Why Germany's coal compromise failed to end the debate

Analysis of the work of Germany's "Coal Exit Commission"

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES E.V. (IASS)

Research News

 

Can expert commissions develop solutions for controversial issues that will enjoy broad democratic support? A team of researchers from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has analysed the work of Germany's "Coal Exit Commission" using a set of new criteria. While the authors view positively the Commission's success in reaching a compromise, they criticise its failure to deliver an outcome that promotes the common good, particularly with respect to the high cost of the coal exit and its unambitious contribution towards Germany's climate goals, as well as the lack of public participation.

On 29 April 2021, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the provisions of the Climate Protection Act (2019) are incompatible with the constitution - a ruling that has put Germany's "coal compromise" back in the spotlight. The ruling has forced the government to amend its existing climate targets rather making effective climate action merely a matter for future generations.

Fierce debates accompanied the decision-making process around the coal phase-out. There were widespread concerns that the end of Germany's coal era would affect the economic performance of the coal regions, reducing quality of life and endangering social cohesion. In response to this, a special commission was established by the Federal Government on 6 June 2018. "The Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment - also known as the 'Coal Commission' for short - was the most important commission in this legislative period and was supposed to help resolve the conflict around the coal phase-out," says project leader David Loew Beer, who led the study at the IASS. "Today we can say that it has been at least partially successful in this respect. Our research aimed to evaluate whether the commission's work has benefited democracy and sustainability."

For the study, which has been published in the "Zeitschrift fuer Politikwissenschaft" (Journal of Political Science), the researchers evaluated the reports of the Commission and articles from various media outlets as well as statements and studies released by participating organisations. In addition, interviews were conducted with 14 of the 28 members or their deputies.

At the time, a range of stakeholder groups were included in the commission, including representatives from environmental organisations, private sector entities, trade unions, science, and the regions. In the end, 27 of the 28 members approved the compromise. "The federal government viewed this as confirmation that the commission had been able to strike a fair balance between the different interests," says scientist Loew Beer. Interviews with those involved in the negotiations, however, revealed that the final negotiations were largely conducted by a small and informal group of participants.

How widely accepted was the Coal Commission?

One special feature of the study is that it applies a comprehensive system of criteria that was developed to examine the legitimacy of the Coal Commission and that enables researchers to derive generalisable findings which can be applied to other commissions. "Our analysis also examines the third area of legitimacy, so-called throughput legitimacy," explains Loew Beer. "This offers insights into the democratic quality of the Commission's work and considers issues such as: were members able to contribute equally? What was the quality of the debate? How were the individual members of the Commission equipped? There is very little empirical research on this - and our approach has enabled us to gain new insights."

Recommendations for future commissions

The Commission's work resulted in:

1) the Coal Phase-out Act

2) the Structural Strengthening Act for Coal Regions, which provides for extensive financial aid for the affected regions.

According to the study's conclusion, in its various legislative initiatives the federal government frequently refers to the agreement reached by the Commission, even where these deviate from the Commission's recommendations in practice. From the perspective of democratic theory, it is problematic that the federal government failed to assume political responsibility for its decisions. According to the authors, this explains why the "coal policies" pursued by the federal and state governments continued to meet with public resistance.

Other critical aspects: It was difficult for the public to understand how exactly the decisions were made. Was a solution found to compensate for the differences in expertise, experience, and access to resources among the Coal Commission's members? Not at all. The federal government's desire to limit its financial exposure, coupled with its unambitious approach to climate policy, diminished the Commission's ability to pursue the common good, resulting in an outcome that the Federal Constitutional Court has rightly criticised as unsustainable.

The researchers also note that it is somewhat paradoxical that while government has allocated substantial funding for the affected regions, the compromise has met with little approval in the regions. Loew Beer speculates that this could be due to the lack of involvement of citizens in the Commission's work and the legislative process.

The researchers recommend the following for future commissions:

- binding criteria for the composition and support of future commissions, as well as transparency guidelines

- mandates that reflect the diverse interests of the affected parties

- a broadening and strengthening of parliamentary debates and decision-making processes. Such far-reaching issues as this should be debated and decided by parliament

- professional and inclusive moderation

- the creation of citizen participation processes to accompany the work of future commissions

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Publication:

David Loew Beer, Konrad Guertler, Jeremias Herberg und Tobias Haas: Wie legitim ist der Kohlekompromiss? Spannungsfelder und Verhandlungsdynamiken im Prozess der Kohlekommission, Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 05/2021.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41358-021-00261-8

Universal equation for explosive phenomena

Mathematicians find core mechanism to calculate tipping points

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (TUM)

Research News

 

Climate change, a pandemic or the coordinated activity of neurons in the brain: In all of these examples, a transition takes place at a certain point from the base state to a new state. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered a universal mathematical structure at these so-called tipping points. It creates the basis for a better understanding of the behavior of networked systems.

It is an essential question for scientists in every field: How can we predict and influence changes in a networked system? "In biology, one example is the modelling of coordinated neuron activity," says Christian Kühn, professor of multiscale and stochastic dynamics at TUM. Models of this kind are also used in other disciplines, for example when studying the spread of diseases or climate change.

All critical changes in networked systems have one thing in common: a tipping point where the system makes a transition from a base state to a new state. This may be a smooth shift, where the system can easily return to the base state. Or it can be a sharp, difficult-to-reverse transition where the system state can change abruptly or "explosively." Transitions of this kind also occur in climate change, for example with the melting of the polar ice caps. In many cases, the transitions result from the variation of a single parameter, such as the rise in concentrations of greenhouse gases behind climate change.

Similar structures in many models

In some cases - such as climate change - a sharp tipping point would have extremely negative effects, while in others it would be desirable. Consequently, researchers have used mathematical models to investigate how the type of transition is influenced by the introduction of new parameters or conditions. "For example, you could vary another parameter, perhaps related to how people change their behavior in a pandemic. Or you might adjust an input in a neural system," says Kühn. "In these examples and many other cases, we have seen that we can go from a continuous to a discontinuous transition or vice versa."

Kühn and Dr. Christian Bick of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam studied existing models from various disciplines that were created to understand certain systems. "We found it remarkable that so many mathematical structures related to the tipping point looked very similar in those models," says Bick. "By reducing the problem to the most basic possible equation, we were able to identify a universal mechanism that decides on the type of tipping point and is valid for the greatest possible number of models."

Universal mathematical tool

The scientists have thus described a new core mechanism that makes it possible to calculate whether a networked system will have a continuous or discontinuous transition. "We provide a mathematical tool that can be applied universally - in other words, in theoretical physics, the climate sciences and in neurobiology and other disciplines - and works independently of the specific case at hand," says Kühn.

###

More information:

Dr. Christian Bick is a Hans Fischer Fellow at the TUM Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). The IAS brings together the best scientists at TUM with outstanding guest researchers to work together in interdisciplinary focus groups on highly creative and high-risk projects. Bick is also an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and an OCIAM Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Publication:

Christian Kühn, Christian Bick: A universal route to explosive phenomena, Science Advances, 16 Apr 2021: Vol. 7, no. 16
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe3824

TB immune response discovery could significantly reduce disease harm

Peer-reviewed | experimental study | people

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Research News

 

A pioneering study by UCL scientists has discovered the presence of a harmful inflammatory protein in patients with symptomatic tuberculosis (TB).

Researchers say, by targeting the IL-17 cytokine, a component produced naturally by the immune system in response to infection, excessive and damaging lung inflammation caused by TB may be significantly reduced to help speed up patient recovery.

TB is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is the leading cause of death from infections worldwide. The World Health Organisation estimates that 1.4 million people died of TB disease worldwide in 2019.

Explaining the experimental study, lead author Dr Gabriele Pollara (UCL Division of Infection & Immunity), said: "For most people the body's immune response to TB is a vital defence strategy to contain the infection, but when disease develops it can worsen symptoms, cause lung damage, and promote transmission of the infection to others.

"For some time, we have thought that the body's own immune response to TB could in fact be causing more tissue damage and promoting the spread of infection - but we did not know how this happens.

"In this study, we found that in patients with active TB, the immune system may be responding pathologically (causing harm), and that this immune response was not present in those with latent TB, who have controlled the infection."

As part of the study, published in Science Translational Medicine, medical centres in the UK, South Africa and Peru recruited patients to take a tuberculin skin test (TST), which involves injecting a small amount of fluid (called tuberculin) into the skin on the lower part of the arm. Raised skin or swelling, detected 48 hours later, denotes a positive test.

Subsequent tests confirmed 48 of the people recruited had symptomatic TB and 191 people had asymptomatic/latent TB. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of biopsies of the TSTs was then carried out to make detailed measurements of the immune response.

Researchers discovered that samples from patients with symptomatic TB disease showed increased activity of IL-17 cytokine, which is an immune response known to cause tissue damage in other inflammatory conditions.

Dr Pollara, an NIHR Clinical Lecturer, added: "This new research has identified for the first time the nature of these potentially harmful immune pathways. We show that a specific immune pathway, the IL-17 cytokine, is present exclusively in the immune response of patients with TB disease, but not those who never develop symptoms.

"This is a fascinating finding because IL-17 cytokine responses cause disease and tissue damage in other inflammatory conditions, such as psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis. In both conditions, drugs that block the IL-17 pathway are highly effective at improving patient symptoms, and so our findings indicate these same drugs could also be beneficial in treating patients with TB disease."

For over 50 years, the mainstay of treatment for tuberculosis has been antibiotics that kill bacteria. Although effective, this strategy carries a lot of challenges; treatment involves taking four antibiotics and lasts for at least six months, and its efficacy is being increasingly challenged by rising rates of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, developing new approaches to treating TB disease is an urgent global research priority.

Senior author, Professor Mahdad Noursadeghi (UCL Division of Infection & Immunity) said: "Our work has the potential to make a step change in care of TB patients, providing a rationale for targeting specific immune components, alongside the conventional use of antibiotics.

"We anticipate this would accelerate clinical recovery, interrupt transmission between individuals and reduce the time antibiotic treatment is required. More broadly, these findings open the door to an exciting new frontier in treating infectious diseases.

"By understanding immune responses to infections that are detrimental, it justifies the use of focused 'host-directed' drugs that complement the action of antibiotics. In turn this strategy has the potential to limit disease severity, shorten antibiotic courses, and therefore mitigate against the rise in antibiotic resistance worldwide."

Next steps

Researchers aim to devise a clinical trial to test whether drugs targeting IL-17 cytokine in patients with symptomatic TB reduce symptoms and improve patient outcomes.

###

This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Academy of Medical Sciences and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University College London Hospitals.

Long-term stress in dogs linked to the owner-dog relationship

LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: LINA ROTH, SENIOR LECTURER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY AT LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY. view more 

CREDIT: ANNA NILSEN/LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

The relationship a dog has with its owner is related to its stress level. This is the conclusion of a newly published study from Linköping University, Sweden. The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also suggest that the link between stress and the owner's personality traits differs between dog breeds.

Researchers at Linköping University have investigated whether the stress levels of dogs are affected by the people they live with. Stress levels for the past several months can be determined in both dogs and humans by measuring the levels of stress hormone stored in hairs as they grow.

The researchers have collected hair from both dogs and owners, and measured levels of cortisol, the most important stress hormone, in them. They were interested in whether there are differences between different dog breeds. Breeding has led to the genetic selection of different breeds for different tasks. The study included 18 dogs from breeds that have been bred for independent hunting, such as the Swedish elkhound, the Norwegian elkhound, and the dachshund. A second group included dogs from ancient breeds that are genetically more closely related to the wolf than other breeds. This group comprised 24 dogs from breeds such as the shiba inu, the basenji, and the Siberian husky. All owners completed questionnaires about their own personality and that of their dog. They also answered questions about their relationship with their dog, including such matters as how the owner experienced the interaction with the dog, degree of emotional attachment to the dog, and the extent to which owning a dog gave rise to problems.

"The results showed that the owner's personality affected the stress level in hunting dogs, but interestingly enough not in the ancient dogs. In addition, the relationship between the dog and the owner affected the stress level of the dogs. This was the case for both types, but the result was less marked for the ancient dogs", says Lina Roth, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University.

In a previous study, the same researchers had seen that dogs from herding breeds, which have been genetically selected for their ability to collaborate with humans, mirror the long-term stress level of their owner. When the researchers now added information about the relationship of the herding dogs to their owner, it became clear that the relationship was significant for the long-term stress levels also in these dogs.

The researchers conclude that long-term stress is influenced least strongly by the owner and their relationship to the dog for ancient breeds. The hunting dogs show clear links between both the personality of the owner and their relationship to the dog, but it is only herding dogs that demonstrate the unique synchronisation with the long-term stress in the owner.

"We believe that the synchronisation of stress is a consequence of breeding the herding dogs for collaboration with people, while the relationship to the owner and the owner's personality are important parameters that influence the synchronisation of stress levels", says Lina Roth.

###

Parts of the study have received financial support from the Sveland Foundation.

The article: "Long term stress in dogs is related to the human-dog relationship and personality traits", Amanda Höglin, Enya Van Poucke, Rebecca Katajamaa, Per Jensen, Elvar Theodorsson and Lina S. V. Roth, (2021), Scientific Reports, published online 21 April 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-88201-y

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88201-y

SEE

1. Influencer sparks outrage by putting down dog because he ...

   https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/influencer-outrage...

   

   24:20

   2021-05-05 · Influencer sparks outrage by putting down dog because he bit son and was ‘too old to rehome’ ... “wow. this is appalling. so many other better options and you basically choose to kill him

   • Author: Clara Hill

Prenatal exposure to famine heightens risk for later being overweight

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Research News

 

An analysis of historical medical records found that men who were prenatally exposed during early gestation to the Dutch famine of 1944-1945 were 30 percent more likely to be overweight with a Body Mass Index of 25 or over at age 19, compared to a similar group not exposed to the famine. Professor L. H. Lumey at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health led the study, which is published in the International Journal of Obesity. The study confirms evidence on the health risks of prenatal famine exposure, which also includes diabetes and schizophrenia.

The mechanism by which famine exposure raises the risk for later excess weight is still unknown. The researchers speculate that famine exposure could lead to changes in DNA methylation that stimulate being overweight. Or that surviving babies might have genetic profiles enabling them to thrive on fewer calories. "If so, it is tragic and ironic that surviving the famine would increase one's risk for obesity," says first author L. H. "Bertie" Lumey, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. "A slower metabolism that would have helped them survive the pandemic, in times of plenty could also contribute to weight problems and related health issues."

The researchers studied heights and weights of 371,100 men in the Netherlands born between 1943 and 1947 and examined for military service at age 19, including men with and without prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine. They found that a heightened overweight risk was present in men with famine exposure starting at the very beginning of gestation, not with exposure starting in the middle or at the end of gestation--a finding they say points to the start of pregnancy as a sensitive period of fetal development.

The study shows that the heightened overweight risk was limited to sons of manual workers born in the large cities of Western Netherlands, consistent with historical evidence on the socioeconomic and geographic populations known to be most affected by the famine.

Not surprisingly, excess weight presented its own risks. Those who were overweight at age 19 had a 30 percent greater mortality risk through age 63 relative to those with a BMI in the normal range. This was independent of famine exposure.

Further development of a 1976 Paper

The new paper extends and refines a 1976 study by Columbia researchers using current definitions of overweight. Contrary to the earlier paper, current analytic approaches show no weight changes in sons of non-manual workers exposed in early gestation in the famine cities. The researchers note that the military examinations did not include waist or hip circumference or other measures of body mass distribution which could be even better indicators of chronic disease risk.

The new study also looked at whether or not a decline in birthrates among manual workers during the famine explained the relationship between prenatal famine exposure and risk for excess weight. It didn't.

"Our study builds on the rigorous science behind the original research in the 1970s led by Columbia epidemiologists Mervyn Susser and Zena Stein," says Lumey.

About the Dutch Famine

The Dutch famine (Hunger Winter) of 1944-45 was a period of civilian famine under German occupation at the end of World War II. Contemporary reports show that the famine was concentrated in the large cities of the Western Netherlands. It was limited to the last months of the war in the period between November 1944 and the surrender of the German forces to the Allies in May 1945. After Liberation, food supplies were rapidly distributed across the country. The food crisis provides an opportunity to study the relationship between maternal nutrition in pregnancy and offspring health.

Previous research, beginning shortly after the end of the war found a link between famine-exposed mothers and birth weight. Subsequent research established links between famine exposure and risk for obesity, diabetes, and schizophrenia, as well as the specific genomic pathways involved. Importantly, the research also ruled out a link between famine exposure and mental retardation.

###

Study Authors and Funding

Co-authors include Peter Ekamper, Govert Bijwaard, and Frans van Poppel of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and the University of Groningen, Netherlands; and Gabriella Conti, University College London.

Funding for the research work was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AG028593-01A2, 2AG028593-07, AG066887), European Research Council under the European Union Horizon Research and Innovation Program (819752).

 

Conservationists concerned about illegal hunting and exploitation of porcupines in Indonesia

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

Research News

 

IMAGE: PORCUPINES ARE BEING ILLEGALLY HUNTED AND EXPLOITED THROUGHOUT THEIR RANGE IN INDONESIA FOR LOCAL SUBSISTENCE AND COMMERCIAL TRADE. THEY ARE REPORTEDLY IN DECLINE, YET THERE SEEMS TO BE LITTLE CONTROL... view more 

CREDIT: JAMES EATON

Porcupines are frequently traded across Asia, and Indonesia, home to five species, is no exception. They are targeted for a number of reasons: their meat as an alternative source of protein, their bezoars consumed as traditional medicine, and their quills used as talismans and for decorative purposes.

A new study examining seizure data of porcupines, their parts and derivatives in Indonesia found a total of 39 incidents from January 2013 to June 2020 involving an estimated 452 porcupines. The research was published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Nature Conservation.

There are no harvest quotas for any porcupine species in Indonesia, which makes all hunting and trade in porcupines illegal. Of the five species found in the country, only the Sunda porcupine (Hystrix javanica) is currently protected, with its protected status only introduced in 2018. Interestingly, prior to 2018, the Malayan porcupine (H. brachyura) was the only protected porcupine species in Indonesia, but then it was removed from the updated species protection list and replaced with the Sunda porcupine.

"The reasons for this are unclear, but certainly unwarranted, considering that the Malayan porcupine is the species most frequently identified as confiscated, and one can only assume the reason for its removal is due to its commercial value," says Lalita Gomez, author of the study and Programme Officer of Monitor Conservation Research Society.

What clearly emerges from this study is that porcupines are being illegally hunted and exploited throughout their range in Indonesia for local subsistence and commercial trade. Porcupines are reportedly in decline in Indonesia, yet there seems to be little control or monitoring on uptake and trade. This is particularly concerning because four of the five porcupine species in Indonesia have a restricted range, and three of them are island endemics - the Sumatran porcupine (H. sumatrae), Sunda porcupine, and Thick-spined porcupine (H. crassispinis).

Illegal hunting and trade of porcupines in Indonesia is facilitated by poor enforcement and legislative weakness, and it is imperative that effective conservation measures are taken sooner rather than later to prevent further depletion of these species.

Gomez recommends that all porcupines be categorised as protected species under Indonesian wildlife laws and listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This would require any international trade to take place through a supervisory system, which would allow for regulation and make it easier to track and analyse trends, thus providing an early warning system in case wild populations begin to decline.

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Original source:

Gomez L (2021) The illegal hunting and exploitation of porcupines for meat and medicine in Indonesia. Nature Conservation 43: 109-122. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.43.62750

 THIRD WORLD USA

Even small bills for health insurance may cause healthy low-income people to drop coverage

Data from Michigan's Medicaid expansion program could inform other states and programs

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

Twenty dollars a month might not seem like a lot to pay for health insurance. But for people getting by on $15,000 a year, it's enough to make some drop their coverage - especially if they're healthy, a new study of Medicaid expansion participants in Michigan finds.

That could keep them from getting preventive or timely care, and could leave their insurance company with a sicker pool of patients than before, say the researchers from the University of Michigan and University of Illinois Chicago. They have published their findings as a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research, ahead of publication in the American Journal of Health Economics.

The study has implications for other states that require low-income people to pay for their Medicaid coverage, or may be considering such a requirement if they expand Medicaid. It also has importance for the plans sold on the national and state Marketplaces to people who buy their coverage directly.

Impact of monthly fees

The new findings come from Michigan's Medicaid expansion program, called the Healthy Michigan Plan, which was one of the first in the nation to require some low-income participants to pay monthly fees and most participants to pay co-pays for services they receive. Nearly 906,000 Michiganders get their health coverage through the program.

Fees, formerly called contributions and similar to the monthly premiums that people with other forms of insurance pay, are only charged to those have a household income above the federal poverty level. The program is open to adults making up to 138% of the federal poverty level, a cap of about $17,700 for a single-person household in 2021.

The analysis was done by a team from the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, which has conducted a formal evaluation of the program for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Betsy Q. Cliff, Ph.D., now at the University of Illinois Chicago, led the analysis during her doctoral training at the U-M School of Public Health.

While people leave Medicaid for a number of reasons, the study found a 2.3 percentage point jump in disenrollment at the federal poverty level, which the researchers attribute to the imposition of premiums.

Given a baseline disenrollment of about 20% over 6 months of the program, the study finds 12% more participants dropped off the Healthy Michigan Plan after they began owing monthly fees. The amount someone had to pay also mattered: Disenrollment rose by nearly 1 percentage point for every dollar charged monthly. The study used data from the inception of the program in March 2014 and followed participants through September 2016.

Michigan's cost-sharing requirements for people in the Healthy Michigan Plan kick in after a person has been in the program for six months. An individual on the program with an income just above the poverty level - around $12,900 a year in 2021 - might be charged about $20 a month, though this amount can be reduced by engaging in a discussion with their physician about healthy behaviors. The monthly amount goes up as income increases.

"Disruptions in Medicaid coverage -- also known as churn -- can lead to worse quality care, higher administrative costs and less chance for the population to receive needed but non-urgent preventive services," says Cliff, now an assistant professor at UIC's School of Public Health.

Indeed, previous work by the IHPI team to survey past participants in the Healthy Michigan Plan showed that 81% had access to no other form of insurance before they joined the program, and that 55% went uninsured for the three months after they left it.

Signs of "adverse selection"

When the researchers looked closer at who was leaving the plan, they found that it was mainly people who were relatively healthy: Those who hadn't had any care related to a chronic illness, and that had below-median health spending.

By contrast, the study did not find an increase in disenrollment among those who had gotten care for a chronic condition or had above-median health care spending during the first months after enrollment, before they received a cost-sharing invoice.

In participants who had no care related to a chronic disease in the six months before cost-sharing kicked in, or who had below-median overall spending, facing a premium increased the chance of disenrollment by about 3 percentage points. Every dollar of monthly fees cost raised disenrollment by 0.8 percentage points. But monthly fees didn't change the disenrollment chances of less-healthy enrollees who had chronic disease care or higher-than-median health spending.

When the researchers adjusted for demographic differences, they found that the people who disenrolled had medical spending in the first six months of enrollment that was 40% lower than the spending for those who stayed in.

Being billed for co-pays did not seem to alter the chance that people of any health status would leave the program. In general, co-pays for people receiving certain health care services under the Healthy Michigan Plan are $1 to $8 for a prescription up to $100 for an inpatient hospital stay, depending on income.

Enrollees are not required to leave the program for non-payment of monthly fees or co-pays; people must actively disenroll or fail to complete yearly renewal paperwork.

Implications for other states and plans

In addition to the disruption for individuals and the private plans that cover them, the authors say the findings have implications for how the state and federal governments plan for spending on Medicaid, and how they adjust payments to insurers and providers based on patients' health risk.

States that are considering implementing or continuing cost-sharing requirements under Medicaid expansion should consider this, the authors say.

Cost-sharing is seen as a way to promote personal responsibility and encourage participants to make better decisions about health care and have been used as a way to achieve bipartisan support for Medicaid expansion in Michigan and other states.

But as the study shows, this may limit access to coverage and cause Medicaid to experience adverse selection, that can disrupt the health insurance market.

###

The paper's senior author is Richard Hirth, Ph.D., the S.J. Axelrod Collegiate Professor of Health Management and Policy at the U-M School of Public Health. IHPI director John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P., who leads the institute's evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan and is the Alice Hamilton Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy at the Medical School with joint appointments at SPH and the Ford School of Public Policy, is a co-author. In addition to Cliff, Hirth and Ayanian, the study's authors are Sarah Miller of the U-M Ross School of Business, and Jeffrey Kullgren of the U-M Medical School.

To learn more about the IHPI evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan, and see previous reports, announcements and papers it has generated, visit https://ihpi.umich.edu/featured-work/hmp

Fifty shades of reading: Who reads contemporary erotic novels and why?

WHEN PORN IS POPULAR ITS CALLED EROTIC

New study is the first to explore empirically the readership and the reading rewards underlying the current large-scale cultural phenomenon of erotic novels

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT

Research News

 

Soon after E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey appeared in 2015, the book market was inundated with a flood of erotic bestsellers. People from all corners began wondering what this type of novel's secret of success could be. Now, a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, has taken a closer look at the readership of erotic novels and investigated the causes of this literary predilection.

In the media as well as the academy, contemporary erotica is typically dismissed as being of low literary value. Critics and scholars tend to classify its readers as having mediocre to poor taste, without, however, examining their motivations and experiences in more detail. Against this background, the MPIEA team conducted an online study to investigate who actually reads erotic novels and why. The findings have just been published as an Open Access article in the journal Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

The study included data sets from around 420 female participants. The majority of respondents were heterosexual women in stable relationships with an above-average level of education. They described themselves as being enthusiastic frequent readers who enjoyed sharing their reading experiences with others. Most of the study participants were between 20 and 40 years old.

The majority of respondents indicated that they read erotic novels as a diversion, and feelings of ease and relaxation were frequently named as a motivating factor. The sexual explicitness of the novels and their potential to provide orientation in readers' own lives also played a role for the participants, although this role was less significant than had been assumed in previous studies. Readers' opinions about erotic novels also came as a surprise, by contrast with more general critical ideas about contemporary erotica.

"Many of the study participants saw erotic novels - at least in part - as being emancipated, feminist, and progressive. We attribute this finding primarily to the respondents' more traditional views of male and female gender roles," explains lead author Maria Kraxenberger.

This study is the first to investigate empirically the readership and motivations for reading that underlie a major contemporary cultural phenomenon. Although readers of erotica have a significant impact on the international book market, the mainstream conversation about literature and reading is still reserved for "serious" readers of "good," if less popular, kinds of books. The study's findings underscore the need for more research that explores reading experiences outside the canon of serious literature.

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Original Publication:

Kraxenberger, M., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W. (2021). Who reads contemporary erotic novels and why? Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8, Article 96.
Published: 28 April 2021

Friendly pelicans breed better

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

IMAGE: BLACKPOOL ZOO PELICAN NESTING AREA view more 

CREDIT: DR PAUL ROSE

Captive pelicans that are free to choose their own friendships are more likely to breed successfully on repeated occasions, new research suggests.

Social network analysis on captive great white pelicans, led by the University of Exeter, found that providing social choice within the flock and allowing partnerships to form naturally led to improved breeding success.

The study revealed that the pelicans chose their specific social relationships, and that there was a social structure across the flock, in which sub-adults (the equivalent of teenagers) spent more time with each other than with adult birds.

Zoo-housed pelicans are common, but their breeding record is poor and they receive little research attention, compared to other popular birds in zoos such as penguins.

As great white pelicans are long lived and hard to breed in captivity, they need careful management.

The team - from the University of Exeter, University Centre Sparsholt and Reaseheath College - collected data at Blackpool Zoo on the behaviour, space use and association preferences around the nesting events of great white pelicans in 2016 and 2017.

"Evaluating space use and behaviour to ensure that pelicans have the choice to behave in a way that they wish is essential to good animal welfare," said lead author Dr Paul Rose, of the University of Exeter and WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre.

"Social network analysis enables us to identify the strongest bonds and discover who is influential in the flock. Therefore we can work out which birds might initiate breeding and encourage this activity in others.

"This is important for flock management. If birds are to be moved between flocks, we should preserve these important bonds and the experience they provide.

"Alongside the good care the birds get from zoo staff, this experience of what to do and when to do it is likely why the flock we analysed nested successfully on multiple occasions."

The research team also identified specific behavioural cues that might tell pelican keepers when breeding is likely to happen.

For example, data collected before the pelicans began nesting showed that the flock was more vigilant during this time, suggesting that vigilance may be a precursor for courtship or nesting activity.

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The paper, published in the journal Zoo Biology, is entitled: 'Understanding sociality and behavior change associated with a nesting event in a captive flock of great white pelicans'.

It is time to create contracts all users can understand

New research presents a novel four-step user-centered contract design process

UNIVERSITY OF VAASA

Research News

 

IMAGE: ACCORDING TO MILVA FINNEGAN'S RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VAASA, USER-CENTERED DESIGN IS A KEY TO CONTRACT SIMPLIFICATION. view more 

CREDIT: KEVIN FINNEGAN

Contracts today are complex and not user-friendly. The documents are written in black and white text, using "legalese" language, and lack page layout design. The result is that contracts are often left in drawers and are not used. So how can contracts be designed so everyone can read and understand them? This is the question Milva Finnegan explores in her doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa, Finland.

"Contracts are first and foremost communication tools that guide various people to perform their jobs. To function as effective communication tools the contract design must consider all users", Ms. Finnegan explains.

The research presents a novel four-step user-centered contract design process that combines cognitive, textual, and visual considerations to create a holistic simplified contract. Considering contracts as user guides, she presents ideas on how to write language the audience can understand, organizing contract content in a logical flow, and leveraging visual representations when possible. The outcome is a simplified contract.

Her research identifies structure, language, and visualization, as the three areas of design to produce a contract document that is readable, understandable, and usable for everyone that relies on the information to perform their jobs.

By integrating design thinking and focusing on who the audience is, contract development shifts from the traditional copy and pasting a prior agreement approach to designing contracts.

The research takes a multi-disciplinary approach to contract design studies seeing contracts not only as legal documents to protect businesses in case of a dispute, but as managerial tools to create and maintain positive business relations and prevent problems from arising. Building on relational contract theory, proactive law approach, and information design principles, the dissertation focuses on the communication challenges contracts present.

Just as the topic is multi-disciplinary, crossing the fields of legal, managerial economics, information design, and other studies, the work employs a mixed-method approach comprised of qualitative and quantitative research that studies contract operations as part of business and society.

"I encourage businesses to implement some of the contract simplification methods I have presented in my dissertation to make contracts more user-friendly to reduce misunderstanding between contracting parties, avoid disputes, gain efficiencies in transaction execution, and ultimately better financial performance", urges Ms. Finnegan.

Public defence

The public examination of M.Sc Milva Finnegan's doctoral dissertation " User-centered design: A key to contract simplification" will be held on Tuesday 18 May at 17.00 o´clock. The public examination will be organized online:

https://uwasa.zoom.us/j/64305300295?pwd=bXRBamxGbFJrVDBsYS9xTFQwUW84dz09

Password: 940058

The field of dissertation is Business Law. Professor Soili Nysten-Haarala (University of Lapland) will act as opponent and Professor Vesa Annola as custos. The examination will be held in English.

Dissertation

Finnegan, Milva (2021) User-centered design: A key to contract simplification. Acta Wasaensia 459. Doctoral Dissertation. Vaasan yliopisto / University of Vaasa.

Publication pdf: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-476-952-5