Changing Policy Environment Research Articles

Omics for Nurse Scientists Conducting Environmental Health Research.

Nurse scientists are ideally positioned to perform environmental health research and it is critical that the role of omics in the complex relationships between environmental exposures and an individual's unique physiology in human health outcomes be appreciated. Importantly, omics can offer nurse scientists a tool to measure exposure, demonstrate molecular phenotypic changes associated with exposure, and potentially uncover mechanisms of exposure-related disease or negative health outcomes. The purpose of this summary is to serve as an overview of omics methodologies for nurse scientists conducting environmental health research and provides future directions of this work as well as exemplar funding opportunities that demonstrate the growing need and interest in this area. The intersection of nursing and exposure science will accelerate the work in environmental health and bring forth translation of research findings into clinical and community practice. Importantly, this information can better help us understand the variation in response to the environment and support environmental health policy change at the local, state, and federal level to improve community health and well-being.

Institutional changes in Hungarian environmental policy between 1998 and 2018

Abstract A country’s economic situation, its political establishment, and the prevailing environmental conditions have a significant impact on the institutional system required for efficient environmental protection measures. During our work, we reviewed the institutional changes and legislation regarding environmental protection which have occurred over the past 20 years as well as the role of changes in the government. In summary, it can be concluded that significant changes occurred during the past two decades. The names, organizational structures, operations, and scopes of ministries have undergone regular changes over the years. In Hungary, there has been no separate ministry of the environment since 2010, and this area is regulated only on the state secretary level. In contrast, in the V4 countries and the Carpathian Basin, environmental protection is regulated on the ministry level.

Association of Punitive and Reporting State Policies Related to Substance Use in Pregnancy With Rates of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

Despite the rapidly changing policy environment regarding substance use during pregnancy, information is lacking on the association of state policies with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). To determine if punitive or reporting state policies related to substance use during pregnancy are associated with NAS rates. This repeated cross-sectional study used retrospective, difference-in-difference analysis of live births in the State Inpatient Databases from 8 US states in varying years between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2014. States without punitive or reporting policies were compared with states with policies before and after policy enactment using logistic regression models adjusted for individual and county-level factors and state and year fixed effects. Analyses were conducted from April 10, 2019, to July 30, 2019. Time since enactment of state policies related to substance use in pregnancy, county-level rurality and unemployment, and presence of specialized treatment programs for pregnant and postpartum women in a county. Rates of NAS. Among 4 567 963 live births, 23 377 neonates (0.5%) received a diagnosis of NAS. Among neonates with NAS, 3394 (14.5%) lived in counties without any treatment programs specifically for pregnant and postpartum women, 20 323 (86.9%) lived in metropolitan counties, and 8135 (34.8%) lived in counties in the highest unemployment quartile. In adjusted analyses among neonates in states with punitive policies, odds of NAS were significantly greater during the first full calendar year after enactment (adjusted odds ratio, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.06-1.46; P = .007) and more than 1 full year after enactment (adjusted odds ratio, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.17-1.51; P < .001). After regression adjustment, the annual NAS rate was 46 (95% CI, 43-48) neonates with NAS per 10 000 live births in states without punitive policies; 57 (95% CI, 48-65) neonates with NAS per 10 000 live births in states with punitive policies during the first full year after enactment; and 60 (95% CI, 56-65) neonates with NAS per 10 000 live births in states with punitive policies in effect for more than 1 full year. There was no association between reporting policies and odds of NAS. In this repeated cross-sectional analysis of 8 states, states with punitive policies were associated with greater odds of NAS immediately and in the longer term, but there was no association between NAS and states with reporting policies.

The impact of a changing policy environment on board members in small and medium-sized voluntary organisations

This article examines the experiences of volunteers serving as board members in small and medium-sized voluntary organisations (VOs) in England. It considers the ways in which policy developments, including the outsourcing of public service delivery and austerity programmes, are impacting on this group of volunteers. Relatively little research has considered policy change from a board member perspective, despite their key role in organisational governance. The article draws on qualitative interviews with individual board members. It shows that policy changes are contributing to an increasingly complex role for board members in small and medium-sized VOs. The policy environment impacts on board members both by driving more challenging organisational issues for the board and, in turn, by contributing to stress and a lack of confidence at an individual level. Recruitment, training and support mechanisms are not always adequate in meeting the needs of this specific group of volunteers within this context.

Towards nearly zero-energy educational buildings with the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive via energy rehabilitation in cold Mediterranean zones: The case of Spain

The European Union, through the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive, has been establishing requirements and expectations regarding energy savings and efficiency in buildings. The objective of this study is to explore energy rehabilitation solutions for educational buildings of the 1980s in cold climate zones of Spain by applying the corresponding adaptation of the European legislation, which is the Basic Document for Energy Saving of the Technical Building Code. The evolution of regulation is studied using three cases, and 12 proposals for achieving nearly zero-energy educational buildings are studied. The analysis of the results obtained shows how changes in energy and environmental policies affect those buildings. Regarding the baseline building, average reductions of more than 66% in non-renewable primary energy consumption and of more than 71% in CO2 emissions were observed. Additional reductions of at least 10% in non-renewable primary energy consumption and 8% in CO2 emissions are achieved with the alternatives proposed to achieve nearly zero-energy educational buildings. The knowledge of the sector is deepened with this study, which allows the design of future energy rehabilitation policies and promotes policy changes.

Effect of environmental policy changes on pollution: A comparative analysis of European Union and Russia

Effect of environmental policy changes on pollution: A comparative analysis of European Union and Russia

Virtual synchronous generator model control of PV for improving transient stability and damping in a large‐scale power system

AbstractBecause of the significant changes in environmental policies and electric power deregulation in the last decade, a lot of photovoltaic generations (PV) have been and will be installed into the power system in Japan and the ratio of PVs to other synchronous generators will be increased. As a countermeasure against the decrease in the rotational inertia in the whole power system, a virtual synchronous generator (VSG) model control of the PV has so far been proposed. However, the system stabilization effect of the VSG in large‐scale power systems has been unclear. In this paper, a virtual step‐out blocking method of VSG for improving the transient stability is proposed. In addition, the necessity of governor control of VSG in a large‐scale power system is discussed. Finally, the rated kw and kwh capacities of the battery required for realizing the VSG‐model control are evaluated.

La doble dimensión de la autogestión: organización y trabajo en las cooperativas cartoneras de la ciudad de Buenos Aires

Este artículo busca aportar herramientas conceptuales para la comprensión de las modalidades organizativas de las experiencias de trabajo asociado, a partir del análisis de las prácticas de autogestión de las cooperativas de cartoneros de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Para ello se propone un esquema analítico que contempla a la autogestión en dos dimensiones. Una dimensión económicoorganizacional, que refiere al gerenciamiento de los recursos que las organizaciones movilizan, a la construcción de vínculos con los actores que garantizan su acceso y afluencia, la delimitación de formas de organización del trabajo y el desarrollo de estrategias para consolidar los colectivos asociados. Y una dimensión política, que comprende a las formas de gestión de las decisiones, la construcción de espacios de encuentro y negociación y el fomento de la participación y del compromiso de los asociados. Bajo este esquema se analizan las estrategias, obstáculos y tensiones que han atravesado al desarrollo de la Cooperativa Recuperando Futuro en el marco de los cambios de la política ambiental de la ciudad. Las reflexiones aquí presentadas surgen de una investigación llevada a cabo en cooperativas cartoneras del Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires en el período 2007-2016. Desde un diseño metodológico cualitativo basado en un estudio de caso, se recurrió a la triangulación de datos y fuentes para la construcción y análisis de la información recabada.

Development of an instrument to improve the monitoring of licensed industrial activities and to promote continuous improvement

Environmental licensing is a command-and-control (C&C) instrument used at the state level in Brazil to enforce compliance with legal requirements and environmental standards; however, it does not encourage continuous improvement. The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology that can be used as a licensing and monitoring policy for industrial activities, based on both command and control and economic instruments. Therefore, the development of a matrix to measure the environmental performance of companies is proposed so as to include mandatory compliance requirements, environmental management requirements and continuous improvement indicators. Performance assessment could be used by the environmental agency as a tool to support environmental management policy change by working with environmental incentives for better-performing companies. The results obtained with the matrix will demonstrate exactly what the theory describes: in an environment where the control imposed to the entrepreneur is by the attendance of a legislative standard and not the demonstration of continuous improvement, there is no evolution of the environmental performance over the 3-year period of the companies. Consequently, the inclusion of a tool to assess environmental performance constitutes a requirement for the environmental evolution of the country.

The state of Earth's health

Biodiversity Biological communities, which provide critical services to humans, are greatly threatened by changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of natural resources, climate change, and other threats. To understand what humanity is losing, we must appreciate how biodiversity contributes to human economies and culture. In an editorial, Lovejoy heralds a feat of data gathering and analysis: the first official report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This comprehensive assessment of the world's ecosystems is bleak, but the report advocates for transformational change in environmental policy by illustrating what we as a planet have already lost and what more we stand to lose. Sci. Adv. 10.1126/sciadv.aax7492 (2019).

Policy Coordination in South Korea

Coordination has been one of the major problems in the field of public administration (Pressman &amp; Wildavsky, 1984; Peters 1998; Bouckaert, Peters, &amp; Verhoest, 2010). However, as the complexity of policy problems increases and the policy environment changes, coordination is becoming more of a serious challenge to administration than ever before (Peters, 2018; Roberts, 2011). The failure of policy coordination can greatly undermine administrative capacity, so a serious approach to coordination is necessary not only theoretically but also practically. This study reviewed policy coordination theories and analyzed prior studies on current Korean policy coordination. In particular, I focused on the concepts, dimensions, mechanisms, and performance of policy coordination. What I found is that the number and variety of coordination studies in Korea is low. Most prior studies on coordination have focused on coordination between central ministries, and their methodology has primary taken the form of a literature review. Empirical studies on coordination performance have been few and far between. Based on these findings, I suggest several implications.

Applying Policy Process Theories to Environmental Governance Research: Themes and New Directions

Policy scholars have effectively leveraged policy process models, theories, and frameworks to respond to a variety of important environmental questions. For example, how do environmental issues arrive on the agendas of policymakers? What factors contribute to environmental policy change? What are the designs and effects of institutions (e.g., policies or cultural norms) on environmental governance? In this review, we survey the field of policy process scholarship, focusing on environmental governance, with three objectives. The first objective is to catalog the policy process models, theories, and frameworks most often featured in studies of environmental governance. The second is to capture the methodological choices commonly employed in the application of these models, theories, and frameworks in environmental domains. The third is to identify how these approaches deal with issues central to environmental governance research, including time, space, and policy scale. We aim to identify trends and strategies for integrating key considerations of scale into empirical policy process scholarship.

Reshaping and Reimagining Marketised Early Childhood Education and Care Systems

Die Vermarktlichung und Privatisierung der Frühpädagogik und frühkindlicher Betreuungssysteme stehen in Verbindung mit einer steigenden sozialen Stratifizierung und Elitebildung, welche die Bereitstellung und Versorgung beeinträchtigt. Belege aus verschiedenen EU- und OECD-Mitgliedsstaaten (Lloyd &amp; Penn, 2014'; Penn &amp; Lloyd, 2014) zeigen Politiken und Strategien auf, welche solchen Dynamiken entgegenwirken sollen. Praktische Lösungen solcher Risiken scheinen in transparenten Werten und Prinzipien gegründet, welche in nationalen Debatten von einem breiten Spektrum an Interessenvertretern abgestimmt werden. Solch eine Grundlage lässt sich beispielsweise in den von Moss (2014) und Tronto (2013) entwickelten alternativen Rahmenkonzepten zur Neukonzipierung gerechterer frühkindlicher Systeme finden. Sich abzeichnende Belege deuten darauf hin, dass bestimmte geschäftliche Leitungsstrukturen der Kinderbetreuung, welche klar formulierte Werte und Prinzipien aufnehmen, gleichzeitig Marktrisiken im Sektor Kinderbetreuung minimieren können. Die Etablierung einer substantiellen Systemumgestaltung bleibt dennoch eine Herausforderung innerhalb sich rasch verändernder politischer Umgebungen.

Policies and strategies to retain and support the return of experienced GPs in direct patient care: the ReGROUP mixed-methods study

BackgroundUK general practice faces a workforce crisis, with general practitioner (GP) shortages, organisational change, substantial pressures across the whole health-care system and an ageing population with increasingly complex health needs. GPs require lengthy training, so retaining the existing workforce is urgent and important.Objectives(1) To identify the key policies and strategies that might (i) facilitate the retention of experienced GPs in direct patient care or (ii) support the return of GPs following a career break. (2) To consider the feasibility of potentially implementing those policies and strategies.DesignThis was a comprehensive, mixed-methods study.SettingThis study took place in primary care in England.ParticipantsGeneral practitioners registered in south-west England were surveyed. Interviews were with purposively selected GPs and primary care stakeholders. A RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method (RAM) panel comprised GP partners and GPs working in national stakeholder organisations. Stakeholder consultations included representatives from regional and national groups.Main outcome measuresSystematic review – factors affecting GPs’ decisions to quit and to take career breaks. Survey – proportion of GPs likely to quit, to take career breaks or to reduce hours spent in patient care within 5 years of being surveyed. Interviews – themes relating to GPs’ decision-making. RAM – a set of policies and strategies to support retention, assessed as ‘appropriate’ and ‘feasible’. Predictive risk modelling – predictive model to identify practices in south-west England at risk of workforce undersupply within 5 years. Stakeholder consultation – comments and key actions regarding implementing emergent policies and strategies from the research.ResultsPast research identified four job-related ‘push’ factors associated with leaving general practice: (1) workload, (2) job dissatisfaction, (3) work-related stress and (4) work–life balance. The survey, returned by 2248 out of 3370 GPs (67%) in the south-west of England, identified a high likelihood of quitting (37%), taking a career break (36%) or reducing hours (57%) within 5 years. Interviews highlighted three drivers of leaving general practice: (1) professional identity and value of the GP role, (2) fear and risk associated with service delivery and (3) career choices. The RAM panel deemed 24 out of 54 retention policies and strategies to be ‘appropriate’, with most also considered ‘feasible’, including identification of and targeted support for practices ‘at risk’ of workforce undersupply and the provision of formal career options for GPs wishing to undertake portfolio roles. Practices at highest risk of workforce undersupply within 5 years are those that have larger patient list sizes, employ more nurses, serve more deprived and younger populations, or have poor patient experience ratings. Actions for national organisations with an interest in workforce planning were identified. These included collection of data on the current scope of GPs’ portfolio roles, and the need for formal career pathways for key primary care professionals, such as practice managers.LimitationsThe survey, qualitative research and modelling were conducted in one UK region. The research took place within a rapidly changing policy environment, providing a challenge in informing emergent policy and practice.ConclusionsThis research identifies the basis for current concerns regarding UK GP workforce capacity, drawing on experiences in south-west England. Policies and strategies identified by expert stakeholders after considering these findings are likely to be of relevance in addressing GP retention in the UK. Collaborative, multidisciplinary research partnerships should investigate the effects of rolling out some of the policies and strategies described in this report.Study registrationThis study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42016033876 and UKCRN ID number 20700.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

Conservation contracts for supplying Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) conservation services in Romania

This paper describes a choice experiment (CE) administered to explore farmer preferences for conservation agreements to conserve rare breeds among a sample of 174 respondents in Transylvania (Romania). The study site was chosen due to the prevalence of small-scale and extensive farm systems threatened by a changing policy environment that is increasing the scale and intensity of production units. Agreement attributes included length of conservation contract (5 or 10 years); scheme structure (community or individual managed conservation programme), and scheme support (application assistance or farm advisory support). A monetary attribute that reflects compensation for scheme participation allows the assessment of farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) for different contracts. Results suggest 89% of respondents would be willing to farm with rare breeds; cattle and sheep being the most popular livestock option; 40% of farmers were reportedly farming with endangered breeds. However, only 8% were likely to qualify for funding support under current requirements. WTA estimates reveal minimum annual compensation values of €167 and €7 per year respectively, for bovine and ovine farmers to consider enrolling in a contract. These values are comparable to Romanian Rural Development Programme (RDP) support offered to farmers keeping rare breeds of €200 and €10 per year for bovine and ovine farmers respectively. Our estimates of scheme uptake, calculated with coefficient values derived from the CE, suggest rare breed conservation contracts are considered attractive by Romanian farmers. Analysis suggests meeting farmer preferences for non-monetary contractual factors will increase participation.

Punctuating the equilibrium: A lens to understand energy and environmental policy changes

Punctuating the equilibrium: A lens to understand energy and environmental policy changes

Development and Sustainable Ethics in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve, China

In March 2013, several thousand delegates at China’s National People’s Congress voted to approve the environmentally sensitive and authoritarian Xi Jinping as president. This portended dramatic changes in environmental policies, not least of which was an offsetting of top-down development-at-all-costs dogma with a new official orthodoxy focused on a sustainable and circular economy, with inclusive and more rounded growth. This article is part of a long-term project (2008–2018) in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve in Guizhou Province that took place as the political scene in Beijing shifted. The larger project is about human–environment dynamics and complexities focusing on the preservation of snub-nosed golden monkey habitat and the implementation of top-down grain-to-green and national forest conservation programs. This article is about the contexts of two development projects, one in the reserve and one just outside of it, with very different outcomes. Drawing on the work of Arturo Escobar, Rosi Braidotti, and Xiaobo Su, we argue for development in a time and place of rapid change as if marginalized farmers and their families mattered and the possibility of sustainable ethics with a locatable politics. The article elaborates the potency of this kind of sustainability through the stories of families living on Fanjingshan Reserve in the midst of (1) authoritarian environmental policy proclamations from Beijing and (2) boisterous local development. Key Words: China, development, sustainability.

The environmental effects of trade within and across sectors

This paper presents a model that combines within and across sector channels through which trade affects our environment by embedding heterogeneous firms and fixed costs into a two-sector framework with an endogenous response to environmental policy. In contrast to existing literature that tends to examine these channels separately, the combined framework developed here shows how cross-sector comparative advantage and within-sector responses to trade and environmental policy or factor endowments interact to affect our environment through three channels: changes in output, cross-sector market share, and emissions intensity. In contrast to a single-sector model with neutral productivity, consideration of two sectors allows for trade liberalization to affect the allocation of inputs in each sector and thereby affect total pollution output. The additional consideration of heterogeneous firm responses to falling trade costs will generate endogenous increases in productivity that increase output, reduce aggregate emissions intensity, and moderate the cross-sector resource adjustment, relative to a representative-firm model. Simulation results show how the combined framework can replicate existing empirical outcomes, and provide concise ceteris paribus insights regarding the potential role of trade and environmental policy changes and factor expansion in driving observed outcomes and their contribution to each of the three channels.

Changing Policy Environments in Europe and the Resilience of the Third Sector

In the article, we analyse the impact of changing policy environments on the development of the third sector in Europe. Based on the results of systematic comparative research in eight European countries (Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK), we identify commonalities and differences. In a three-step analysis, we examine policy changes, effects on the third sector and responses by third sector organizations (TSOs) in the social domain. Overall, the third sector in Europe has proven resilient. However, not only have public and private funding decreased, the process for acquiring such funding has become more demanding for TSOs, as have requirements to be accountable. There are signs of a proliferation of more market-based, hybrid organizations. Despite this general trend towards marketization, the impact of policy changes varies across Europe with TSOs being better equipped to adapt and survive in countries where collaborative ties between the state and the third sector have traditionally been strong.

Is the trajectory of European Union environmental policy less certain?

ABSTRACTThe core themes and research questions of this volume, centred on the nature of environmental policy change in the European Union (EU), are laid out. An original heuristic framework to capture different dimensions, mechanisms and processes of policy change is presented. In order to contextualise the current situation, where EU policy scope has reached maturity and faces an uncertain future trajectory, EU environmental politics is divided into particular eras, looking closely at the nature of change in each period. This volume interrogates the extent to which change has occurred, the conditions or context within which it did/did not take place and the implications arising from stasis or change. The contributions to the volume are introduced and placed into the context of the broader trajectory of EU environmental policy.