Major Cuts Research Articles

Being an au pair in London: Young Spanish women’s employment trajectories and strategies in regimes of gender and precariousness

The global economic crisis that began in 2008 led to major cuts to the welfare state in Spain and across Europe (Gambino, 2018), affecting key areas such as health, education, social care and youth employment. This was accompanied by drastic reductions in public spending and welfare benefits, which affected women particularly severely. Through ethnographic fieldwork with a gender and feminist perspective, this paper attempts to cast light on the trajectories of young Spanish women who emigrated to London in the ambiguous ‘au pair’ category. The figure of the au pair is interesting because it is an ad hoc, liminal, ambiguous, transient construction configured in such a way that it is ‘between’ categories, spaces and bounds, responding to the domestic care needs of English families’ offspring as part of a commodification of care brought about by a lack of regulation and resources from the state. The employment trajectories and strategies of young Spanish women are embedded in a context of precarious employment, in which young women with secondary and higher education seek financial and personal autonomy but are compelled to negotiate gender norms in order to overcome structural inequalities that increasingly devalue care work. The naturalisation of care and its attribution to women, as well as the ongoing association of women with the ‘good mother’ model, serves to reinforce gender hierarchies.

Where Asylum and Austerity Meet: Deservingness and In/Exclusion in Rochdale

AbstractThe UK's asylum and social welfare systems have both been transformed by major organisational changes, funding cuts, and privatisations through a decade of austerity. With this, asylum‐seeker accommodation and the impacts of welfare reform have become increasingly concentrated in already‐impoverished, peripheral urban areas such as Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Despite these parallels, scholarship and commentary in the UK has tended to consider welfare and border regimes in relative isolation. Based on ethnographic work conducted in two charity drop‐centres in the town, this article addresses this gap by exploring how the UK's converging politics and geographies of asylum and welfare governance shape everyday negotiations of deservingness and social in/exclusion.

Doing “more with less”: the entrepreneurialization of Finnish higher education and innovation policy discourses in 2015–2019

ABSTRACT In the past decades, the development of higher education institutions (HEIs) in industrialized countries has become intertwined with innovation policy and the goal of national competitiveness. Focusing on the discourses on innovation by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), this article illustrates the transformation of Finnish higher education policy ideas in the late 2010s following the demise of the previous policy consensus built around the notion of the National Innovation System. Through a critical policy discourse analysis of 35 publications by the MEC, we demonstrate that its recent policy discourses are dominated by an increasingly market-centric strategy of entrepreneurialism in conditions of major cuts to the public funding of universities and R&D. This strategy has serious limitations and contradictions, which have generated institutional conflicts and hinder the development of a more sustainable and balanced innovation agenda for the Finnish higher education field.

Effects of Protease and Sex on Skin, Bone and Muscle Yields and Percentages of Major Primal Cuts in Broilers

Summary This study aimed to assess the effects of different dietary levels of the protease enzyme and sex on skin, bone and muscle yields and percentages of breast, drumsticks and thighs as the most valuable carcass parts of broilers. A total of 300 one-day-old, mixed-sex broiler chickens (Cobb 500) were randomly divided into 3 dietary treatments with different levels of protease supplementation (group C: a standard diet without Ronozyme ProAct; group E-I: a diet with 200 mg/kg Ronozyme ProAct and a 4% crude protein reduction compared to the standard diet; and group E-II: a diet with 300mg/kg Ronozyme ProAct and a 6% crude protein reduction compared to the standard diet). All diets were maize- and soybean meal-based. Feed and water were provided ad libitum throughout the 49-day feeding trial. The results obtained indicate that the dietary treatments had no significant effect on skin, bone and muscle yields and percentages of the drumsticks, thighs and breast (P > 0.05), except for the breast muscle weight in the female chickens (especially between the E-I and E-II groups), and the drumstick bone percentage in the males between the C and E-2 groups (P < 0.05). In all three groups, the male chickens exhibited higher weights of skin, muscle and bone in breast, drumsticks and thighs than the female chickens, and the differences were not significant only in the skin weight of drumsticks and thighs (P > 0.05). The females had a higher yield of muscle tissue in breast and drumsticks, a higher percentage of skin in drumsticks and thighs, and a lower percentage of bone in drumsticks and thighs than the males (P < 0.05). Major differences resulted from the effect of broiler sex, whereas the dietary treatments containing 3 levels of protease supplementation had a very small effect on the yields and percentages of skin, bone and muscle in breast, drumsticks and thighs.

Challenges of renewable energy communities on small Mediterranean islands: A case study on Ponza island

Italy has reconsidered incentives on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to implement the EU clean energy transition and Renewable Energy Communities (REC). Legislation on RECs shifted the focus of incentives from production to self-consumptions. In this paper, the REC model is studied in a minor island disconnected from the national grid, with strongly seasonal energy load and water demand. This is a typical Mediterranean scenario where energy demand is covered by Diesel gensets and water supply is provided with tankers. The implementation of RES is investigated, exploiting the current REC model of incentives. Two sub-optimal REC configurations were defined using time-dependent simulations on pyRES, an in-house code for energy systems. Results show the economical unfeasibility of REC when there is a poor mix of users. In contrast, REC can achieve economic profitability including industrial demand of a desalination unit (DES). The increase of self-consumption guaranteed from the DES allows to increase the NPV of the community and results in major cuts in CO2 emissions (60% of those related to water supply and 10% of those from Diesel gensets) and a reduction of fuel costs of 22%. This method can be applied to investigate the performance of a REC in a local environment and help stakeholders in planning the expansions of RECs on the territory.

Reprogrammable multistable ribbon kirigami with a wide cut

Upon stretching, a ribbon kirigami with parallel major cuts exhibits multistable behaviors that can maintain at multiple stable configurations. This work investigates the phenomena of a ribbon kirigami with one of the major cuts replaced by a wide cut, of which the multistable behaviors of the wide-cut located cell, the stable configurations, and the energy barriers between the stable configurations are explored. It is observed that the introduction of the wide cut results in local symmetry breaking, enabling bidirectional transition of the stable configurations in such a kirigami. The results also reveal that the geometries of major cuts and the stretch level enable reprogramable dynamic behaviors, such as the number of transitions once triggered. A kirigami-Morse code system is hereby presented, utilizing dynamic reconfiguration and showing a refreshable mechanical readout utilizing reprogrammability. The kirigami has potential for developing metamaterials with unique dynamic features.

Impact of licorice and rosemary powder in the diet on several carcass characteristics of local goats

A total of 12 male goats were used at the age of four months; the animals were placed in adjacent and separated enclosures. Treatments as follows: T1 (control), T2 adding 5 g/kg of rosemary leaves to powder and T3 adding 5 g/kg of licorice root powder, T4 (the mixture treatment), adding 5 g/kg of rosemary goes to powder and 5 g of licorice root powder. The results showed that the T3 and T4 treatments were significantly superior in live weight, empty body weight, hot and cold carcass weight and the dressing ratio calculated based on empty weight compared to the control treatment. Also, T4 was significantly superior compared to T1 on the total percentages of major cuts. At the same time, there was a significant decrease in the total rates of secondary cuts in treatments T2, T3 and T4 compared to the control treatment T1. The treatments T2, T3 and T4 were significantly superior to the control treatment T1 in the shoulder ratio, while the neck ratio decreased significantly in T3 and T4 compared to the control treatment T1. The control treatment was significantly superior in the ulna segmental ratio compared to T4. Keywords: rosemary, licorice, carcass, local goats.

Retirement and Household Expenditure in Turbulent Times

We examine how expenditure changes at retirement during an institutionally and economically uncertain period when a series of pension reforms and cuts were implemented. Overall, we fail to confirm that consumption declines at retirement using data from Greece (2008–2018). Any estimated declines come from turbulent years when major pension cuts were applied. Expenditure drops at retirement were due to pension income shocks, especially for those who were particularly dependent on pension income. Further checks support the presence of an income shock mechanism for retirees who are relatively more treated during the crisis sub-period. Given an aging population and the ongoing global turbulence, our results offer valuable insights.

Aspectos relacionados con la importancia del uso de modelos predictivos en la producción ovina. Revisión

Sheep production systems face numerous challenges, which make decision-making a process fraught with risks and uncertainties. Modelling is a helpful tool in this respect, as it allows decision-makers to evaluate the behaviour of variables and their interrelationships, in addition to using previous or related information to predict results and simulate different scenarios. The advent of prediction models has made it possible to monitor the weight of an animal and determine the best time for its sale. Additionally, it allows producers to estimate the weights of the carcass and major marketable cuts before slaughter. All this information is directly associated with the profitability and success of the production activity. Therefore, in view of the different applications of mathematical models in production systems, this literature review examines concepts in modelling studies and the importance of using prediction models in meat sheep production. Furthermore, it addresses the practical application of modelling studies in predicting dry matter intake and carcass traits of meat sheep through correlated variables.

A Green Fiscal Pact for the EU: increasing climate investments while consolidating budgets

ABSTRACT To ensure sufficiently rapid decarbonization to meet the Paris Agreement goals, investments in green infrastructure will have to increase by an estimated 2% of world GDP annually, according to the International Energy Agency. A significant part of that investment will need to be funded with public resources – raising major tensions between consolidation needs after the high deficits during the pandemic and the need to increase investments. We consider this trade-off in the European Union, which has set itself one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world. The additional public investment required to meet the European Union’s climate goals is around 0.6% of GDP annually during this decade, which might increase if the green transition is accelerated due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Budget consolidation can be done at a moderate pace in line with EU fiscal rules if those rules are interpreted flexibly, but past consolidation episodes resulted in major public investment cuts. A ‘green golden rule’ –excluding net green investment from the fiscal indicators used to measure fiscal rule compliance– is proposed as the most promising option to address this tension and would provide a positive incentive to undertake such investments. However, the uncertain growth impact of green public spending and the risks to growth from climate change create difficult trade-offs in fiscally weaker countries. Better regulatory policy and a higher price on emissions should in parallel incentivise private green investment and reduce public costs. These ingredients should be combined to form a ‘Green Fiscal Pact’. Key policy insights Public investments tend to be cut in fiscal consolidation episodes by vote-maximising politicians and thus need to be treated differently in fiscal rules. Increasing green public investments will be difficult in the upcoming consolidation period. A ‘green golden rule’ –excluding net green public investment from the fiscal rule indicators– is proposed as the best option to incentivise public climate investment. Policymakers need to underpin such a rule by clearly defining what constitutes emission-reducing climate investments and monitoring compliance. Fossil fuel subsidies should also be eliminated, and private climate investment should be incentivised through appropriate taxation and regulation. Climate change may tighten budget constraints in countries with already high debt levels because of its negative growth effects, so these countries should delay the introduction of the green golden rule.

Pasternakův Hamlet a Stalinova hrůzovláda

In the present paper, the author has carried out a comparative analysis of Boris Pasternak’s rendering of Hamlet, which first appeared in 1940 and was republished time and again between 1941 and 1957, sometimes with major cuts and revisions. Recounting the disturbing history of the most famous Shakespearean translation in the Russian language and re-evaluating previous research on it, the author arrives at a conclusion that Pasternak’s Hamlet, by and large, aims at holding a mirror up to the times of the Stalinist Russia. The translation’s extensive political engagement is documented by juxtaposing Shakespeare’s original with Pasternak’s striking allusions to the times of terror in which he had to live.

2018 National Beef Flavor Audit: Consumer and Descriptive Sensory Attributes

Beef flavor has been identified as a driver of consumer acceptability; however, little is known about variability of flavor in major United States retail beef cuts. Four beef cuts (chuck roast; top sirloin steaks; top loin steaks; and 80/20 ground beef) were obtained from retail stores (n=30 per cut per city) in Miami, Los Angeles, Portland, New York, and Denver during a 2-mo period in 2018. Production systems or package claims were documented. An expert trained flavor and texture descriptive attribute sensory panel evaluated beef flavors, aromas, and textures (n=10 cuts per city or 50 cuts evaluated). Consumer sensory panels in Fort Collins, CO (n=10 per cut/city), and Lubbock, TX (n=10 per cut/city), evaluated beef for overall liking, overall flavor, beef flavor, grilled flavor, juiciness, and texture liking. Ground beef patties (GB) were more intense (P<0.0001) in brown, fat-like, green hay-like, and sour milk/sour dairy flavor aromatics and salty and sweet basic taste than steak or roast cuts. Additionally, GB had the lowest levels (P<0.0001) of bloody/serumy, metallic, and liver-like flavor aromatics. Chuck roasts had the lowest levels of (P<0.0001) beef flavor identity, brown, and roasted flavor aromatics and salt and umami basic tastes. Top sirloin steaks were lowest (P<0.0001) in fat-like flavor aromatics and most intense (P<0.0001) in burnt, cardboardy, bitter, and sour attributes. Top sirloin steaks and chuck roasts were more intense in metallic and liver-like (P<0.0001) flavor aromatics. Consumers rated chuck roasts lowest for overall, overall flavor, grilled flavor, and juiciness liking (P<0.04). GB and top loin steaks had the highest consumer texture liking (P<0.0002). Beef descriptive flavor and texture attributes were related to consumer liking, and negative flavor aromatic attributes were identified. Variation in beef flavor attributes were reported in retail beef cuts and ground beef that impact consumer liking.

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

Colorado’s Political Climate, Economy, and Budget during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was a monumental exogeneous shock to the Colorado economy. Prior to the pandemic’s onset the state reported historically low unemployment alongside robust growth in personal income levels and state revenue. While the negative economic effects of the pandemic were sharp, the state’s economic recovery is outpacing what many economists previously projected. The General Assembly was compelled to impose major cuts to last year’s budget, many of which were restored with the enactment of the budget for the 2021–2022 fiscal year. The General Fund budget of $13.6 billion proposed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis represented a substantial spending increase of 20 percent from the prior year. The enacted $13.1 billion General Fund budget received nearly unanimous approval among Democrats and modest Republican support. Policymakers ultimately sought to balance competing priorities across many issue areas, while also preparing for the future with a major investment of $1.5 billion to the state’s reserve fund.

Heart Failure Patients' Perceptions Of Preparation For Self-care

Six and a half million Americans diagnosed with heart failure (HF) face dauntingly complex treatment regimens when transitioning from hospital to home care. Most are not prepared to perform their self-care. Advanced practice nurse (APN) interventions such as home visits as well as interventions that target perceived preparation for self-care have indicated improved health and costs outcomes. However, little is known about targeting perceived preparations for self-care with a low-cost APN intervention. Purpose: This randomized controlled trial compared health outcomes, and healthcare charges between two groups of adults hospitalized with an HF diagnosis. Methods: A control (<i>n</i> = 78) group received routine postdischarge care. An intervention group (<i>n</i> =76) received routine post discharge care plus follow-up telephone calls by APNs on posthospital discharge days 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 42 and 56. Both groups were followed for the first 8 weeks posthospital discharge to examine health outcomes (i.e., perceived preparation for self-care, social support, problem-solving orientation), healthcare charges (i.e., emergency department visits, rehospitalizations) and charges for the APN follow-up (intervention group only). Findings: At 8-weeks, comparing the intervention to the usual care group, the intervention group had significant differences in: perceived preparation for self-care mean scores (<i>M_I</i> =67.37, <i>SD</i> = 16.6 <i>vs. M_C</i> = 25.36, <i>SD</i> = 19, <i>t</i>(138) = -13.831, <i>p</i>=.000); hospital readmission rate (M_I = 16.9% <i>vs.</i> M_c = 33.4%, <i>χ2</i> = 4.59, <i>p</i> < .05); and mean healthcare charges (<i>M_I</i> = $3,124, <i>SD</i> = $6,413 <i>vs. M_C</i> = $6,897, <i>SD</i> = $11,268), <i>t</i>(142) = 2.45, <i>p</i> = .02) Conclusion: Targeting a low-cost APN telephone follow-up intervention at subjective perceptions resulted in significantly higher levels of perceived preparation for self-care, lower rehospitalization rates and lower healthcare charges in the intervention group compared to the control group that did not receive APN interventions. These findings highlight the ability of APNs to apply low-cost, easy to apply follow-up interventions to vulnerable populations especially during times of major budget cuts that affect healthcare services.

Austerity, welfare cuts and hate crime: Evidence from the UK's age of austerity

From 2010 the UK entered an ‘age of austerity’, with major cuts to welfare payments. We study the link between these cuts and increases in hate crimes. Using a panel of 313 Community Safety Partnerships areas in England and Wales, we show that for each £100 loss per working age adult, racially or religiously motivated crimes rose by approximately 5-6% in 2013/14 and 2014/15. These effects are large given a mean loss of £450 per working age adult and survive multiple robustness checks. Using individual data, we find no evidence that these crimes are driven by increased anger of the benefit recipients per se but find evidence for a decline in community cohesion.

The economic consequences of major tax cuts for the rich

AbstractThe last 50 years has seen a dramatic decline in taxes on the rich across the advanced democracies. There is still fervent debate in both political and academic circles, however, about the economic consequences of this sweeping change in tax policy. This article contributes to this debate by utilizing a newly constructed indicator of taxes on the rich to identify all instances of major tax reductions on the rich in 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries between 1965 and 2015. We then estimate the average effects of these major tax reforms on key macroeconomic aggregates. We find tax cuts for the rich lead to higher income inequality in both the short- and medium-term. In contrast, such reforms do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment. Our results therefore provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy.

Market weight, slaughter age, and yield grade to determine economic carcass traits and primal cuts yield of Hanwoo beef.

This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship among market weight, slaughter age, yield grade, and primal cut yield in Hanwoo. A total of 403 Hanwoo (Korean native cattle) was assessed for carcass traits such as carcass cold weight, backfat thickness, ribeye area, dressing percentage, yield index, and marbling score. The production yield of the individual major primal cuts of Hanwoo beef was also measured. Carcass cold weight, ribeye area, and backfat thickness, which affect meat quality increased with increased market weight (p < 0.05). The production yield of the ten major primal cuts also increased with increased market weight (p < 0.05). In terms of slaughter age, carcass cold weight, ribeye area, and backfat thickness all increased from 25 months to 28–29 months, and the production yield of all prime cuts also increased with increasing slaughter age. According to the meat yield grade, carcass cold weight and backfat thickness increased from grade A to grade C, although the ribeye area was not affected. The combined findings of the study suggest that slaughtering Hanwoo at the weight of 651–700 kg and 701–750 and age of 28.23 and 29.83 months could be desirable to achieve the best quality and quantity grade of Hanwoo beef. However, the positive correlation of carcass cold weight and backfat thickness, and the negative correlation of the yield index according to primal cuts yield indicated that it is necessary to couple the slaughtering management of cattle with improved genetic and breeding method of Hanwoo to increase the production yield of the major prime cuts of Hanwoo beef.

Fear of missing out? Linking workplace changes and presenteeism

AbstractWhy do employees continue to work during illness? So‐called presenteeism behaviour is a topic of great managerial and societal importance as it is connected to a series of negative individual and organisational outcomes. A growing body of research points to the importance of workplace factors in shaping employee stress and uncertainty and, ultimately, presenteeism behaviour. Curiously though, the impact of workplace changes on presenteeism behaviour has not been examined, even though the potential stress‐inducing effects of such change are well‐recognised. Building on a data set from the Australian Public Service, we examine how workplace changes are related to presenteeism behaviour. Our findings show that workplace changes generally provoke presenteeism behaviour. Specifically, cutback‐related changes appear to cause presenteeism. This finding is relevant in times when many organisations are confronted with major budget cuts.Brief summaryThis article explores the link between working during illness, or presenteeism behaviour, and workplace changes. Presenteeism behaviour is a topic of great managerial and societal importance as it is connected to a series of negative individual and organisational outcomes. A growing body of research points to the importance of workplace factors in shaping employee stress and uncertainty and, ultimately, presenteeism behaviour. Curiously though, the impact of workplace changes on presenteeism behaviour has not been examined, even though the potential stress‐inducing effects of such change are well‐recognised. Building on a data set from the Australian Public Service, we examine how workplace changes are related to presenteeism behaviour. Our findings show that workplace changes generally provoke presenteeism behaviour. Specifically, cutback‐related changes appear to cause presenteeism. This finding is relevant in times when many organisations are confronted with major budget cuts. Employees who experience workplace changes are more likely to go to work sick. Decreased staffing (cutback‐related change) is the main driver of presenteeism behaviour. Presenteeism is higher among employees working harder and longer hours – that is performing overtime, likely for the purpose of meeting high job demands. Fairness of pay reduces the likelihood of presenteeism. The findings suggest that although change itself is unavoidable and even necessary for organisations adapting to external demands, the potentially negative effects of change may be mitigated by appropriate change management and structures.

The twilight of neoliberalism in the USA?

The US economic expansion which began in 2009 was unusually prolonged but relatively weak. Profitability and investment strengthened between 2010 and 2015 but then began to falter. After Trump took office in 2017 there was a minor recovery in investment but the proceeds of major tax cuts were overwhelmingly used to finance payouts to share owners. Unemployment fell steadily from 2010 but with a shift towards lower-paid jobs. Median wages increased from around 2014, but while those for women had risen steadily since the 1980s, those for men only recuperated to their 1980 level in 2018. By contrast, top incomes soared. The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic was partly cushioned by huge government spending programmes, but unemployment among less-skilled workers increased strongly, while the massive monetary response led to an unprecedented bonanza for the rich. The Biden government's first major initiative extended unemployment benefits and promoted a national response to the health emergency, but failed to secure an increase in the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.