catastrophes on global warming policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baranzini, Andrea; Chesney, Marc; Morisset, Jacques

2003-01-01

Recent studies on global warming have introduced the inherent uncertainties associated with the costs and benefits of climate policies and have often shown that abatement policies are likely to be less aggressive or postponed in comparison to those resulting from traditional cost-benefit analyses (CBA). Yet, those studies have failed to include the possibility of sudden climate catastrophes. The aim of this paper is to account simultaneously for possible continuous and discrete damages resulting from global warming, and to analyse their implications on the optimal path of abatement policies. Our approach is related to the new literature on investment under uncertainty, and relies on some recent developments of the real option in which we incorporated negative jumps (climate catastrophes) in the stochastic process corresponding to the net benefits associated with the abatement policies. The impacts of continuous and discrete climatic risks can therefore be considered separately. Our numerical applications lead to two main conclusions: (i) gradual, continuous uncertainty in the global warming process is likely to delay the adoption of abatement policies as found in previous studies, with respect to the standard CBA; however (ii) the possibility of climate catastrophes accelerates the implementation of these policies as their net discounted benefits increase significantly

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

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Cliff; Wiser, Ryan; Bolinger, Mark

2007-01-16

State renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as one of the most important policy drivers of renewable energy capacity expansion in the U.S. Collectively, these policies now apply to roughly 40% of U.S. electricity load, and may have substantial impacts on electricity markets, ratepayers, and local economies. 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 projecting cost impacts, but sometimes also estimating macroeconomic and environmental effects. This report synthesizes and analyzes the results and methodologies of 28 distinct state or utility-level RPS cost impact analyses completed since 1998. Together, these studies model proposed or adopted RPS policies in 18 different states. We highlight the key findings of these studies on the costs and benefits of RPS policies, examine the sensitivity of projected costs to model assumptions, assess the attributes of different modeling approaches, and suggest possible areas of improvement for future RPS analysis.

The Scientific Work We Love: A Duplex Theory of Scientific Impact and Its Application to the Top-Cited Articles in the First 30 Years of APS Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Sternberg, Robert J

2018-03-01

This article proposes a duplex theory for understanding the scientific impact of contributions to psychological science. I argue that articles that we "love" can be understood in terms of (a) triangular elements of intimacy, passion, and commitment and (b) types of stories that characterize high-impact articles. Certain kinds of stories (e.g., review articles) are more likely to have lasting impact, on average, than other kinds of stories (e.g., data-driven empirical articles).

The impact of monetary policy on financing of Czech firms

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Aliyev, Ruslan; Hájková, D.; Kubicová, I.

2015-01-01

Roč. 65, č. 6 (2015), s. 455-476 ISSN 0015-1920 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : monetary policy transmission * broad credit view * external finance Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.449, year: 2015 http://journal.fsv.cuni.cz/mag/article/show/id/1343

Assessing the Impact of Current National Policies to Reduce Salt ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Assessing the Impact of Current National Policies to Reduce Salt and Trans Fatty Acids in Argentina ... The Codex Alimentarius, or international food safety standards, will also decrease trans fatty acids (TFA) ... Researchers will develop a strategy to share results with policymakers and other stakeholders. ... Journal articles.

Tropospheric ozone and aerosols in climate agreements: scientific and political challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rypdal, Kristin; Berntsen, Terje; Fuglestvedt, Jan S.; Aunan, Kristin; Torvanger, Asbjorn; Stordal, Frode; Pacyna, Jozef M.; Nygaard, Lynn P.

2005-01-01

In addition to the six greenhouse gases included in the Kyoto Protocol, the tropospheric ozone precursors CO, NMVOC and NO x and the aerosols/aerosol precursors black carbon, organic carbon and SO 2 also play significant roles in climate change. The aim of this paper is to review some of the main scientific and political challenges associated with incorporating tropospheric ozone and aerosol precursors into climate agreements, and to discuss how these challenges have a bearing on the design of future climate agreements. We argue that the optimal policy design for a particular substance depends on a combination of scientific and political concerns. We look particularly at regional climate effects, negative forcing, metrics (measuring climate effects against other gases on a common scale), political attractiveness, and verification and compliance. We systematically review the existing knowledge on these issues, explore their impact on policy design, and conclude that, with current scientific knowledge, CO and NMVOC could conceivably be included in a global climate agreement, either in a basket with the long-lived greenhouse gases or in a separate basket, while NO x and aerosols might be regulated more appropriately through regional agreements with links to a global agreement. However, the complexity and fairness implications of including tropospheric ozone precursors and aerosols might negatively affect the political feasibility of a future agreement

The Impact of Policy and Legislation on Maori Children with Special Needs in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Fortune, Kiri

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review literature related to the impact of policy and legislation on Maori children with special needs. The historical perceptions of disability for Maori will be discussed and the impacts of western influences and policy will be reviewed. The article investigates relevant studies and literature, both national and…

Impacts of Sugar Import Policy on Sugar Production in Indonesia

OpenAIRE

Suryantoro, Agustinus; Susilo, Albertus Magnus; Supriyono, Supriyono

2013-01-01

Production of sugar unful lled consumption of Indonesia society. The lack of consumption and productionhave ful lled by import. Assumption national consumption 2,7 million ton, Indonesia will import sugar in 2013predicted about 300.000 ton (Tempo.co, August, 21, 2012).The aims in general of this research are to understand the impact of sugar import policy on sugar production.Especially (1) to understand the factors that in uence sugar import price, (2) to understand impact of sugarimport pric...

Evaluating the Impacts of School Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies on Child Health. PRGS Dissertation

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Meenakshi Maria

2010-01-01

This dissertation evaluates the impact of elementary school policies on child health behaviors and obesity in the United States. Two chapters address nutrition policies, two chapters address physical activity policies, and a final chapter estimates the health care cost savings associated with a decline in childhood obesity prevalence. The use of…

The Impact of Irish Policy and Legislation on How Adults with Learning Disabilities Make Choices

Science.gov (United States)

Carey, Eileen; Griffiths, Colin

2016-01-01

This paper reflects the impact of policy and legislation in the context of how adults with learning disabilities make choices. Following an overview of policies which have improved choice for people with learning disability in the United Kingdom, this paper reviews "choice" in current Irish policy and legislation. This paper, while…

New Ways of Delivering Marine Scientific Evidence for Policy Needs in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Dorrington, T.

2016-12-01

The UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) is responsible for safeguarding the natural environment, supporting a world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. This includes the marine environment which makes a significant contribution to the economy of the UK through fisheries, aquaculture, transport, leisure and recreation, energy (including renewable), coastal tourism, and naval defence. The overall vision for the Defra marine programme is to therefore achieve clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas. In order to attain this it is essential that the decisions that government makes can be justified and that these decisions use the best available evidence and allow for any uncertainty. However, reductions across the budgets of departments such as Defra means that new ways of delivering evidence for policy needs must be sought. To do this we must consider marine monitoring efficiencies including the use of novel technologies, more integrated monitoring programmes, and greater collaboration with the research councils, industry, and academia. We must also seek to leverage other sources of funding from the European Union and other international partners. This presentation will address the main policy drivers (e.g. EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and future needs of the marine programme, the Defra Evidence Action Plan (EAP), and how we plan to use new avenues of gaining high quality marine scientific evidence in an era of declining budgets.

Scientific journals in the SciELO database, indicators of impact and the relative position of Ambiente & Água

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Wellausen Dias

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This editorial describes the process of periodic evaluation by CAPES, based on commercial indices proposed by companies such as the ISI FI by Thomson Reuters and SCImago by Scopus and public indices as proposed by SciELO and other freely calculated indices based on Google Scholar and investigates the impact position of the journal Ambiente & Agua compared with journals from the SciELO base. Results show that Ambiente & Agua is in the right path in the search for quality. Its editorial board strongly recommends that Brazilian public scientific agencies consider tools that are cost free and have large coverage for impact evaluation to allow the impact assessment of a range of emerging journals in a common and wide basis for all scientific journals.

Coal transport demand in Western Europe and Japan: Impacts of energy market liberalisation and climate policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golombek, Rolf; Kittelsen, Sverre A.C.; Maestad, Ottar

2005-12-01

Western Europe and Japan are among the main importers of coal. Climate policies following the Kyoto agreement are creating pressure to substitute away from coal and turn to less emission intensive energy sources. At the same time, liberalizations of energy markets in Europe and Japan are likely to cause reduced electricity prices, which will boost the overall demand for electricity. This paper analyses the combined effect of electricity market liberalization and climate policies on the international coal trade. Using the numerical equilibrium model LIBEMOD, we find that while liberalization of electricity markets will imply a large increase in aggregate coal transport demand, the negative impact of climate policies may be even larger, in particular if Russia and Ukraine utilise their market power in the market for emission permits. If this market power is exploited, the total effect of liberalisation and climate policy - when including the impact of general economic growth - is a 20% reduction in aggregate coal transport between 2000 and 2010. Further, impacts differ markedly between Western Europe and Japan. A main difference is that liberalisation has a much more positive - and climate policies have a much stronger negative - impact on steam coal demand in Western Europe than in Japan

A 6-year update of the health policy and advocacy priorities of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Buscemi, Joanna; Bennett, Gary G; Gorin, Sherri Sheinfeld; Pagoto, Sherry L; Sallis, James F; Wilson, Dawn K; Fitzgibbon, Marian L

2017-12-01

Government policy affects virtually every topic of interest to health behavior researchers, from research funding to reimbursement for clinical services to application of evidence to impact health outcomes. This paper provides a 6-year update on the expansion of Society of Behavioral Medicine's (SBM) public policy and advocacy agenda and proposed future directions. SBM's Health Policy Council is responsible for ensuring coordination of the policy-related activities of the Health Policy Committee (HPC), the Civic and Public Engagement Committee (CPEC), and the Scientific and Professional Liaison Council (SPLC). These committees and councils have written letters to Congress, signed onto advocacy letters with hundreds of organizations, and developed and disseminated 15 health policy briefs, the majority of which have been presented to legislative staffers on Capitol Hill. With the assistance of the SPLC, SBM has collaborated on policy efforts with like-minded organizations to increase the impact of the Society's policy work. Moving forward, SBM plans to continue to increase efforts to disseminate policy work more broadly and develop long-term relationships with Congressional staffers. SBM leadership realizes that to remain relevant, demonstrate impact, and advance the role of behavioral medicine, we must advance a policy agenda that reflects our mission of better health through behavior change.

The Impacts of Internationalization on Quality Assurance Policy: A Comparative Study of Finland and Taiwan

OpenAIRE

LIU, PO-YUN

2008-01-01

Internationalization and quality assurance have become the central considerations of higher education development currently. The aim of this research is to explore and compare the impacts of internationalization on quality assurance policy in Finland and Taiwan. To achieve this aim, the general impacts of internationalization on quality assurance policy have been discussed first. Next, the empirical research of Finland and Taiwan are conducted by qualitative interviews of higher education pol...

Small Town Science Policy: Bringing Our Expertise Back Home

Science.gov (United States)

Larsen, K. W.

2017-12-01

Questions of science policy are more and more in the news, whether it is in regards to our nation's role in international agreements (Paris Climate Accords), the disbursement of limited research budgets, or a hundred other national issues. Influencing these decisions is a difficult, frustrating, and often ineffective endeavor. Where we can have a greater impact is by effecting change locally, either through interactions with and education of local elected officials or direct involvement in the political process. Advocating for scientifically sound policy at this level takes a different set of communication skills, but can ultimately reach a wider audience and have tangible effects.

Impact of Scientific and Technological Progress on Economic Development - the Views of Some Nobel Laureates of the Economic Science

OpenAIRE

Florentina Xhelili KRASNIQI; Nexhmie Berisha VOKSHI

2017-01-01

There are different authors' opinions and numerous theories according to which scientific technological progress is a determining factor of the economic development. The paper aims to present the contributions of some Nobel laureates to the impact of scientific and technological progress on economic development such as Arrow, Debreu, Hicks, Solow, Kuznets, Kantorovich and Stiglitz. The research results of their contributions show that scientific technological progress is considered as a sour...

Governing the transition to renewable energy: A review of impacts and policy issues in the small hydropower boom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly-Richards, Sarah; Silber-Coats, Noah; Crootof, Arica; Tecklin, David; Bauer, Carl

2017-01-01

The transition to renewable energy technologies raises new and important governance questions. With small hydropower (SHP) expanding as part of renewable energy and climate mitigation strategies, this review assesses its impacts and identifies escalating policy issues. To provide a comprehensive literature review of small hydropower, we evaluated over 3600 articles and policy documents. This review identified four major concerns: (1) confusion in small hydropower definitions is convoluting scholarship and policy-making; (2) there is a lack of knowledge and acknowledgement of small hydropower’s social, environmental, and cumulative impacts; (3) small hydropower’s promotion as a climate mitigation strategy can negatively affect local communities, posing contradictions for climate change policy; and (4) institutional analysis is needed to facilitate renewable energy integration with existing environmental laws to ensure sustainable energy development. For readers interested in small hydropower, we clarify areas of confusion in definition and explain the corresponding impacts for distinct system designs. For a broader readership, we situate small hydropower implementation within international trends of renewable energy development – the contradictory impacts of climate change policy, emerging dynamics in energy finance, and reliance on market mechanisms. Our paper provides a timely contribution to scholarship on small hydropower and the transition to renewable energy. - Highlights: • Confusion in small hydropower definitions is convoluting small hydropower debates. • Small hydropower’s negative impacts are largely overlooked in policy discussions. • Small hydropower exemplifies paradoxical problems with climate change policy. • Policies needed to integrate renewable energy development with national environmental institutions.

Ex-Ante Impact Assessment & Value Network Analysis for SI: SIMPACT Policy Brief 1

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dhondt, S.; Ven, H. van de; Cressey, P.; Kaderabkova, A.; Luna, Á.; Moghadam Saman, S.; Castro Spila, J.; Terstriep, J.

2016-01-01

In this Policy Brief, a conceptual framework is presented to conduct an ex-ante impact assessment for social innovation. The building blocks for an ex-ante impact assessment are goal formulation; developing the relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes; determining the role of stakeholders

Equality machineries matter: The impact of women's political pressure on European social care policies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bleijenbergh, I.L.; Roggeband, C.M.

2007-01-01

This study examines the impact of feminist pressure and European Union (EU) policies on national policy changes, such as the introduction or extension of public childcare provision, parental leave, and part-time work legislation. We compared six countries on the basis of Qualitative Comparative

Public R&D Policy Impact Evaluation:Propensity Score Matching and Structural Modeling Estimations

OpenAIRE

Ilbeigi, Alireza

2017-01-01

This dissertation is about public research and development (R&D) subsidies to support private firms doing innovative activities and quantitative impact evaluation of the policy on total factor productivity (TFP) change and additional R&D effort. Public R&D subsidization as a public R&D policy, beside different types of public interventions, has been widely used by governments to stimulate private R&D. These policies aim to fill the gap between the private and social rates of returns by encour...

The impact of consumer returns policies on consignment contracts with inventory control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, W.; Li, Y.; Govindan, Kannan

2014-01-01

, and then the retailer sets her retail price for selling the product. The vendor gets paid based on net sold units and salvages unsold units as well as returned items in a secondary market. Under the framework, we study and compare two different consignment arrangements: the retailer/vendor manages consignment inventory...... (RMCI/VMCI) programs. To study the impact of return policy, we discuss a consignment contract without return policy as a benchmark. We show that whether or not the vendor offers a return policy, it is always beneficial for the channel to delegate the inventory decision to the vendor. We find...

The Impact of Fiscal Policy on Poverty in Ethiopia: A Computable ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Daniel

study investigates the economy-wide impacts of these fiscal policy changes on poverty. ... of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the 1990s and ..... factors of production (labor, land, livestock and capital), 7 institutions (an.

My Summer with Science Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Marissa

This past summer I interned at the American Institute of Physics and helped research and write articles for the FYI Science Policy Bulletin. FYI is an objective digest of science policy developments in Washington, D.C. that impact the greater physical sciences community. Over the course of the summer, I independently attended, analyzed, and reported on a variety of science, technology, and funding related events including congressional hearings, government agency advisory committee meetings, and scientific society events. I wrote and co-wrote three articles on basic energy research legislation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology improvement act, and the National Science Foundation's big ideas for future investment. I had the opportunity to examine some challenging questions such as what is the role of government in funding applied research? How should science priorities be set? What is the right balance of funding across different agencies and programs? I learned about how science policy is a two-way street: science is used to inform policy decisions and policy is made to fund and regulate the conduct of science. I will conclude with how my summer working with FYI showed me the importance of science advocacy, being informed, and voting. Society of Physics Students.

Policy Scientificity 3.0: Theory and Policy Analysis in-and-for This World and Other-Worlds

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, P. Taylor; Gulson, Kalervo N.

2015-01-01

This paper examines the epistemologies and ontologies of education policy studies. Our aim is to posit a reinvigoration of policy studies to hedge against undue ossification and co-option of critical policy studies. We do so by arguing for the need to develop new concepts for policy studies using the "posts" (e.g., post-structuralism and…

The Impact of Transport Mode and Carbon Policy on Low-Carbon Retailer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Zheng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Low-carbon retail has become a strategic target for many developed and developing economies. This study discusses the impact of transport mode and carbon policy on achieving this objective. We investigated the retailer transportation mode, pricing, and ordering strategy, which all consider carbon-sensitive demand under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. We analyzed the optimal decision of retailer and their maximum profit affected by transport mode and cap-and-trade policy parameters. Results show that the two elements (cap-and-trade policy and consumer low-carbon awareness could encourage the retailer to choose low-carbon transportation. The two elements also influence the profit and optimal decision of retailer. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the applicability of the model.

Mass digitization of scientific collections: New opportunities to transform the use of biological specimens and underwrite biodiversity science.

Science.gov (United States)

Beaman, Reed S; Cellinese, Nico

2012-01-01

New information technologies have enabled the scientific collections community and its stakeholders to adapt, adopt, and leverage novel approaches for a nearly 300 years old scientific discipline. Now, few can credibly question the transformational impact of technology on efforts to digitize scientific collections, as IT now reaches into almost every nook and cranny of society. Five to ten years ago this was not the case. Digitization is an activity that museums and academic institutions increasingly recognize, though many still do not embrace, as a means to boost the impact of collections to research and society through improved access. The acquisition and use of scientific collections is a global endeavor, and digitization enhances their value by improved access to core biodiversity information, increases use, relevance and potential downstream value, for example, in the management of natural resources, policy development, food security, and planetary and human health. This paper examines new opportunities to design and implement infrastructure that will support not just mass digitization efforts, but also a broad range of research on biological diversity and physical sciences in order to make scientific collections increasingly relevant to societal needs and interest.

EU climate policy up to 2020. An economic impact assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boehringer, Christoph [Department of Economics, University of Oldenburg (Germany); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim (Germany); Loeschel, Andreas [Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim (Germany); Moslener, Ulf [KfW Development Bank, Frankfurt (Germany); Rutherford, Thomas F. [Center for Energy Policy and Economy (CEPE), ETH Zuerich (Switzerland)

2009-07-01

In its fight against climate change the EU is committed to reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. To meet this commitment, the EU builds on segmented market regulation with an EU-wide cap-and-trade system for emissions from energy-intensive installations (ETS sectors) and additional measures by each EU Member State covering emission sources outside the cap-and-trade system (the non-ETS sector). Furthermore, the EU has launched additional policy measures such as renewable energy subsidies in order to promote compliance with the climate policy target. Basic economic reasoning suggests that emission market segmentation and overlapping regulation can create substantial excess costs if we focus only on the climate policy target. In this paper, we evaluate the economic impacts of EU climate policy based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model of international trade and energy use. Our results highlight the importance of initial market distortions and imperfections as well as alternative baseline projections for the appropriate assessment of EU compliance cost. (author)

EU climate policy up to 2020: An economic impact assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boehringer, Christoph, E-mail: boehringer@uni-oldenburg.d [Department of Economics, University of Oldenburg (Germany); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim (Germany); Loeschel, Andreas [Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim (Germany); Moslener, Ulf [KfW Development Bank, Frankfurt (Germany); Rutherford, Thomas F. [Center for Energy Policy and Economy (CEPE), ETH Zuerich (Switzerland)

2009-07-01

In its fight against climate change the EU is committed to reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. To meet this commitment, the EU builds on segmented market regulation with an EU-wide cap-and-trade system for emissions from energy-intensive installations (ETS sectors) and additional measures by each EU Member State covering emission sources outside the cap-and-trade system (the non-ETS sector). Furthermore, the EU has launched additional policy measures such as renewable energy subsidies in order to promote compliance with the climate policy target. Basic economic reasoning suggests that emission market segmentation and overlapping regulation can create substantial excess costs if we focus only on the climate policy target. In this paper, we evaluate the economic impacts of EU climate policy based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model of international trade and energy use. Our results highlight the importance of initial market distortions and imperfections as well as alternative baseline projections for the appropriate assessment of EU compliance cost.

EU climate policy up to 2020. An economic impact assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boehringer, Christoph; Loeschel, Andreas; Moslener, Ulf; Rutherford, Thomas F.

2009-01-01

In its fight against climate change the EU is committed to reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. To meet this commitment, the EU builds on segmented market regulation with an EU-wide cap-and-trade system for emissions from energy-intensive installations (ETS sectors) and additional measures by each EU Member State covering emission sources outside the cap-and-trade system (the non-ETS sector). Furthermore, the EU has launched additional policy measures such as renewable energy subsidies in order to promote compliance with the climate policy target. Basic economic reasoning suggests that emission market segmentation and overlapping regulation can create substantial excess costs if we focus only on the climate policy target. In this paper, we evaluate the economic impacts of EU climate policy based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model of international trade and energy use. Our results highlight the importance of initial market distortions and imperfections as well as alternative baseline projections for the appropriate assessment of EU compliance cost. (author)

Photovoltaic power: public policies and economic impacts. The French choices in the international context (1973-2013)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ricaud, Alain

2013-01-01

This article summarizes 40 years of international public policies in favour of solar cells development and deployment with their economic impacts: strengths and weaknesses of solar energy and its societal impact; French R and D, financial support, competition and national energy policy; the US pioneering role; the Japanese take over; the German example; the European Union federating role; the Chinese leading position

Photovoltaic power: public policies and economic impacts. The French choices in the international context 1973-2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ricaud, Alain

2013-06-01

This article summarizes 40 years of international public policies in favour of solar cells development and deployment with their economic impacts: strengths and weaknesses of solar energy and its societal impact; French R and D, financial support, competition and national energy policy; the US pioneering role; the Japanese take over; the German example; the European Union federating role; the Chinese leading position

14 CFR 1213.102 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... INFORMATION MEDIA § 1213.102 Policy. (a) NASA, a scientific and technical Agency, is committed to a culture of... culture of openness, NASA employees may, consistent with this policy, speak to the press and the public... Policy Directives). Examples of information not releasable under this policy include, without limitation...

THE IMPACT OF MONETARY POLICY ON BANK CREDIT DURING ECONOMIC CRISIS: INDONESIA’S EXPERIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Mongid

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The monetary policy mechanism by which monetary policy was transmitted to thereal economy had emerged as the pivotal discussion topic recently. This paper tried to discussthe impact of Bank Indonesia’s monetary policy on loan bank. By using simple loan bankframework we concluded that monetary policies were able to influence loan bank. Themonetary variables such as discount rate policy, base money and exchange rate policy werevery important in determining the banking credit. As the credit was very important to influencesthe economic activitiy, the result provided evidence that monetary policy was important as atool to control economic activity via credit channel. The validity of this study challenged thehypotheses that monetary policy was death. However, monetary policy maker should carefullyconsider the soundness of the banking industry because it was a strategic partner for monetaryauthority to control the economic activities.

Navigating the science-policy spectrum: Opportunities to work on policies related to your research

Science.gov (United States)

Licker, R.; Ekwurzel, B.; Goldman, G. T.; DeLonge, M. S.

2017-12-01

Many scientists conduct research with direct policy relevance, whether it be producing sea-level projections that are taken-up by local decision-makers, or developing new agricultural technologies. All scientists are affected by policies made by their respective local, regional, and federal governments. For example, budgets affect the grant resources available to conduct research and policies on visas influence the accessibility of new positions for foreign scientists. As a result, many scientists would like to engage with the policy domain, and either bring their science to bear on new policies that are in the works (science-for-policy) or inform policies on the scientific research enterprise (policy-for-science). Some scientists prefer to engage and be neutral to the policy outcome, serving primarily as an information resource. Many may choose to also advocate for a particular outcome based on their expertise and experience. Research shows that policy decisions benefit greatly from the input of scientific experts. We explore the spectrum between informing policies in a "non-prescriptive" manner to working on policies in an advocacy space. We highlight tips for successful engagement along this spectrum. Finally, we review current science-for-policy and policy-for-science issues of relevance to the geophysical sciences.

Energy exporters and climate change. Potential economic impacts of climate policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wit, R.C.N.

1997-06-01

This review paper has been written on a commission by the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) in London and is part of a project to investigate the possible impact of greenhouse gas mitigation policies on energy markets and therefore on countries exporting oil, gas and coal. The aim of the project conducted by RIIA is to achieve a better understanding of the role of energy exporters in international climate change negotiations on the road towards the second Conference of Parties in Kyoto at the end of 1997 and the underlying national strategies. All four 'economy'-oriented global model studies reviewed in this paper indicate that CO2-reduction policies would cause wide differences in welfare effects across regions. It appears that energy-exporting countries would suffer the greatest welfare losses. Although several policy instruments can be implemented to achieve CO2-emission reductions, only carbon taxes are considered in the models. The model results show that if world level CO2 emissions are approximately stabilized at their 1990 levels, the cumulative losses in GDP of energy exporters generally range between 3% and 12% by 2010. It should be strongly emphasized that the sign and magnitude of the economic impact of CO2 policy on energy exporters depend critically on how the policy instrument is designed. In the case of a carbon tax the following factors are crucial: (1) the choice between a consumption and a production tax, (2) whether it is based on a global or unilateral agreement, (3) the mode of revenue redistribution among countries and (4) whether emission trading is allowed. 27 refs

Science, Society and Policy

Science.gov (United States)

White, K. S.; Teich, A. H.

2010-12-01

Apart from the journals they produce, scientific societies play an important role in communicating scientific findings and norms to the broader society. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) includes among its goals to promote and defend the integrity of science and its use; provide a voice for science on societal issues; promote the responsible use of science in public policy; and increase public engagement with science and technology. AAAS websites and programs, including Communicating Science (www.aaas.org/communicatingscience), Working with Congress (http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/wwc/book.htm) and ScienceCareers.org (http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org), provide tools for scientists to become more directly engaged in effectively communicating their findings and involved in the policy process. Education programs work to build the next generation of scientists and a science-literate public. To bridge the current communication gap between scientists, the public and policymakers, AAAS, like other scientific societies, maintains policy and outreach programs with limited budgets and staff. AAAS works to engage policymakers and provide scientific underpinning to key issues through congressional briefings, meetings, policy briefs, and media outreach. AAAS responds to challenges to accepted scientific findings and processes through op-eds, letters to government officials, resolutions, and Board statements. Some of these initiatives occur on a local level in partnership with local civic leaders, whose endorsement makes them more powerful. On a national scale, they assure that the voice of science is included in the debate. The changing media landscape presents opportunities and challenges for future AAAS endeavors.

Evaluating the impact of regional development policies on future landscape services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willemen, L.; Hein, L.; Verburg, P.H.

2010-01-01

In this paper we analyse the potential impact of an integrated policy package for the Gelderse Vallei region in the Netherlands on seven landscape services (residential use, intensive livestock husbandry, drinking water supply, attractiveness for overnight tourism, habitat provision for rare,

Scientific Wealth of Mongolia on a Global Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bazar tser en Boldgiv

2004-06-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to objectively evaluate the scientific wealth of Mongolia as a nation, by analyzing journal publications by Mongolian scientists recorded in the ISI database. Publications by Mongolian authors for the period of 1979-2002 were included for analyses. Although the total number of publications has increased for the given period, there was no significant increase in the relative citation impact or RCI. Changes of publication quality as measured by RCI showed dif ferent trends for various scientific fields. Publications in clinical medicine and biology show most positive trend, whereas publications in mathematics and physics declined in quality. All the fields are well below the world’ s total publication quality for a comparable period. Additionally , percentage of papers by Mongolian senior authors has declined (though the trend is not significant. This is a rather disturbing trend given the fact that the number of researchers with a doctor ’s degree in the country has greatly increased during the same period of time. Quality of publications by Mongolian first authors and only Mongolian authors were significantly lower than collaborative ones. As far as we are aware, this is the first evaluation of scientific wealth of Mongolia as a whole and it is hoped that it would be helpful to policy-making and scientific communities in prioritizing and determining the direction of support and finance.

The impact of government policy on preference for NEVs: The evidence from China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Xian; Wang, Ke; Hao, Yu; Fan, Jing-Li; Wei, Yi-Ming

2013-01-01

To reduce gasoline consumption and emissions, the Chinese government has introduced a series of preferential policies to encourage the purchase of new energy vehicles (NEVs). However, enthusiasm for the private purchase of NEVs appears to be very low. This timely paper addresses the need for an empirical study to explore this phenomenon by identifying purchase motivations of potential NEV consumers and examining the impact of government policies introduced to promote NEVs in China. A questionnaire survey was carried out. The acceptance of NEVs is measured in three different logistic models: the willingness of consumers to purchase NEVs, the purchasing time, and the acceptable price. The results showed that financial benefits, performance attributes, environmental awareness and psychological needs are the four most important factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of NEVs. Among these, performance attributes rather than financial benefits are the most important indicator. The moderating effect of government policies to relations between purchasing intention, time and price is not strong as respected while the policy implications are clear that the ‘public awareness of government policy’ functions as a moderator in the process of acceptance. These findings could give some hints to the government to make better NEV industry policy. - Highlights: • This paper timely studies the private purchasing behaviors of NEVs in China. • Purchase motivations of NEVs and the impact of government policies are examined. • Performance attribute is the most important indicator to acceptance of NEVs. • The moderating effect of government policies is not strong as respected

Understanding the impact of school tobacco policies on adolescent smoking behaviour: A realist review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schreuders, Michael; Nuyts, Paulien A. W.; van den Putte, Bas; Kunst, Anton E.

2017-01-01

Background: Secondary schools increasingly implement school tobacco policies (STPs) to decrease adolescents' smoking. Recent studies suggested that STPs' impact depends on their implementation. We examined adolescents' cognitive and behavioural responses to STPs that impact adolescents' smoking and

Understanding the impact of school tobacco policies on adolescent smoking behaviour: A realist review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schreuders, M.; Nuyts, P.A.W.; van den Putte, B.; Kunst, A.E.

Background Secondary schools increasingly implement school tobacco policies (STPs) to decrease adolescents' smoking. Recent studies suggested that STPs' impact depends on their implementation. We examined adolescents' cognitive and behavioural responses to STPs that impact adolescents' smoking and

The effect of climate policy on the impacts of climate change on river flows in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Arnell, Nigel W.; Charlton, Matthew B.; Lowe, Jason A.

2014-03-01

This paper compares the effects of two indicative climate mitigation policies on river flows in six catchments in the UK with two scenarios representing un-mitigated emissions. It considers the consequences of uncertainty in both the pattern of catchment climate change as represented by different climate models and hydrological model parameterisation on the effects of mitigation policy. Mitigation policy has little effect on estimated flow magnitudes in 2030. By 2050 a mitigation policy which achieves a 2 °C temperature rise target reduces impacts on low flows by 20-25% compared to a business-as-usual emissions scenario which increases temperatures by 4 °C by the end of the 21st century, but this is small compared to the range in impacts between different climate model scenarios. However, the analysis also demonstrates that an early peak in emissions would reduce impacts by 40-60% by 2080 (compared with the 4 °C pathway), easing the adaptation challenge over the long term, and can delay by several decades the impacts that would be experienced from around 2050 in the absence of policy. The estimated proportion of impacts avoided varies between climate model patterns and, to a lesser extent, hydrological model parameterisations, due to variations in the projected shape of the relationship between climate forcing and hydrological response.

The crediting policies of Micro-Financial Institutions in Kosovo and their impact in the development of agriculture

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Dr.Sc Drita Konxheli

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Agriculture is a very important sector of Kosovo economy. Seeing the big agriculture sector’s need for crediting, this paper is focused on credit policies of micro financial institutions, by emphasizing their impact in the development of agriculture. Since the number of micro financial institutions in Kosovo is quite big and analyzing the crediting policies of all of them is impossible, for comparing analyzes this paper focuses in three of them.  Several clients of the micro financial institutions were surveyed to check the impact that the loans they took had on the development of their agricultural activity. The survey includes the entire territory of Kosovo, meaning, clients of different regions were surveyed including minority-inhabited zones. Micro loan has become a support for many farmers, artisans and traders of various Kosovo rural zones. The micro loan makes it possible to have access to financial services for funding small projects in the field of agriculture, cattle-raising or in service sectors, such as artisans, small grocery shops, etc. The main goals of this research is to analyze the credit policies of MFIs operating in Kosovo and their impact in development of agriculture; a comparative analyses of impact of these credit policies in development of agriculture and identification of new crediting policies that might impact further agricultural development.

The near-term impacts of carbon mitigation policies on manufacturing industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morgenstern, Richard D.; Ho Mun; Shih, J.-S.; Zhang Xuehua

2004-01-01

Who pays for new policies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the United States? This paper considers a slice of the question by examining the near-term impact on domestic manufacturing industries of both upstream (economy-wide) and downstream (electric power industry only) carbon mitigation policies. Detailed Census data on the electricity use of four-digit manufacturing industries are combined with input-output information on inter-industry purchases to paint a detailed picture of carbon use, including effects on final demand. Regional information on electricity supply and use by region is also incorporated. A relatively simple model is developed which yields estimates of the relative burdens within the manufacturing sector of alternative carbon policies. Overall, the principal conclusion is that within the manufacturing sector (which by definition excludes coal production and electricity generation), only a small number of industries would bear a disproportionate short-term burden of a carbon tax or similar policy. Not surprisingly, an electricity-only policy affects very different manufacturing industries than an economy-wide carbon tax

Regional Investment Policy Under The Impact Of Budget Limitations And Economic Sanctions

OpenAIRE

Avramenko, Yelena S.; Vlasov, Semyon V.; Lukyanov, Sergey A.; Temkina, Irina M.

2018-01-01

This article presents the results of research on the impact which budget limitations and economic sanctions have had on regional investment policy External sanctions and sluggish economic growth have affected the social and economic development of the region. Relying on the results of comparative and statistical analysis, the article demonstrates the need for altering the focus of current investment policy from quantitative growth to qualitative enhancement. The article analyses a new trend i...

Scientific literacy for democratic decision-making

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Yacoubian, Hagop A.

2018-02-01

Scientifically literate citizens must be able to engage in making decisions on science-based social issues. In this paper, I start by showing examples of science curricula and policy documents that capitalise the importance of engaging future citizens in decision-making processes whether at the personal or at the societal levels. I elucidate the ideological underpinnings behind a number of the statements within those documents that have defined the trajectory of scientific literacy and have shaped what ought to be considered as personal and societal benefits. I argue that science curricula and policy documents can truly endorse scientific literacy when they embed principles of democratic education at their core. The latter entails fostering learning experiences where some of the underlying assumptions and political ideologies are brought to the conscious level and future citizens encouraged to reflect upon them critically and explicitly. Such a proposal empowers the future citizens to engage in critical deliberation on science-based social issues without taking the underlying status quo for granted. I end up the paper by situating the preparation of scientifically literate citizens within a framework of democratic education, discuss conditions through which a curriculum for scientific literacy can serve democratic decision-making processes, and provide modest recommendations.

Book review: Alexandru Avram - Fiscal policies and economic growth during crisis

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Aurelia Dumitru

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The Assistant Professor at West University of Timisoara Alexandru Avram is publishing at Sitech Publishing House, Craiova, a remarkable book, "The mix of fiscal and monetary policies – the impact upon the economic growth". The scientific research had previously been made for achieving the title in Doctor in Economic Sciences. The theme of the book is the identification of the measures of economic growth after the economic crisis at the end of 2007 and the impact of some fiscal and monetary measures and also the introduction of the taxing quotation, the decreasing of the interest of monetary policy, the increasing of VAT quotation from 19% to 24% upon some macroeconomic components. The book represents a valuable synthesis and a guide for those who are interested in the subject.

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Estimating the Potential Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Adverse Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in the United States Using the SimSmoke Tobacco Control Policy Simulation Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, David; Mohlman, Mary Katherine; Zhang, Yian

2016-05-01

Numerous studies document the causal relationship between prenatal smoking and adverse maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes. Studies also reveal the impact that tobacco control policies have on prenatal smoking. The purpose of this study is to estimate the effect of tobacco control policies on prenatal smoking prevalence and adverse MCH outcomes. The US SimSmoke simulation model was extended to consider adverse MCH outcomes. The model estimates prenatal smoking prevalence and, applying standard attribution methods, uses estimates of MCH prevalence and relative smoking risks to estimate smoking-attributable MCH outcomes over time. The model then estimates the effect of tobacco control policies on adverse birth outcomes averted. Different tobacco control policies have varying impacts on the number of smoking-attributable adverse MCH birth outcomes. Higher cigarette taxes and comprehensive marketing bans individually have the biggest impact with a 5% to 10% reduction across all outcomes for the period from 2015 to 2065. The policies with the lowest impact (2%-3% decrease) during this period are cessation treatment, health warnings, and complete smoke-free laws. Combinations of all policies with each tax level lead to 23% to 28% decreases across all outcomes. Our findings demonstrate the substantial impact of strong tobacco control policies for preventing adverse MCH outcomes, including long-term health implications for children exposed to low birth weight and preterm birth. These benefits are often overlooked in discussions of tobacco control. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

GROWING REGIONAL SCIENTIFIC MIGRATION AND MOBILITY: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

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Ganna KHARLAMOVA

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The article contributes to the growing strand of the literature on the scientific mobility and migration in the European Union (EU and the Eastern Partnership. The paper provides the quantitative assessment of the costs and benefits of ‘smart’ labour migration in the Eastern Partnership (EaP countries (particularly, Ukraine, explores the potential of future new rules for the mobility within the EU-EaP, and proposes some policy recommendations to enhance the benefits stemming from such flows. One of the rigorous idea – to provide an explanation whether the scientific migration and mobility, and remittances impact on economic development in the donor and recipient states, and, in particular, how important it is as a resource for the EaP enhancing. The convergence effect of scientific migration in the EU and the Eastern Partnership region is considered by means of calculative assessment.

Comparative study on Climate Change Policies in the EU and China

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Bray, M.; Han, D.

2012-04-01

Both the EU and China are among the largest CO2 emitters in the world; their climate actions and policies have profound impacts on global climate change and may influence the activities in other countries. Evidence of climate change has been observed across Europe and China. Despite the many differences between the two regions, the European Commission and Chinese government support climate change actions. The EU has three priority areas in climate change: 1) understanding, monitoring and predicting climate change and its impact; 2) providing tools to analyse the effectiveness, cost and benefits of different policy options for mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts; 3) improving, demonstrating and deploying existing climate friendly technologies and developing the technologies of the future. China is very vulnerable to climate change, because of its vast population, fast economic development, and fragile ecological environment. The priority policies in China are: 1) Carbon Trading Policy; 2) Financing Loan Policy (Special Funds for Renewable Energy Development); 3) Energy Efficiency Labelling Policy; 4) Subsidy Policy. In addition, China has formulated the "Energy Conservation Law", "Renewable Energy Law", "Cleaner Production Promotion Law" and "Circular Economy Promotion Law". Under the present EU Framework Programme FP7 there is a large number of funded research activities linked to climate change research. Current climate change research projects concentrate on the carbon cycle, water quality and availability, climate change predictors, predicting future climate and understanding past climates. Climate change-related scientific and technological projects in China are mostly carried out through national scientific and technological research programs. Areas under investigation include projections and impact of global climate change, the future trends of living environment change in China, countermeasures and supporting technologies of global

Human Ecology: Acid Rain and Public Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bybee, Rodger W.

1983-01-01

A connection between science and society can be seen in the human and ecological dimensions of one contemporary problem: acid rain. Introduces a human ecological theme and relationships between acid rain and public policy, considering scientific understanding and public awareness, scientific research and public policy, and national politics and…

The emergence of translational epidemiology: from scientific discovery to population health impact.

Science.gov (United States)

Khoury, Muin J; Gwinn, Marta; Ioannidis, John P A

2010-09-01

Recent emphasis on translational research (TR) is highlighting the role of epidemiology in translating scientific discoveries into population health impact. The authors present applications of epidemiology in TR through 4 phases designated T1-T4, illustrated by examples from human genomics. In T1, epidemiology explores the role of a basic scientific discovery (e.g., a disease risk factor or biomarker) in developing a "candidate application" for use in practice (e.g., a test used to guide interventions). In T2, epidemiology can help to evaluate the efficacy of a candidate application by using observational studies and randomized controlled trials. In T3, epidemiology can help to assess facilitators and barriers for uptake and implementation of candidate applications in practice. In T4, epidemiology can help to assess the impact of using candidate applications on population health outcomes. Epidemiology also has a leading role in knowledge synthesis, especially using quantitative methods (e.g., meta-analysis). To explore the emergence of TR in epidemiology, the authors compared articles published in selected issues of the Journal in 1999 and 2009. The proportion of articles identified as translational doubled from 16% (11/69) in 1999 to 33% (22/66) in 2009 (P = 0.02). Epidemiology is increasingly recognized as an important component of TR. By quantifying and integrating knowledge across disciplines, epidemiology provides crucial methods and tools for TR.

Does Joint Fact-finding work for Water-energy-food Nexus Issues? A Role of Scientific Evidence in Policy Process

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Baba, K.

2014-12-01

A quite famous phrase in risk management "How safe is enough safe?" implies there exists a framing gap among experts, the general public and stakeholders. Scientific evidence that experts provide usually contains uncertainty, while the public tends to have the other type of qualitative local knowledge. As there is no zero-risk society, we have to build consensus on acceptable level of risk and trade-offs of risks based on expert knowledge and local knowledge. Therefore having a dialogue among them in the early stage of the policy process such as problem definition and agenda setting is essential to cultivate trust and to integrate their knowledge. To this end, we especially pay attention to Joint Fact-finding (JFF). The tentative definition of JFF is that a promising strategy for experts, decision makers, and key public rights-holders and stakeholders from opposing sides of an issue to work together to resolve or narrow factual disputes over public policy issues. JFF process usually begins with identifying stakeholders and holding interviews with them to determine their interests. We call this step stakeholder analysis. Then we define the scope of the study including the required scientific evidence and the preliminary list of experts. After that, stakeholders jointly select experts to participate in the study, then they work together on what they would like to clear about scientific evidence. They finally get the common understanding and findings through these collaboration. We applied the stakeholder analysis to the issue of groundwater in Obama City and the issues of hot spring water and geothermal power in Beppu City in Japan. We drew conclusions from these case studies to some extent but at the same time we found that the analysis method has a limitation in applying it to multiple nexus issues because the method based on stakeholders' cognition. For example, in Obama case, we identified a lack of cooperation among stakeholders that especially agricultural

EmployRES. The impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth and employment in the European Union. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ragwitz, M.; Schade, W.; Breitschopf, B.; Walz, R.; Helfrich, N.; Rathmann, M.; Resch, G.; Panzer, C.; Faber, T.; Haas, R.; Nathani, C.; Holzhey, M.; Konstantinaviciute, I.; Zagame, P.; Fougeyrollas, A.; Le Hir, B.

2009-04-01

This study aims to meet the need for scientifically robust information on the gross effects (direct and indirect) as well as on the net effects (including both conventional replacement and budget effects) of renewable energy policies in Europe. Furthermore, the future development of RES in Europe will take place against the background of a global market for RES technology. This global market and the potential share of European industries in it will play a critical role in the potentials for growth and employment. This study aims to provide a sound scientific analysis of these issues. This report is divided into four main parts, A, B, C and D. While the first three covers the introduction, the theoretical approach, the modelling steps and structure of the report, the fourth part, part D, discusses in detail the models and results of the projects. It begins with chapter D 1 which describes past RES deployment and its costs. Then follows the past macroeconomic impacts presented by gross effects on employment and value added (D 2). Thereafter, the future potential (D 3) and future deployment (D 4) of renewable energy sources (RES) are discussed. Before the presentation of the future gross and net effects, the five scenarios used in the macro-economic models (D 5) are explained in detail. Finally we depict the future gross and net impacts on employment and GDP in D 6 and D 7, respectively. The comparison between the results of the two models and our conclusion for the study follows in chapter D 8 and 9

Impact of NOx Emission Reduction Policy on Hospitalizations for Respiratory Disease in New York State

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To date, only a limited number of studies have examined the impact of ambient pollutant policy on respiratory morbidities. This accountability study examined the effect of a regional pollution control policy, namely, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) nitrogen oxides ...

[Impact on reading scientific articles:an attempt to dialogue with "my reader"].

Science.gov (United States)

Akerman, Marco

2016-03-01

This article discusses the concept of "impact" and is based on the scientific output of the author that is examined for the analysis of impacts from the qualitative standpoint. It is done not as an end in itself, but under the aegis of the author/text/reader relationship. Seeking to establish this relationship, the way in which the author is quoted in a selected article, entering each of the quotes and identifying what aspects were emphasized by the readers who referenced the quote is explored in detail. This qualitative observation of each of the quotes provided an indication of how each author/reader perceived the original text. This personal experience of this finite and delicate dialogue with "my reader" is presented here as a recommendation, to anyone who may be interested, of a viable device that can be repeated by authors in order to re-visit their writings based on the acknowledgement of the impact that it has on others.

Public policy and the social determinants of health: the challenge of the production and use of scientific evidence

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Alberto Pellegrini Filho

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This article serves as an introduction to the others published in this thematic issue of the Cadernos de Saúde Pública. The author makes a brief historical review of the concepts, approaches and methodologies used to study the relationships between social determinants and health outcomes. By analyzing the current global movement around social determinants of health he emphasizes that the distinctive feature of this movement is the explicit commitment to action through intersectoral public policies that are based on evidence and implemented with the support and participation of broad segments of society. As this special issue of the Cadernos de Saúde Pública is dedicated to presenting the results of research related to social determinants of health, the author focuses on an analysis of the difficulties in the production and use of scientific evidence that supports the definition, implementation and evaluation of policies to combat health inequities through action on social determinants of health. To conclude, he presents some recommendations for overcoming these difficulties.

Antiretroviral drug regimens to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV: a review of scientific, program, and policy advances for sub-Saharan Africa.

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Chi, Benjamin H; Stringer, Jeffrey S A; Moodley, Dhayendre

2013-06-01

Considerable advances have been made in the effort to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) in sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of antiretroviral regimens to interrupt HIV transmission through the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods. Scientific discoveries have been rapidly translated into health policy, bolstered by substantial investment in health infrastructure capable of delivering increasingly complex services. A new scientific agenda is also emerging, one that is focused on the challenges of effective and sustainable program implementation. Finally, global campaigns to "virtually eliminate" pediatric HIV and dramatically reduce HIV-related maternal mortality have mobilized new resources and renewed political will. Each of these developments marks a major step in regional PMTCT efforts; their convergence signals a time of rapid progress in the field, characterized by an increased interdependency between clinical research, program implementation, and policy. In this review, we take stock of recent advances across each of these areas, highlighting the challenges--and opportunities--of improving health services for HIV-infected mothers and their children across the region.

Cyber warfare building the scientific foundation

CERN Document Server

Jajodia, Sushil; Subrahmanian, VS; Swarup, Vipin; Wang, Cliff

2015-01-01

This book features a wide spectrum of the latest computer science research relating to cyber warfare, including military and policy dimensions. It is the first book to explore the scientific foundation of cyber warfare and features research from the areas of artificial intelligence, game theory, programming languages, graph theory and more. The high-level approach and emphasis on scientific rigor provides insights on ways to improve cyber warfare defense worldwide. Cyber Warfare: Building the Scientific Foundation targets researchers and practitioners working in cyber security, especially gove

Anti-corruption policy in the system of legal measures

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Tatyana Viktorovna Filonenko

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Objective to determine the scientificmethodological foundations of anticorruption policy. Methods dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena allows to explore the combination of objective and subjective factors influencing the formation and implementation of anticorruption policy. The author39s model of anticorruption policy is based on the wide range of logical methods of information processing modeling abstraction analysis analogy. Scientific hypothesis and formal legal analysis were also used. Results basing on comparison of the recent theoreticallegal criminallegal and criminological research in the field of legal and anticorruption policy the scientificmethodological foundations of anticorruption policy are disclosed. The authors attempt to systematize the scientific interpretation of anticorruption policy. The concept of legal policy its forms tools subjects and typesare discussed. As a result it becomes possible to describe the current anticorruption policy using terminology from the theory of legal policy. This approach can increase the effectiveness of modern anticorruption policy as it allows to clearly see the gaps and shortcomings in lawmaking and law enforcement during the anticorruption policy implementation. Scientific novelty the article makes an attempt to describe the current anticorruption policy with the use of terminology and models developed in the theoretical and legal research for the characterization of legal policy and its particular directions. Practical significance the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific and pedagogical work when considering questions about the nature and trends of the modern anticorruption policy development. The applied approach allows to bring together criminal law criminology and theoreticallegal research of anticorruption policy. nbsp

Economic impact

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Technology Transfer Department

2001-06-01

In federal fiscal year 2000 (FY00), Berkeley Lab had 4,347 full- and part-time employees. In addition, at any given time of the year, there were more than 1,000 Laboratory guests. These guests, who also reside locally, have an important economic impact on the nine-county Bay Area. However, Berkeley Lab's total economic impact transcends the direct effects of payroll and purchasing. The direct dollars paid to the Lab's employees in the form of wages, salaries, and benefits, and payments made to contractors for goods and services, are respent by employees and contractors again and again in the local and greater economy. Further, while Berkeley Lab has a strong reputation for basic scientific research, many of the Lab's scientific discoveries and inventions have had direct application in industry, spawning new businesses and creating new opportunities for existing firms. This analysis updates the Economic Impact Analysis done in 1996, and its purpose is to describe the economic and geographic impact of Laboratory expenditures and to provide a qualitative understanding of how Berkeley Lab impacts and supports the local community. It is intended as a guide for state, local, and national policy makers as well as local community members. Unless otherwise noted, this analysis uses data from FY00, the most recent year for which full data are available.

Three essays on the economics of science policy: The impact of funding, collaboration and research chairs

Science.gov (United States)

Mirnezami, Seyed Reza

This thesis studies the determinants that influence the number of citations, the effect of having a research collaboration with top-funded scientists on scientific productivity, and the effect of holding a research chair on scientific productivity. Based on a review study by Bornmann and Daniel (2008), one can argue that non-scientific factors determining the decision to cite do not significantly alter the role of citation as a measure of research impact. Assuming that the number of citations is a good measure for research impact and, in turn, for a certain kind of quality, we showed that the number of articles and the visibility of a researcher, the impact factor of the journal, the size of the research team, and the institutional setting of the university are the important determinants of citation counts. However, we have found that there is no significant effect of public funding and gender in most of the domains examined. The point that funding amount is not a significant determinant of citation counts does not necessarily contradict the positive effect of funding on scientific productivity. We also developed a theoretical model and proposed some hypotheses about the effect of collaboration with top-funded scientists on scientific productivity. We then validated the hypotheses with empirical analysis and showed that such collaboration has a positive effect on scientific productivity. This significant effect may exist through different channels: transfer of tacit knowledge, more scientific publications, economy of scale in knowledge production because of better research equipment, and expanded research network. The results also verified the positive effect of funding, the positive effect of networking (measured by number of co-authors), the inverted U-shaped effect of age, and the fewer number of publications by women compared to men. Finally, we made a distinction between different attributes of research chairs and their effect on scientific productivity. One

Aquaculture Land-Use Policy: The Case of Clam Farming in Thaibinh Province, Vietnam

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Thi Thu Hang NGO

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Policy-making and enforcement remains centralized in Vietnam. Policies have been formulated with less scientific and public justification, thus being largely bureaucratic and infeasible, and in many cases, they have created plagues for people at the grass-roots levels. This article focuses on the implementation of policies related to intertidal land-use and supports for clam farming in the Thaibinh province as a case study to explore the impacts of policies on clam farming and farmers. During the period of 2011–2013, provincial policies on intertidal land allocation and technical and financial supports had boosted clam farming development in the province to a surprising extent. Rapid expansion of the clam farming area has created significant consequences for the farming sector, as well as farmer’s lives. However, for the same provincial policies, but with different enforcement, different farming outcomes for clam farmers in the three study communes have resulted. Where farmers had more of a voice and choice in bidding for the intertidal areas they preferred, they faced fewer problems. It is, thus, suggested that a more decentralized policy-making and enforcement are needed, in which more scientific assessment and farmer participation are required to not only make government policy more successful in supporting farmers and achieving their expected outcomes, but also to provide farmers with more room to make their own farming decisions from which farming and marketing risks could be mitigated.

German Energiewende and the heating market – Impact and limits of policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauermann, Klaas

2016-01-01

The German Energiewende envisages achieving a climate-neutral building stock in 2050 by means of two major pillars of regulation. First, residential buildings should consume 80% less primary energy and second; the remaining energy demand should be covered primarily with renewables. This paper simulates the future German heating market under different policy scenarios in order to evaluate the impact and limits of recent and conceivable policies. The investigation is based upon a dual model approach, linking a residential heating model to a discrete choice model. The major finding is that current regulations are not suitable for the achievement of governmental targets. Scenario calculations show that additional carbon emission reductions, triggered by the current regulatory regime, are falling short of expectations. In terms of economic efficiency, all calculated policy alternatives outperform the regulation currently in place. This allows to draw the conclusion that carbon emission reductions can be achieved without a major increase in cost. The model results highlight two policy implications. First, a rising mandatory share of renewables in the heating market is needed for target achievement and can be cost effectively. Second, renewable obligations for heating systems must include the existing building stock to achieve the postulated political targets. - Highlights: •The residential heating market accounts for major share of carbon emissions. •The disregard of the building stock weakens the impact of recent regulation. •Current regulation preserves a heating market dominated by fossil fuels. •A significant renewable share can be achieved through direct regulation. •Alternative policy leads to emission reductions without major increases in costs.

Temperature impacts on economic growth warrant stringent mitigation policy

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Frances C.; Diaz, Delavane B.

2015-02-01

Integrated assessment models compare the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation with damages from climate change to evaluate the social welfare implications of climate policy proposals and inform optimal emissions reduction trajectories. However, these models have been criticized for lacking a strong empirical basis for their damage functions, which do little to alter assumptions of sustained gross domestic product (GDP) growth, even under extreme temperature scenarios. We implement empirical estimates of temperature effects on GDP growth rates in the DICE model through two pathways, total factor productivity growth and capital depreciation. This damage specification, even under optimistic adaptation assumptions, substantially slows GDP growth in poor regions but has more modest effects in rich countries. Optimal climate policy in this model stabilizes global temperature change below 2 °C by eliminating emissions in the near future and implies a social cost of carbon several times larger than previous estimates. A sensitivity analysis shows that the magnitude of climate change impacts on economic growth, the rate of adaptation, and the dynamic interaction between damages and GDP are three critical uncertainties requiring further research. In particular, optimal mitigation rates are much lower if countries become less sensitive to climate change impacts as they develop, making this a major source of uncertainty and an important subject for future research.

Impacts of Bioenergy Policies on Land-Use Change in Nigeria

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Stanley U. Okoro

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, bioenergy policies have increased the competition for land as well as the risk of adverse environmental impacts resulting from deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs. Primary land-use objectives confronting society today include meeting the growing demand for agricultural products, especially energy crops, preserving essential ecosystem services for human well-being and long-run agrarian production, and contributing to the climate policy target. Here, future agricultural, societal and environmental consequences of bioenergy policies under different global climate and societal development scenarios were assessed using a novel Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model for Nigeria (NGA–FASOM. The results reveal that, in Nigeria, meeting emission reduction requires an implementation of a minimum carbon price of $80/ton within the forest and agricultural sectors. A carbon price alone is not sufficient to preserve the remaining forests and pasture land in Nigeria when bioenergy is subsidized. Furthermore, the result shows that subsidy on bioenergy does not have any significant effect on the total social welfare. The findings in this study provide a guide for policymakers in designing appropriate policies addressing bioenergy industry issues in Nigeria.

Environmental policy challenge crime in Republic Serbia and its impact on environmental safety

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Jović Vojislav

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Environmental law and ecological security representing nearly two related fields that have a scientific discipline in our legal security framework introduced in the first decade of this century. Despite this fact, the legal norms that regulate the protection and safety of the environment have been studied in the framework of other disciplines, and their etymology suggests that environmental regulations have existed in the ninth century, first as a prohibitive provision 'is prohibited'. It is known that environmental law to a certain extent based on criminal law norms and the norms of a protective object with the environment - Ekos. The fact of regulation of a large number of offenses in this field indicates the significance of the criminal policy which is in the field of environmental law and environmental security provides criminal protection. In this paper, in addition to general introductory remarks on environmental law, environmental safety and environmental tort, consider the area of combating environmental crime, the share of primary and secondary subjects of criminal procedural and international cooperation, particularly in combating transnational environmental crime. In the end, considering the environmental impact of crime on ecological security, clarifying the possible forms of threats and extent of the reaction.

Education Policy and "Friedmanomics": Free Market Ideology and Its Impact on School Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Fiala, Thomas J.; Owens, Deborah Duncan

2010-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of neoliberal ideology, and in particular, the economic and social theories of Milton Friedman on education policy. The paper takes a critical theoretical approach in that ultimately the paper is an ideological critique of conservative thought and action that impacts twenty-first century education…

Changes in the Medicare home health care market: the impact of reimbursement policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Sunha; Davitt, Joan K

2009-03-01

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 introduced 2 new reimbursement structures, the Interim Payment System (IPS, 1997-2000) and the Prospective Payment System (PPS, begun October 2000) for Medicare home health agencies (HHAs) under the fee-for-service program. This article describes and compares the impact of these changes on the Medicare home health market from a period before the BBA through the IPS and PPS in relation to agency characteristics. A secondary analysis of 1996, 1999, and 2002 Provider of Services data was conducted on all Medicare-certified HHAs. Frequencies and rates of change were calculated by agency characteristics to describe changes in the number of active agencies through those years. Logistic regression models were used to compare factors associated with market exits under different payment systems. The results indicate dramatic but disproportional changes in response to the IPS and the PPS among Medicare home health care agencies. Agency closures were greater and market entries fewer during the IPS, but more branch offices/subunits were closed during the PPS. Proprietary and freestanding agencies experienced greater volatility throughout, with the greatest number of closures seen in Region VI (Dallas). These results demonstrate the direct impact of policy changes on the home health care market and highlight the need to evaluate policy changes to understand both intended and unintended impacts on health markets. Future research should analyze the effect of these policy changes on other healthcare providers and systems and their impact on health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries.

Open Access to Scientific Data: Promoting Science and Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guan-Hua Xu

2007-06-01

Full Text Available As an important part of the science and technology infrastructure platform of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology launched the Scientific Data Sharing Program in 2002. Twenty-four government agencies now participate in the Program. After five years of hard work, great progress has been achieved in the policy and legal framework, data standards, pilot projects, and international cooperation. By the end of 2005, one-third of the existing public-interest and basic scientific databases in China had been integrated and upgraded. By 2020, China is expected to build a more user-friendly scientific data management and sharing system, with 80 percent of scientific data available to the general public. In order to realize this objective, the emphases of the project are to perfect the policy and legislation system, improve the quality of data resources, expand and establish national scientific data centers, and strengthen international cooperation. It is believed that with the opening up of access to scientific data in China, the Program will play a bigger role in promoting science and national innovation.

A Danish case. Portfolio evaluation and its impact on energy efficiency policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Togeby, M.; Dyhr-Mikkelsen, K. [Ea Energy Analyses, Frederiksholms Kanal 4, 1220 Copenhagen K (Denmark); Larsen, A.E. [Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde (Denmark); Bach, P. [Danish Energy Agency, Amaliegade 44, 1256 Copenhagen K (Denmark)

2012-01-15

A political agreement from 2005 stated that an evaluation of the entire Danish energy efficiency policy portfolio must be carried out before the end of 2008, with the aim to assess the following: (1) Is the policy portfolio sufficient to meet the energy efficiency targets? (2) Do the policies enable the national goals to be met in a cost-effective manner? (3) Is the overall design of the policy portfolio appropriate? The evaluation gave recommendations on how to improve and develop the portfolio, mainly using cost-effectiveness as criteria. The evaluation was completed in December 2008, and this paper presents the main findings and the subsequent impact on Danish policy. A key lesson learned is the importance of including all energy efficiency policies in the evaluation. Examining the entire portfolio of policies (as opposed to only selected policies) gave way to findings that would otherwise not have been captured. With its broad perspective, the evaluation found that the policy instruments prioritised the commercial and industrial sectors less than the household and public sectors. The recommendations made by the authors contributed to the implementation of new taxes for the commercial and industrial sectors together with the reform of the Electricity Saving Trust to a Centre for Energy Savings charged with energy savings within all sectors, except transport - both which have been important steps towards a more cost-effective solution.

The impact of policies regulating alcohol trading hours and days on specific alcohol-related harms: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez-Ramirez, Diana C; Voaklander, Donald

2018-02-01

Evidence supports the expectation that changes in time of alcohol sales associate with changes in alcohol-related harm in both directions. However, to the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive systematic reviews had examined the effect of policies restricting time of alcohol trading on specific alcohol-related harms. To compile existing evidence related to the impact of policies regulating alcohol trading hours/days of on specific harm outcomes such as: assault/violence, motor vehicle crashes/fatalities, injury, visits to the emergency department/hospital, murder/homicides and crime. Systematic review of literature studying the impact of policies regulation alcohol trading times in alcohol-related harm, published between January 2000 and October 2016 in English language. Results support the premise that policies regulating times of alcohol trading and consumption can contribute to reduce injuries, alcohol-related hospitalisations/emergency department visits, homicides and crime. Although the impact of alcohol trading policies in assault/violence and motor vehicle crashes/fatalities is also positive, these associations seem to be more complex and require further study. Evidence suggests a potential direct effect of policies that regulate alcohol trading times in the prevention of injuries, alcohol-related hospitalisations, homicides and crime. The impact of these alcohol trading policies in assault/violence and motor vehicle crashes/fatalities is less compelling. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Provincial Policies Impacting Shelter Service Delivery to Women Exposed to Violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Burnett, Camille; Ford-Gilboe, Marilyn; Berman, Helene; Ward-Griffin, Cathy; Wathen, Nadine

2015-01-01

Shelters for abused women function within a broad context that includes intersecting social structures, policies, and resources, which may constrain and limit the options available to abused women and tacitly reinforce the cycle of abuse. This feminist, qualitative study combined in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with 37 staff and four executive directors from four shelters in Ontario, Canada, along with a critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts. Together, the interviews and critical discourse analysis formed an integrated analysis of the dialectic between policy as written and enacted. The study findings illuminate the complexity of the system and its impact on women, shelters, and the community and highlight how specific types of social policies and various social system subsystems and structures, and system configuration, shape the day to day reality of shelter service delivery and impact outcomes for abused women and their children. Collectively, these findings offer direction regarding where these policies could be improved and provide a basis for shelters, policy makers, advocates, and the community to strengthen current services and policies, potentially enhancing outcomes for women. © The Author(s) 2015.

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 26: The relationship between technology policy and scientific and technical information within the US and Japanese aerospace industries

Science.gov (United States)

Pinelli, Thomas E.; Barclay, Rebecca O.; Kennedy, John M.

1993-01-01

Government technology policy has nurtured the growth of the aerospace industry which is vital to both the U.S. and Japanese economies. Japanese technology policy differs significantly from U.S. technology policy, however, particularly with respect to the production, transfer, and use of scientific and technical information (STI). In this paper, we discuss the unique position of the aerospace industry in the U.S. and Japan, U.S. and Japanese aerospace policy, and the role of STI in the process of aerospace innovation. The information-seeking behaviors of U.S. and Japanese aerospace engineers and scientists are compared. The authors advocate the development of innovation-adoption technology and STI policy goals for U.S. aerospace and the inclusion of an aerospace knowledge diffusion transfer system with an 'active' component for scanning and acquiring foreign aerospace technology and STI.

Ex-Ante Impact Assessment & Value Network Analysis for SI: SIMPACT Policy Brief 1

OpenAIRE

Dhondt, S.; Ven, H. van de; Cressey, P.; Kaderabkova, A.; Luna, Á.; Moghadam Saman, S.; Castro Spila, J.; Terstriep, J.

2016-01-01

In this Policy Brief, a conceptual framework is presented to conduct an ex-ante impact assessment for social innovation. The building blocks for an ex-ante impact assessment are goal formulation; developing the relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes; determining the role of stakeholders to achieve the objectives; calculating the impact; and deciding on the social innovation. These building blocks are sequentially interconnected to each other. In the brief, we present the experienc...

Digital Manipulation in Scientific Images: Some Ethical Considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayden, James E.

2000-01-01

Discusses the importance of images in the publishing and presentation of scientific research. Explains the use of photographs as scientific data in research. Lists some reasons for the manipulation of images, and clarifies the acceptable and unacceptable limits of manipulation and image manipulation policy. (Author/YDS)

The Impact of Price, Tax, and Advertising Policies on Alcohol Use in ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

It will examine the impact of pricing, taxation, and advertising policies on ... of users vs. non-users and consumption -influence of socio-economic status, gender, ... and limitations of current tax and advertising strategies in the four countries.

Advocates or cartographers? Scientific advisors and the narratives of German energy transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leipprand, Anna; Flachsland, Christian; Pahle, Michael

2017-01-01

Political debate on energy in Germany has been shaped by two historically opposed discourses, one pushing for a transition to renewables, the other holding on to the status quo. Scientific policy advice (SPA) has been involved in their evolution from the beginning. This paper draws on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and on discourse and narrative theory to study the role of SPA in recent German energy policy. We explore 1) whether scientific advisors have been members of advocacy coalitions, and 2) how their contributions may have interacted with the evolution of the discourses and major narratives. We perform a qualitative text analysis of 50 SPA reports published between 2000 and 2015. We find that the majority of studies clearly take sides in the debate, and that in most cases the reports’ positions are fully transparent. Despite the polarization, SPA provides differentiated information on key aspects of the discourses, and alternative design options for policy instruments. We conclude that SPA contributions have improved the conditions for political consensus and compromise. Collectively, SPA studies provide a basis for mapping different policy pathways and their consequences. In the future, SPA should address additional critical issues such as coal phase-out and international leadership. - Highlights: • We explore the role of scientific policy advice in Germany's energy transition. • There is widespread, mostly transparent advocacy in scientific advisory reports. • We conclude that scientific policy advice has facilitated dialogue and compromise. • We discuss implications for future advisory activity and further improvements.

[Analysis of the scientific productivity and impact of Spanish paediatrics (2006-2010)].

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Arroyo, A; González de Dios, J; Bolaños-Pizarro, M; Castelló-Cogollos, L; González-Alcaide, G; Navarro-Molina, C; Vidal-Infer, A; Coronado-Ferrer, S; González-Muñoz, M; Málaga-Guerrero, S; Aleixandre-Benavent, R

2013-06-01

The aim of this paper is to quantify, by means of bibliometric indicators, the scientific production of Spanish researchers and institutions publishing in national and international paediatric journals, as well as multidisciplinary and other knowledge areas publications during the period 2006-2010, and to determine their impact. The articles were obtained by applying specific search strategies in databases including, Science Citation Index-Expanded, Scopus, Índice Médico Español, and Índice Bibliográfico Español en Ciencias de la Salud. A total of 7971 articles were published in 971 journals, in which 142 were from Spain and 829 were international. The most productive journals were Anales DE PEDIATRÍA (n=1257), Acta Pediátrica Española (n=456) and Evidencias en Pediatría (n=358). Articles were published mostly in English (41.04%) and in Spanish (38.18%), with the participation of 17 874 different authors from 3302 institutions. Approximately 60% of the papers were cited at least once, and 39.81% were never cited. The mean number of citations per document was 4.28 (SD=9.54). The most cited journals were Pediatrics (n=770), Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (n=553). The number of articles progressively increased from 2006 to 2010, which confirms the consolidation and growth of Spanish pediatric research, where the results are published in a wide range of Spanish and international journals, among which stands out is the ANALES DE PEDIATRÍA, the only Spanish pediatric journal with an impact factor. The increasing internationalization of Spanish Pediatrics is also confirmed, since a sustained growth of articles published in international journals is observed, where a quarter was published in US or British journals, as well as the importance of the publication in English. There is a concern about the fact that almost 40% of the articles did not receive a citation, which should encourage authors to

Impact of forced separation policy on incarcerated postpartum mothers.

Science.gov (United States)

Chambers, Angelina N

2009-08-01

The number of incarcerated women in the United States is steadily increasing with 9% giving birth while serving time. Mothers and babies are routinely separated immediately and during most of the postpartum period. This qualitative study examines the impact of this policy by exploring the nature and meaning of the mother-infant bonding experience when the mothers know separation is coming. Twelve incarcerated postpartum mothers were interviewed during the early postpartum period about their antepartum and postpartum relationships with their babies. Qualitative data analysis produced four relational themes: (a) "a love connection," (b) "everything was great until I birthed," (c) "feeling empty and missing a part of me," and (d) "I don't try to think too far in advance." Results of this qualitative study provide information to professionals exploring gender-sensitive prison policies for the growing female population.

Wishing away Plagiarism in Scientific Publications! Will it work? A situational analysis of Plagiarism policy of journals in PubMed.

Science.gov (United States)

Debnath, Jyotindu; Cariappa, M P

2018-04-01

Plagiarism remains a scourge for the modern academia. There are inconsistencies in the plagiarism policy scientific journals. The aims of this study was to analyze types of published articles on 'Plagiarism' available on PubMed over last two decades against a backdrop of the plagiarism policy of the journals publishing such articles. A literature search on PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) was made using the search term "plagiarism" from 01 January 1997 till 29 March 17. All publications having 'plagiarism' in the title formed the study group. The following were noted: types of articles published, ethical and plagiarism policy of the journal as available in the Instructions to authors and or in the journal home page. A total of 582 publications from 320 journals were studied. Editorials (165, 28.3%) and Letters to the Editor (159, 27.3%) formed the bulk. Research articles (56, 9.6%), Review articles (51, 8.7%) and Commentaries (47, 8%) formed the remainder. Detailed ethical guidelines were present in 221 (69%). Outline ethical guidelines only were present in 15 (4.7%) journals. 49 (15.3%) journals did not have any ethical guidelines. Detailed description of the policy on plagiarism was found in 80 (25%) journals. Only an outline description was found in 29 (9%) journals while a plagiarism policy/statement was totally absent in 176 (55%) journals. There is a need to have a well defined plagiarism policy/statement for all scholarly journals easily visible on their home pages on the internet and also in their Instructions to Authors.

An economic analysis of transportation fuel policies in Brazil: Fuel choice, land use, and environmental impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nuñez, Hector M.; Önal, Hayri

2016-01-01

Brazil uses taxes, subsidies, and blending mandates as policy instruments to manage and stabilize its transportation fuel markets. The fuel sector has been very dynamic in recent years due to frequent policy adjustments and variable market conditions. In this paper, we use a price endogenous economic simulation model to analyze the impacts of such policy adjustments under various challenging conditions in the global ethanol and sugar markets. Our analysis specifically focuses on Brazilian producers' supply responses, consumers' driving demand and fuel choice, ethanol trade, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and social welfare. The model results show that (i) under a low ethanol blending rate, conventional vehicles would be driven significantly less while flex-fuel and ethanol-dedicated vehicles would not be affected significantly; (ii) lowering the fuel taxes adversely affects the competitiveness of sugarcane ethanol against gasoline blends, thus lowering producers' surplus; and (iii) while a reduction in fuel taxes is advantageous in terms of overall social welfare, it has serious environmental impacts by increasing the GHG emissions from transportation fuels consumed in Brazil. - Highlights: • We examine the economic and environmental impacts of Brazilian fuel policies. • We also analyze impacts under different sugar and ethanol markets conditions. • Lowering blending rate reduces distance driven by conventional cars. • Lowering fuel tax rates affects competitiveness of ethanol against gasoline blend. • Reducing fuel tax rates has dramatic environmental impacts by increasing emissions.

Flexible Work: The Impact of a New Policy on Employees' Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Olsen, Heidi M; Brown, Wendy J; Kolbe-Alexander, Tracy; Burton, Nicola W

2018-01-01

The aim of the study was to assess change in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in office-based employees after the implementation of a flexible work policy that allowed working at home. A total of 24 employees (62% female; 40 ± 10 years) completed an online questionnaire 4 weeks pre- and 6 weeks post-implementation of the policy. Changes in PA and SB were assessed using Wilcoxon signed rank test. There were no changes in PA after the introduction of the flexible work policy (Z = -0.29, P > 0.05). Sitting time increased on days the employees worked at home (Z = -2.02, P > 0.05) and on days they worked at the office (Z = -4.16, P > 0.001). A flexible work policy may have had a negative impact on sedentary behavior in this workplace. Future work is needed to explore the potential impact on workplace sitting time.

Toward Reproducible Computational Research: An Empirical Analysis of Data and Code Policy Adoption by Journals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Stodden

Full Text Available Journal policy on research data and code availability is an important part of the ongoing shift toward publishing reproducible computational science. This article extends the literature by studying journal data sharing policies by year (for both 2011 and 2012 for a referent set of 170 journals. We make a further contribution by evaluating code sharing policies, supplemental materials policies, and open access status for these 170 journals for each of 2011 and 2012. We build a predictive model of open data and code policy adoption as a function of impact factor and publisher and find higher impact journals more likely to have open data and code policies and scientific societies more likely to have open data and code policies than commercial publishers. We also find open data policies tend to lead open code policies, and we find no relationship between open data and code policies and either supplemental material policies or open access journal status. Of the journals in this study, 38% had a data policy, 22% had a code policy, and 66% had a supplemental materials policy as of June 2012. This reflects a striking one year increase of 16% in the number of data policies, a 30% increase in code policies, and a 7% increase in the number of supplemental materials policies. We introduce a new dataset to the community that categorizes data and code sharing, supplemental materials, and open access policies in 2011 and 2012 for these 170 journals.

Toward Reproducible Computational Research: An Empirical Analysis of Data and Code Policy Adoption by Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Stodden, Victoria; Guo, Peixuan; Ma, Zhaokun

2013-01-01

Journal policy on research data and code availability is an important part of the ongoing shift toward publishing reproducible computational science. This article extends the literature by studying journal data sharing policies by year (for both 2011 and 2012) for a referent set of 170 journals. We make a further contribution by evaluating code sharing policies, supplemental materials policies, and open access status for these 170 journals for each of 2011 and 2012. We build a predictive model of open data and code policy adoption as a function of impact factor and publisher and find higher impact journals more likely to have open data and code policies and scientific societies more likely to have open data and code policies than commercial publishers. We also find open data policies tend to lead open code policies, and we find no relationship between open data and code policies and either supplemental material policies or open access journal status. Of the journals in this study, 38% had a data policy, 22% had a code policy, and 66% had a supplemental materials policy as of June 2012. This reflects a striking one year increase of 16% in the number of data policies, a 30% increase in code policies, and a 7% increase in the number of supplemental materials policies. We introduce a new dataset to the community that categorizes data and code sharing, supplemental materials, and open access policies in 2011 and 2012 for these 170 journals.

An International Coastline Collaboratory to Broaden Scientific Impacts of a Subduction Zone Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Bodin, P.

2015-12-01

A global Subduction Zone Observatory (SZO) presents an exciting opportunity to broaden involvement in scientific research and to ensure multidisciplinary impact. Most subduction zones feature dynamic interactions of the seafloor, the coastline, and the onshore environments also being perturbed by global climate change. Tectonic deformation, physical environment changes (temperature and chemistry), and resulting ecological shifts (intertidal population redistribution, etc.) are all basic observables for important scientific investigation. Yet even simple baseline studies like repeated transects of intertidal biological communities are rare. A coordinated program of such studies would document the local variability across time and spatial scales, permit comparisons with other subducting coastlines, and extend the reach and importance of other SZO studies. One goal is to document the patterns, and separate the component causes of, coastal uplift and subsidence and ecological response to a subduction zone earthquake using a database of pre-event biological and surveying observations. Observations would be directed by local scientists using students and trained volunteers as observers, under the auspices of local educational entities and using standardized sampling and reporting methods. The observations would be added to the global, Internet-accessible, database for use by the entire scientific community. Data acquisition and analysis supports the educational missions of local schools and universities, forming the basis for educational programs. All local programs would be coordinated by an international panel convened by the SZO. The facility would include a web-hosted lecture series and an annual web conference to aid organization and collaboration. Small grants could support more needy areas. This SZO collaboratory advances not only scientific literacy, but also multinational collaboration and scholarship, and (most importantly) produces important scientific results.

Support Science by Publishing in Scientific Society Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Schloss, Patrick D; Johnston, Mark; Casadevall, Arturo

2017-09-26

Scientific societies provide numerous services to the scientific enterprise, including convening meetings, publishing journals, developing scientific programs, advocating for science, promoting education, providing cohesion and direction for the discipline, and more. For most scientific societies, publishing provides revenues that support these important activities. In recent decades, the proportion of papers on microbiology published in scientific society journals has declined. This is largely due to two competing pressures: authors' drive to publish in "glam journals"-those with high journal impact factors-and the availability of "mega journals," which offer speedy publication of articles regardless of their potential impact. The decline in submissions to scientific society journals and the lack of enthusiasm on the part of many scientists to publish in them should be matters of serious concern to all scientists because they impact the service that scientific societies can provide to their members and to science. Copyright © 2017 Schloss et al.

The impact of public policies on economic empowerment of women in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Branković-Đundić Maja

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The subject of this article is the possibilities and ways in which public policies can effect economic empowerment of women. In this paper the social and historical factors that influence the development of gender-based economic inequalities and economic status of women in Serbia are presented. Additionally, the paper offers critical review of strategic documents and specific public policies in Serbia that address the improvement of the status of women from a gender aspect, and assess their potential impact on changes regarding gender inequality.

Impact of tobacco tax and price policies on tobacco use in China ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

However, the number of studies examining the impact of a tobacco tax and price policies in China are few. Given China's current low and inefficient cigarette excise tax, and high cigarette affordability, there is ... Agent(e) responsable du CRDI.

Water use impacts of future transport fuels: role of California's climate policy & National biofuel policies (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Teter, J.; Yeh, S.; Mishra, G. S.; Tiedeman, K.; Yang, C.

2013-12-01

In the coming decades, growing demand for energy and water and the need to address climate change will create huge challenges for energy policy and natural resource management. Synergistic strategies must be developed to conserve and use both resources more efficiently. California (CA) is a prime example of a region where policymakers have began to incorporate water planning in energy infrastructure development. But more must be done as CA transforms its energy system to meet its climate target. We analyze lifecycle water use of current and future transport fuel consumption to evaluate impacts & formulate mitigation strategies for the state at the watershed scale. Four 'bounding cases' for CA's future transportation demand to year 2030 are projected for analysis: two scenarios that only meet the 2020 climate target (business-as-usual, BAU) with high / low water use intensity, and two that meet long-term climate target with high / low water use intensity (Fig 1). Our study focuses on the following energy supply chains: (a) liquid fuels from conventional/unconventional oil & gas, (b) thermoelectric and renewable generation technologies, and (c) biofuels (Fig 2-3). We develop plausible siting scenarios that bound the range of possible water sources, impacts, and dispositions to provide insights into how to best allocate water and limit water impacts of energy development. We further identify constraints & opportunities to improve water use efficiency and highlight salient policy relevant lessons. For biofuels we extend our scope to the entire US as most of the biofuels consumed in California are and will be produced from outside of the state. We analyze policy impacts that capture both direct & indirect land use effects across scenarios, thus addressing the major shortcomings of existing studies, which ignore spatial heterogeneity as well as economic effects of crop displacement and the effects of crop intensification and extensification. We use the agronomic

IMPACTS OF GROUP-BASED SIGNAL CONTROL POLICY ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR AND INTERSECTION SAFETY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keshuang TANG

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Unlike the typical stage-based policy commonly applied in Japan, the group-based control (often called movement-based in the traffic control industry in Japan refers to such a control pattern that the controller is capable of separately allocating time to each signal group instead of stage based on traffic demand. In order to investigate its applicability at signalized intersections in Japan, an intersection located in Yokkaichi City of Mie Prefecture was selected as an experimental application site by the Japan Universal Traffic Management Society (UTMS. Based on the data collected at the intersection before and after implementing the group-based control policy respectively, this study evaluated the impacts of such a policy on driver behavior and intersection safety. To specify those impacts, a few models utilizing cycle-based data were first developed to interpret the occurrence probability and rate of red-light-running (RLR. Furthermore, analyses were performed on the yellow-entry time (Ye of the last cleared vehicle and post encroachment time (PET during the phase switching. Conclusions supported that the group-based control policy, along with certain other factors, directly or indirectly influenced the RLR behavior of through and right-turn traffics. Meanwhile, it has potential safety benefits as well, indicated by the declined Ye and increased PET values.

The potential impacts of climate-change policy on freshwater use in thermoelectric power generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chandel, Munish K.; Pratson, Lincoln F.; Jackson, Robert B.

2011-01-01

Climate change policy involving a price on carbon would change the mix of power plants and the amount of water they withdraw and consume to generate electricity. We analyze what these changes could entail for electricity generation in the United States under four climate policy scenarios that involve different costs for emitting CO 2 and different technology options for reducing emissions out to the year 2030. The potential impacts of the scenarios on the U.S. electric system are modeled using a modified version of the U.S. National Energy Modeling System and water-use factors for thermoelectric power plants derived from electric utility data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Under all the climate-policy scenarios, freshwater withdrawals decline 2-14% relative to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario of no U.S. climate policy. Furthermore, water use decreases as the price on CO 2 under the climate policies increases. At relatively high carbon prices (>$50/tonne CO 2 ), however, retrofitting coal plants to capture CO 2 increases freshwater consumption compared to BAU in 2030. Our analysis suggests that climate policies and a carbon price will reduce both electricity generation and freshwater withdrawals compared to BAU unless a substantial number of coal plants are retrofitted to capture CO 2 . - Highlights: → We analyze the impact of climate change policy on water use for electricity generation. → Water use decreases with an increase in CO 2 allowance price. → Retrofitting of coal plants with CCS could increase water use considerably.

Impacts of Policies on Poverty: The Definition of Poverty

OpenAIRE

Bellù, Lorenzo Giovanni; Liberati, Paolo

2005-01-01

This module illustrates how poverty can be defined in the context of policy impact analysis. After reporting and discussing the definition of poverty as “the lack of, or the inability to achieve, a socially acceptable standard of living”, it discusses the mono-dimensional and multi-dimensional approaches to the definition of poverty. Furthermore, the module focuses on the absolute and the relative concept of poverty, also drawing some analogies and differences with the concept of food secu...

The credit crunch : Impacts on the housing market and policy responses in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Priemus, H.

2009-01-01

This contribution deals with the impact of the credit crunch on the Dutch housing market and the policy responses of the Dutch government so far. Reinhart and Rogoff have presented an overview of credit crises after WW II: what are the general characteristics and impacts? Also in the Netherlands,