Texas Public Prekindergarten Class Size and Student-to-Teacher Ratio Study

A study presented to the Texas Education Agency and Department of Family and Protective Services on the effects of different student-to-teacher ratios in early child learning and recommendations for optimal ratios in Texas pre-K programs

Digital Sequence Information : an Evidence Review: Final Report

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), adopted in 1992, is an international treaty that recognises the sovereignty of states over their natural resources and includes the authority to determine access to genetic resources. One of the CBD's primary objectives is to ensure 'the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits' derived from the utilisation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources. Access to and utilisation of genetic resources is currently covered under the Nagoya Protocol (NP), adopted by the CBD parties in October 2010, and entered into force in 2014. Digital sequence information (DSI) refers to digital representations of certain aspects of genetic resources such as nucleotide or amino acid sequence data, and related information that is downloadable from databases around the world. DSI is regularly used as part of new research without the need for any new access to physical material. Divergent positions on whether DSI should be included in the NP have emerged over the past few years. These issues, including how benefits from DSI may be shared, are being discussed in the context of the CBD. To date, there is no agreement on the most appropriate way forward

Priority setting for health in the context of devolution in Kenya: implications for health equity and community-based primary care

Devolution changes the locus of power within a country from central to sub-national levels. In 2013, Kenya devolved health and other services from central government to 47 new sub-national governments (known as counties). This transition seeks to strengthen democracy and accountability, increase community participation, improve efficiency and reduce inequities. With changing responsibilities and power following devolution reforms, comes the need for priority-setting at the new county level. Priority-setting arises as a consequence of the needs and demand for healthcare resources exceeding the resources available, resulting in the need for some means of choosing between competing demands. We sought to explore the impact of devolution on priority-setting for health equity and community health services. We conducted key informant and in-depth interviews with health policymakers, health providers and politicians from 10 counties (n = 269 individuals) and 14 focus group discussions with community members based in 2 counties (n = 146 individuals). Qualitative data were analysed using the framework approach. We found Kenya’s devolution reforms were driven by the need to demonstrate responsiveness to county contexts, with positive ramifications for health equity in previously neglected counties. The rapidity of the process, however, combined with limited technical capacity and guidance has meant that decision-making and prioritization have been captured and distorted for political and power interests. Less visible community health services that focus on health promotion, disease prevention and referral have been neglected within the prioritization process in favour of more tangible curative health services. The rapid transition in power carries a degree of risk of not meeting stated objectives. As Kenya moves forward, decision-makers need to address the community health gap and lay down institutional structures, processes and norms which promote health equity for all Kenyans

Exploring Pedestrian Counting Procedures

DTFH61-13-D-00016Clear and comprehensive information about pedestrian travel patterns is critical to multimodal transportation planning, programming, and management. This report covers existing guidance and best practices to recommend strategies for accurate, timely, and feasible measurement of pedestrian travel. Recommendations include: 1) expand the use of multi-day/multi-week counts to reduce estimation error rates, and rotate counts around the network; 2) validate equipment at installation and regularly thereafter; 3) tailor quality checks appropriate for low volume versus high volume locations; 4) compute bias compensation factors (e.g., occlusion adjustment factors) to account for limitations related to equipment and locations; and 5) conduct both short-duration and continuous counts to fully consider temporal and spatial aspects of pedestrian traffic patterns

Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program Phase 4: Test Cases - Wyoming (C-V2X Conversion)

DTFH6116H00027The Wyoming Department of Transportation\u2019s (WYDOT) Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilot Deployment Program is intended to develop a suite of applications that utilize vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication technology to reduce the impact of adverse weather on truck travel in the I-80 corridor. These applications support a flexible range of services from advisories, roadside alerts, parking notifications and dynamic travel guidance. Information from these applications are made available directly to the equipped fleets or through data connections to fleet management centers (who will then communicate it to their trucks using their own systems). The pilot will be conducted in three Phases. Phase I includes the planning for the CV pilot including the concept of operations development. Phase II is the design, development, and testing phase. Phase III includes a real-world demonstration of the applications developed as part of this pilot

Strategic Behavior in the German Balancing Energy Mechanism: Incentives, Evidence, Costs and Solutions

This paper investigates the incentives market participants have in the German electricity balancing mechanism. Strategic over- and undersupply positions are the result of existing stochastic arbitrage opportunities between the spot market and the balancing mechanism. This strategic behavior can be clearly identified in aggregate market data. These structural imbalances increase the need for reserve capacity, raise system security concerns, and thus burden significant cost on the customers. More effective market designs include changes in the balancing mechanism, the reserve capacity and the intraday spot markets

Greenhouse gas emissions from a Western Australian finfish supply chain

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 - eq) from two Western Australian finfish supply chains, from harvest to retail outlet, were measured using streamlined life cycle assessment methodology. The identification of interventions to potentially reduce the GHG emissions was determined from the results obtained. Electricity consumption contributed to the highest GHG emissions within the supply chains measured, followed by refrigeration gas leakage and disposal of unused fish portions. Potential cleaner production strategies (CPS) to reduce these impacts included installing solar panels, recycling the waste, good housekeeping in refrigeration equipment maintenance, and input substitution of refrigeration gas. The results show a combination of these strategies have the potential to reduce up to 35% of the total GHG emissions from fillet harvest, processing and retail